Level Design Part 13 - Concord Labs Plan, Boss Beat Chart and Minor Tank Changes

In terms of level design, I'm finding Lily's levels a bit more difficult to work out. The main reason behind this is that it isn't a linear pathway and if I created it that way it would be boring. It works for the tank because of the larger scale and the camera setting the pace for the game. 

Since the last version of the project I have created a new camera style for Lily's levels. They now use a camera that does a few new things, first it stops the camera moving backwards (Player can still move back to a point) this was to stop the player being able to retreat and kill things from out of their range. Also it drives the player forwards by progressing with them as long as they go the right direction. Second, it now is free from the character so I can add extra functions into it, the main 2 I plan to use for now is stopping the camera until X number of enemies are dead and giving the player a larger view for boss battles. 

Back to the level design, I tried thinking of the story that I want the level to go through first and blocked out the key stages the level requires. In this instance its the entrance, elevator tower and the boss room. 

As a sidenote, I'm debating adding checkpoints for when the player gets to a boss battle (at least for easy mode and normal mode with a reward penalty) as in feedback players said that having to get back to the boss every time could get tedious due to the difficulty of a boss.

This is the current plan which I've blocked out into stages:

1. The first corridor forces the player to use the jumping and introduces the first enemy to them that is harmless unless you they get in its path. 

2. Use the jumping refresh in this section in a more complicated way. The 1st bit will have no enemies, just the death hole, so it isn't too difficult. Since the player will most likely understand that pits mean death I will put a secret in the second one that will have a tiny platform that's visible when playing. Down there will be either scrap or a basic weapon pick up.

3. The doors here will be destructible and a spawner in front of the door will spawn a number of enemies to fight while breaking down each door. After the first door there will be a few turrets to contend with. Since the camera cannot retreat now this section should get quite intense if the player gets surrounded.

4. This one is really short. Basically it will introduce shooting buttons and give a little scrap pickup as a reward for getting this far. 

5. At this point the player will be stuck on a wide elevator that shifts as it goes down the levels of the base, the shaft will have turrets/traps along the walls and the occasional enemy dropping onto the platform to fight the player.

6. This is a more advanced version of 3 but before the second set of spawner doors there is a hatch the player can (hopefully by accident during combat) destroy leading to a secret path through shafts with location moving enemies and jumping holes to evade them. Using this section bypasses the locked doors entirely. 

7. Still a bit unsure here, I'm thinking of having it as a platforming section with lots of moving sections to dodge and a few enemies littered across the platforms. When I get to this bit I will test it until it's fun and challenging.

8. Boss battle Beat Chart:

Boss Name: Experiment 3001

Description: Lily's grandmother inside a orb shaped machine. Moves along walls using tracks and interacts with the arena.

Required Animations:

• Wake up (Intro)
• Idle
• Fire Flamethrower
• Critical Damage
• Move rocket launchers into view for firing
• Death

Movement Patterns: 

• Static Z location
• Follows player along X upto a point

Attack Descriptions:

• Fires basic bullets in quick patterns, ignoring player location.
• Fires Red Bullets at player location.
• Emits fire from underneath if player is on lower platforms.
• Homing rockets from above (Sometimes replaced by a shootable bomb)

Defeated by: Has a set amount of health the player must go through. Shooting a bomb does 5% critical damage.

Damage Description: 

• Attacking in general will do moderate damage but it can be defeated quicker hitting weak spots.
• Hitting the bomb above is the key way of killing this boss. Causes a critical failure that makes it take a lot of damage..

Particle Effects:

• Flamethrower
• Bullet Fire
• Missile Smoke
• Death explosions
• Metal pings

Projectiles:

• Red Bullet
• Homing rockets
• Standard Bullets
• Flamethrower

HUD Elements: Target laser lines.

Sound Effects:

• Granny Muttering
• Laser effects
• Missile explosions
• Charging sounds
• Mechanical 

Arena: The arena is mostly usable by the player with about 20% taken up by the boss. In the player area there will be sets of platforms at both sides and underneath the boss. These platforms are constantly moving and at times will change direction or tilt 90 degrees to force the player to move around. The boss stays central in the arena and moves left or right along the wall following the player. This boss will fire various things but the main focus of this fight is to not fall to death.

Rewards: Unlocks access to the next level, gives the player the ability to customise their equipment  and awards a lot of scrap.

Current Progress towards Demo Build.

Finally for this update, I have increased the fire rate (in turn reduced damage), camera speed and added camera shake in the tank gameplay a small amount as a quality of life improvement. I found that it felt a bit slow after playing with the speed of Lily's mode.