EPTFor a reference I used a random play-through from Youtube. It is not specially good and it is better for us that it is not a speed run, it often shows what happens if you do stuff you do when you don't know something.
We will simply go through this level by level and make notes as the level progress.
This would end being at terribly long post so I will start with only the first level. You will also make notes on stuff that I forget or correct my mistakes. My note threshold will be held low, so some comments might just come from random design, not always from the reason I will give.
No more disclaimer and let do this.
Level 1
1. Intro, tension music effect and grid closing to dramatize the fact that the prince has been thrown to jail.
2. The layout suggest 2 things. The plane on the top hints that you can climb there. At this point going top or bottom looks equal.
3. A broken tile on the floor is there as a hint (but I don't think a beginner will grasp it)
4. The player ends up running and when he falls, there is a hint of a lose tile. The player will end up running over and maybe with bad luck fall and hurt but no fatality. This is a trade-off, this height is chosen to make clear that there is no reason to return there anymore (I know it is possible)
5. Oh a platformer where you start by going left?! The room on the right has a guard, you learn very early that you have no weapon and trying this out won't make you restart from faraway. Yet, this first level design decision is more relevant than we might think. One of the first thing that was tough the player is that the right way might be in any direction!
6. Next room introduce spikes and door opening mechanism. A simple challenge that has the player probably land on the door trigger. Is the door trigger easier to see the first time if it's near a hole? Probably not, but if for some reason you miss it, you don't have to take the jump again.
7. A room with 2 trigger. Hey! Different triggers opens different doors... Nothing deep here. A falling tile as a jump mini-challenge, if you make it fall, the return will be slightly harder.
8. A quick room in between and we arrive in a room with a new kind of trigger. Notice the very simple layout, a sign that we will teach the player something new. A falling tile was added so the we have a 2-tile jump challenge. You can't fail the first time.
9. The new trigger is not raised from the ground and it slams down the door. It is harder to notice.
10. The first 2-jump over spike. This is probably nothing, but there are no torch in this room. More focus on the spikes? Or was the layout already too crowded.
11. A skeleton, A sword, A fallen tile. Did the tile fall on the poor guys head :D? Anyway, having the skeleton set up the mood and maybe gives a reason why a sword is lying there.
12. Pick-up, music effect, palette effect on the background. Notice the blink pattern plays first, then the music echoes the same rhythm, I wonder why the delay is there, any ideas?
13. not much to mention on the return. The first sword fight is easy, I guess there is a little tension spike here for a first-timer. We'll go through the sword fighting mechanics with tougher gard
14. The last room. Dead-End, the player is taught very clearly the level completion mechanics in it's simplest form, taught the sound of the door opening, taught it opens from a normal trigger. Light and size and decoration on the door makes it also clear... This is the goal! And hey I've been thrown into a dungeon, good to find stairs up!
Level 1 has given a little taste of every basic mechanics of the game. An explorer would also find maybe a potion and secret passage on the roof, but overall we saw that falling tiles were used as hints, as terrain modifier to possibly make the way back slightly more challenging and create the mood of a dangerous dungeon. Level 2 offers some cool design stuff, and I won't go so thoroughly through it, room by room! Anyway, this is already too long for one blog post :D!
TBC
