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[vitaminNewB]

Cool Thanks.  should have it polished up real soon.

[Akhel]

@Arkhel: I like your forest level because it's very spacious.  I also like the idea of dodging spiders.  When I get another chunk of free time I'll take a crack at pixelling it.

Wow, awesome!

[Akhel]

This is my attempt on a tutorial-style level. I think it could be the first one (sewers).  It is meant to encourage the player to learn various types of common moves GB will have to do througout the game. I'm not sure if I like this.

Areas:

GB starts falling from the arrow. He obviously does not die.
Area 1 shows the player the basics of crawling.
Area 2 is meant for the player to do some basic jumping. There probably should be some 1-tile high water on the floor of the "lower part" (where GB goes if he misses a jump) so the player wouldn't die for falling.
Area 3 shows some jumping and falling limits to the player, and also a first diagonal jump.
Area 4 is a basic door. Its key is in Area 1.
Area 5 introduces water and makes it obvious to the player that he does not die for falling on it, no matter the height.
Area 6 is a tricky 3-tile gap for the player to jump. This area is optional and can be easily skipped.
Area 7 is some blocks for the player to test some moves or jumps. I'd like to have made this bigger.
Area 8 introduces a basic moving platform.
Past the "stairs" after Area 8, is the player's first real challenge. These are lots of pipes with lots of leaks; it can be easy just to skip through them, but the player should feel tempted to grab the treasures.
Area 9 requires some timing for the player to dodge the steam and grab the treasure.
Area 10 involves more tricky jumping and timing.
Area 11 is even more jumping and timing.

Notes:

This level is supposed to lead the player, not leaving much room for choice. Here he/she learns about the game's limits, and the basics of what can or can't be done.

Light gray tiles are the steam traps; they start on the darker tile (for example, the first one from the right comes from the floor, while the last one before the exit comes from the "ceiling" - which is actually a pipe). The single-tiled one comes from above. Oh-my-fucking-eyes-pink is the exit (perhaps it should be open to the left?).

Some enemies could be added. I'm not sure if there is enough room, though.

I'm also not sure about what should be pipes and what should be walls. I'll leave that decision to the artist (if the level is used in the game, that is).

Extra pictures:

Here is a version without the areas and here is a version without the collectables and traps and stuff, perhaps for easier visibility.

Please give feedback.

Whether you like the level or not, please tell me. Everything is welcome, especially constructive critiques.

[Zaphos]

Hmm, I feel like Balding's Quest is such a classic platformer that we almost don't need a tutorial, and it won't be a strong way to bring most players in to the action.  I suppose it might work better if we threw in some strange / funny visuals -- perhaps a "Where's Waldo"-esque level with lots of slightly off Guy Baldings running around and failing to do what the player is supposed to do?
As far as actual level flow, it seems good, though perhaps a bit lengthy if it's just a tutorial.  I think you could make 7 bigger and shrink the 9, 10, 11 bit.

[Akhel]

Well, it's not exactly a tutorial; rather, it's a level where the player can understand and play with the game's limits, know what he/she can or can't do etc. But you are probably right and there's no need for something like this. I really like the idea of more GBs walking around, though

Edit.: I had written "know what he/she can't or can't do"

[Icedemon]

hmmm... had an idea concerning the temple level... i saw the sketch of the outside/staircase thing, looks really good... however, if time/room/everything permits, the temple should be a 2 part level (or the level beforehand should be temple interior, and the next level the exterior) and as for ideas:

perhaps like an altar at the top of the staircase?

hurray! i'm officially helping out on this project now.

  <-- yeah. pretty much.

[vitaminNewB]

Old



New



Empty house



Sorry this TINY bit of polishing took a while. 

It's just little details, but I think it helps make the level look much more complete. 

OK.  So I took B, X, Z, D, A's ... everyone's advice and made some changes.  The platforms in the house are a lot darker to help the player tell the difference between what they can jump on and what they can't.  The attic is just the opposite.  Also added a few extra trimmings and stuff for Martha.  Put in a TV too.  For now I'm kind of thinking about leaving out some of the other characters just to keep things from getting crowded.     er..I dunno.  You guys can redraw them.  I might have to be done with this and get started on another one.  A nice tiny chunk of time has just popped up.  Seriously Nice work again Akhel.  Back to the Dungeon!

