Newton is a 2-D arcade platformer where the player has to switch gravity in order to traverse through a series of progressively more difficult levels. Along the way they will encounter spikes, pits, buttons, and objects that affected by the players gravity. This game was created in a team of three over the course of two weeks. My primary role was as a level/game designer, responsible for creating world 1 and 3’s levels as well as creating and designing core game functionality.
Gravity Flipping
When the player presses E they flip their gravity along with the gravity of the other physics objects in the scene. The ability to flip gravity allows the player to reach areas that they may normally be able to access. The player must use it to traverse, dodge spikes, and get blocks and balls to buttons.
Level Design
Metrics
Height = 1 Unit
Max Speed = 8 Units / s
Jump Height = 1.5 Units
Jump Distance = 5 Units
Process
1. Sketch
The first thing that I would do when creating the levels would create a rough sketch of the level in its entirety. This allows me to quickly iterate and get some early feedback on the idea.
2. Implementation
This is when I would grey box the level inside Unity, adding in some broad functionality. Many levels were severely changed or tossed out at this stage due to technical limitations etc.
3. External Testing + Iteration
After doing initial implementation and testing the level myself to see if its finish-able someone not involved with the project would be brought in to test the level and see the areas of friction and difficulty. I would then make the changes based on the feedback from the test. This process would be repeated until the level was of sufficient quality.
4. World Testing
The level also needed to be testing in relation to the others and its order in the world. Changes would be made to the order of the levels and sometimes minor changes to change the difficulty of the level.
5.Final
This is when the final implementation of visuals and effects would be added and the level would be added into the level manager and level select screen.
