2D MegaMan Level 2 Feedback (10/27/21)

    Making a late-game type level is incredibly difficult. I had my idea of making the player climb up, but I wasn’t really able to implement that. I couldn’t really think of a layout for a room that wasn’t having the player zigzag up the room. Although, according to my playtesters, what was in the level was pretty good. At least I was able to avoid the “no clear way to the exit” problem I had with my tutorial level. It was a simple “gather the keys to unlock the exit” type level, and unlike my tutorial level, there was actually a point to it.

    Players generally praised the way I set up my keys, as you need two keys to unlock the exit, but there are 3 in total. You can get the first key through an easy or hard route, and then you have to get the second key by passing through some enemies. When getting the second key, I put in a weapon deleter that takes out the Nado so you have to jump through a bunch of enemies to get to the top of the room. There’s a pretty ok balance between exploration and guidance. That’s probably about the only smart level design I had.

    The main problem with my level was the enemy density. To substitute for difficulty, I just added in a bunch of enemies, so I knew this was going to be pointed out. One person said that I should limit the enemies per room to 3. Even the hardest Mario levels don’t have more than that. The checkpoint I put in is in front of a Met, and in combination with the Pickelman above it, it’s not much of a safe house. I am for sure taking out the Met. The Pickelman seems to be an annoying enemy to deal with in general so I might as well cut it out altogether and replace it with another enemy.

    The other problem that was pointed out was that with the weapons I put into the level, it actually made it way too easy. In a way, I was kind of trying to do that because the Nado is already kind of a cheat weapon. When I was making the level, I didn’t actually know how to do the double jump with the Super Adapter (I don’t play Megaman) and didn’t realize the level could be similarly easily beaten with that. One thing I could probably do is add in a room near the beginning of the level to introduce the Super Adapter and its uses. I had a room where you had to use the Nado (but you can probably use the Super Adapter) to jump up the platform and get to the room up top.

    Other than changing up the enemy density, there’s not really much I can think of to improve the level. There are a few tiles I’d like to add and delete, and not much else. I could probably fix my health pickups better. I placed a few under one of my checkpoints but soon realized they’d be pointless as soon as the player reached the checkpoint as they’d be unusable when the player respawned there. I forgot to close off an area that results in the enemies flying off the room. I could probably add in some more rooms, but I feel like I would be confusing myself a lot further with those. Actually, something I could do is probably add in more rooms where the player can just walk through them and explore. A lot of other people had rooms where a lot of it was just walking.

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