[BMcC]

hurray! i'm officially helping out on this project now.

Sorry, your signature's too big!  :D

[...] OK.  So I took B, X, Z, D, A's ... everyone's advice and made some changes. [...]

This is great, dude.  It looks really fun!  It'll be neat gettin' everything working in-game. 

[Akhel]

Another attempt, this time with a twist!

{Marked (N, I) } { Normal (+, -) } { Inverted (+, -) } { Emergency (+, -) }

Level elements:

Guess what GB is.
Exit is the exit door. It begins closed, behind GB.
Death hole is a hole that kills that character. You know what I'm talking about.
Key is the key that opens the grey door.
ts are treasures.
The moving platform moves left and right and left and right uhuh uhuh.
Grav is the key element of the level - it is a button or something that inverts gravity, but only affects Baldy! It does not vanish after activated.
The button must be pressed for the concealed ladder to come down. Before pressed, the concealed ladder is invisible (looks and acts like a wall).
The disk is whatever GB needs to get for the exit door to open.
All you have to know about the event right now is that it's invisible (not really an object). Keep reading for information on it. Quit reading to die a horrible death.

Enemies:

There are few enemies here. They can, however, cause the player some good trouble if he doesn't watch out.

The roof hook thingie is some kind of hook or robot that moves in the roof (kind of like the one in the original design doc). It is hardly dangerous until the player reverses the gravity.

The evil flying sentinel robot flies in the very-very-dark-grey area around him in no specific pattern. It is slow, but reasonably dangerous as it requires the player to do some timing.

The very evil free-roaming sentinel robot is even more evil than his brother, because it flies through the whole stage (no, it can't fly through walls). This is the player's major annoyance.

The level:

This level is quite hard. It seems to fit the storage area quite well, but could be easily adapted to any other indoors setting. The obstacles on the ground are mostly boxes or other piled up objects. The player has to get the disk behind the door; however, to open the door, he has to get the key, which can only be obtained in reversed gravity.

So he sets out to activate the only reachable grav (the one on the very top). It's not hard - if the player ignores the reachable treasure, he just has to climb a few ladders and do some easy jumps.

After activating the grav, the level literally turns upside-down (see the inverted pictures). The roof hook thingie is now a possible threat. The player climbs all the way back up, grabs the key and opens the door, right? No, wrong. If the player opens the door now, he wouldn't be able to progress, as the button would be unreachable.

Sooooo, he activates the grav again and goes back. Opens the door and pushes the button; the concealed ladder appears and extends all the way to the floor. He climbs up and, when he touches the exclamation point (the "event"; it actually does not exists, I just put it there to show where the player should be for this next sequence to be activated. It also doesn't matter if the player doesn't touches the blue area, as the whole column detects collision and activates the sequence), BOO! An alarm sounds, the screen goes red, the gravity is inverted again, the enemies get faster, concealed doors open and close! (The marked pictures show the exact location of these doors. See also the emergency pictures.) Well, hell has broke loose, but at least Baldy got his disk.

The very bad news? The way to the first grav has closed, and he can't exit with inverted gravity. So he'll have to reach for the other grav, now achievable, and then all the way back to the exit.

My comments:

Holy crap, this level is HUGE! It was incredibly hard to do it correctly because of the inverted gravity sequences, but it was also very fun and I definitely like it. I know it's horribly confusing, and I'm sorry for that. The "event" (blue exclamation point) was not supposed to be on the pictures except on the marked ones, but screw that.

Perhaps there could be a hidden bonus disk or treasure or something above the key (the player has to be in inverted gravity, position himself right next to the ladder, jump and grab on the ledge, climb up and move above the screen, like in my forest level). I just thought of it, but it seems to be a very fun secret

Please comment! If it sucks, tell me how I could improve it. I'm not sure if it's as open as before suggested the levels should be, but it's definitely not an "obstacle course" like my first attempt.

