Song of the Bardbarians

When it comes to the level design we were originally going for a hub-based area, in which you can choose the next area you wanted to go, but we had trouble designing the scaling progression for the player, and since we had difficulties with the player experience. We decided to scrap the branching paths in favor of more linear gameplay where we could control the player experience in a better way. 

we divided the level for the game into 3 sections, with each section having a certain niche. 

The first section was an introduction area, letting the player test out the mechanics, introducing the first enemy the melee goblin. At the end of section one, the player will encounter an Orc, a tougher enemy who hits harder and have more health.  

The next section introduces an environmental hazard which is tar, the tar will slow both players and enemies walking speed. In this section, we get introduced to the ranged goblin, who play on their instrument and launch a mortar in the air aimed towards the player. 

The last section had all 3 enemies, tar, and then introduces lava as an environmental hazard.

The lava will burn both players and enemies if they step in for too long.

I was in charge of section 3 and will go into more detail about the said section.

Section 3 was supposed to be the final test, to let the player try out their skills, and see how they would utilize everything they learned so far. 

They start off in a safe space, with a big patch of lava covering most of the way, teaching the player the thickness that they can dodge over safely without taking damage, the player may walk in it as well, to realize that they will start to take damage, and how much damage they do take whilst being in the lava. 

The next area starts out with a lava patch that covers wall to wall, forcing the player to either walk over it and take damage, or roll over it to then be greeted with enemies on the other side of the patch of lava. This is meant to be a place where the player to either beat them as she has done so far or try if the lava will hurt the enemies as well(which it does) at the top of the stairs ranged enemies stand and will try and shoot the player.

The area that follows is a calm zone, with no placed enemies, giving the player a short pause from the enemies. But the pause is only momentarily as the room following is filled with orcs and goblins scattered about in the room, alongside patches of lava

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The next area introduces the combination of tar and lava in the same room, and small intersections with enemies, this is to give the combat rooms some different pacing.

The long bridge is meant to be a breather, no danger for a short period of time, almost cinematographic giving the player of an overhauling view of the lava and lavafalls as it streams underneath the player. Which then leads into the final encounter room.

The final Encounter room is a big room with lots of enemies, patches of lava, and tar. All the different enemies will be there and the room is supposed to be the final challenge to really bash out everything we had done so far before you are greeted with the final room in where you find the imprisoned bardbarians.

For all the sections we made, we wanted the game to have different pacings, meaning that we designed calmer areas, where there would be little to no enemies, and the player really could take in the environment, then we would increase the pace a little and had rooms that would focus on few enemies or specific environmental hazards. Then we would have the areas where the focus would be very combat-heavy. 

So we did a pacing chart to give an overview of our level progression when we designed them.