Levels without Characters
Now that I’ve spent an entire chapter explaining how to make levels for primarily character-based games, what do you do if your level has no character? What if it’s a puzzle game or a driving game or a flying game? Well, much of the advice from this chapter still applies, but here are a few more tips for these types of games:
- Make levels dependent on new mechanics. If players can now purchase nitro for their car, make sure there is a ramp that requires a nitro-powered jump to cross or a close race that can be won with the judicious application of a nitro-boost.
- Just because it’s not an environment doesn’t mean it can’t have a theme. Many people don’t realize even an abstract game like Tetris had a theme: each board was based on a cultural or architectural achievement of Soviet-era Russia.
- Even if you are designing a purely abstract game like Super Hexagon, Hundreds, or Impossible Road, changing the color of your level...