[BMcC]

Hey, I like this.  The gravity stuff is real cool -- I think it could be (and should be, considering how much work it'd be to implement) the core element of a new Theme, perhaps Space Station or something.  But the part I like best is the alarm going off and the level going MAD when Guy grabs the disk.  That's nice!  It makes me think of other uses for that device... like a rolling boulder dropping in a Temple stage, or a beast being let loose in a Jungle stage.  (EDIT:  If designed right, it essentially makes the stage two stages in one.)

Cool stuff!  Keep those ideas churnin'.  I also appreciate how much detail you went in to with the map and description.  That's gonna help, thanks. 

[Markus Rosse]

Yeah, i had the same idea. a indiana jones like level (first scene in the first film). he has to beat a not too hard course to reach the disk, and after he got it (remember indy's reaction after the sandbag vanishes), he has to go back, but a big rolling stone is close behind him and the old obstacles drive crazy, so that it's even more difficult to get through!

maybe i make a mockup later, please be patient!

[Xion]

Processing Plant:



Baldy begins in the obvious place (where it says start).

The Goal Door is the bright neon green thing

There are four Conveyor Belts, two of which aren't labeled, but you can tell by the half yellow-half...dark-bluish-tealish floors.

There are Three Giant Pistons which plague Baldy 'till the very end. They move up and down cyclically, and they go through the brown spots on the ground that are along their path, though to Baldy they act just like the normal yellow floors and walls.

There are Three Suction Tube Thingies that are like those mail tubes. Baldy can travel through them, but they're one-way. The first one goes outside the play area.

Moving Platforms...you know what they do.

One-Way Moving Platforms. The name says it all. They only go up and they lead to...

Two Giant Round Spinny Saw Blades of Death and Demise, which make poor baldy into pulp if he touches them.

Then along comes the Scientist and His Ceiling Claw Thingy and Maybe a Gun or Something; the only enemy in this stage. He sits back in his little room and controls the ceiling crane claw like a "grab-the-stuffed-prize" machine. He'll punch Baldy if he tries to climb through the window and occasionally maybe shoot something that Baldy has to dodge.

The two purple things are Switches

Then there's the Rotaty Fan Blade O' Deth and Doom, which dices Baldy if he touches it.

Then there are 4 Treasures.

White thing's the disk that opens the exit, yadda yadda, you know how it goes.

K, here's a quick run through of the level;

Start. Stuff (whatever's being processed) starts dropping from that red spot right above and in front of you onto the conveyor belt. Don't get hit in the head! But once the stuff hits the ground it's no longer a threat. K, so you can either go up above the conveyor belt and take the long way, or crawl under and take the short way. The former will take you past the Pistons, and if you choose to, you can jump down and cliffhang -> climb into where treasure #1 is then take the suction tube up to the next area.
Ooor, you can take the moving platforms and get the disk early on in the level (but that suction tube isn't working so you have to go back out the way you came.
If you go the latter way (staying on the conveyor belt), then you'll skip both the treasure and the key and go straight to...
The one-way up-moving platforms. K, you can just crawl straight thru and go on, or wait 'till it takes you up a bit and get treasure #2, and/or wait 'till it goes up a bit then crawl off and fall into the space above the tube and get treasure #3. (Don't move too far left; you'll go right into the saws!) Once you get all the treasures (or not) you go into...
The big room. The first conveyor belt will try to push you back. Not a problem. Go forward, forward, all that jazz, up onto the moving platform, then once the scientist sees you from his terminal, he'll activate his crane, which will try to grab you and drop you back at the beginning of the room/hold you in the line of fire of an incoming projectile that the scientist sometimes chucks/shoots at you. If you're not being held by his contraption, (which stops chasing you when the projectile is in flight) you can either duck it or jump over it. Anyway, you make your way over to the switch and hit it. The door beneath the scientist opens (grey blocks) and he falls to his death. You can now continue through the window of opportunity and go onward to the tube of worthiness! Or if you want, you can climb onto the tube and crawl into a little hidden area behind it to get the last treasure. Then to the tube of worthiness!
K, this tube takes you to your second encounter with the pistons. Crawl carefully, drop down, and continue to avoid them. Now, if you got the key earlier, you can drop down and just go to the door. If not, crawl up to the next switch, which will activate the last suction tube, leading to the disk-room. This switch also reverses the one-way platforms and makes the last piston stop in its starting position, preventing you from taking the short way to the door. Drop down back to where you started and fight the conveyor to get to the last tube that takes you to the rotaty fan blade o' deth. If Baldy's standing on one of the pistons when it comes up, he'll be knocked upwards into the fan. Oooohh, biatch, do the level again! Or he can grab the disk and crawl back out onto the platforms, which are now moving down, and drop down into the exit.

LEVEL COMPRETE!

[Akhel]

Thanks a lot, BMcC! I really like the jungle beast idea, I'll try to sketch something with it next.

And Xion, looks nice - you have a very unique style The scientist antagonist is a neat addition. Only one thing - wouldn't Balding die after falling from the scientist's window?

[Xion]

Mmm...how far can he fall again? Well...add a ladder that goes all the way down on the far far left. If the player falls to his/her death it's due to his/her lack of sense enough to grab the ladder.

[vitaminNewB]

@BMcC:  We want Real Time Lighting and Shadows in GB's mansion!   

Akhel-Xion:  I'm a little late, but WHOA.    If you two aren't going to be pxln these mockups, I might have to start on one a bit later.  My pixel finger is itching.  (never thought I'd say that).  I may just hold off and see. eh. I don't feel like posting my pixel Anims for some reason.  Looking good!

[BMcC]

Processing Plant:

[awesome]

Very, very cool!  And well thought out.

BQ is gonna have some incredibly nice levels. 

Stuff (whatever's being processed) starts dropping from that red spot right above and in front of you onto the conveyor belt.

I think this should be a meat processing plant.  With cute bunnies heading to their demise.  :D

If that doesn't motivate the player to get the scientist, I don't know what will.

Mmm...how far can he fall again?

I'm not sure yet.  I'll figure that out with this build.  (The original concept said five tiles, by the way, which sounds right to me.)

@BMcC:  We want Real Time Lighting and Shadows in GB's mansion!   

I had raytracing in place, but shinygerbil convinced me to take it out.  Oh well.  :\

Akhel-Xion:  I'm a little late, but WHOA.    If you two aren't going to be pxln these mockups, I might have to start on one a bit later.  My pixel finger is itching.

Yes, I want to see some PIXELS.  Mockups, at least.

Though, the Dungeon level could use a lot of animation/details too...

I don't feel like posting my pixel Anims for some reason.

What?  Do it!  And then post MORE.  :D

[AdamAtomic]

B5: Laboratory
Graphics: beakers, bubbly liquids
Enemies: mutant, radioactive mice (arne's favorite!)
Traps: opening doors while people are looking, etc
Items: labcoat disguise
Mechanics: stealth, jump&run

Not fully developed yet, but some IRC chat led to this basic idea:

You start in the lobby of the lab, where you steal a labcoat, then walk non-chalantly, whistling tiny musical notes, and creep your way into the facility.  Once inside, you shed the disguise to rid the lab of the evil mutant radioactive lab rat infestation.  Maybe some kind of evil rat queen that you have to inject to win?  Not sure yet!

Pixels coming later this week...

[Inane]

Less rough concept!
I know it needs more traps
Red indicates door
White indicates a trap trigger... And bats
Black indicates a trap
Gold indicates an artifact

You climb to the top, grab the golden thingy, then the boulder chases after you, and somehow defies gravity be squeezing between spaces smaller than it. Then you run down, go through the first door, go down, then climb up the little batcave part to get the key to the door at the top of that thingy and exit the level.

If you guys want I could make an actual level, with tiles

[Terry]

One thing I've noticed with the levels so far is that they're all very... I dunno, tight. I think it might be nice to contrast that with some levels that are really unrestricted, maybe even a room or two that doesn't have a puzzle, just so that it doesn't end up feeling too heavy.

I was thinking about making a couple of rooms for the lava bit along those lines. Any objections?

[Derek]

One thing I've noticed with the levels so far is that they're all very... I dunno, tight. I think it might be nice to contrast that with some levels that are really unrestricted, maybe even a room or two that doesn't have a puzzle, just so that it doesn't end up feeling too heavy.

I was thinking about making a couple of rooms for the lava bit along those lines. Any objections?

I agree with you!  So no objections here.