"Your Game is Too Short": Parkour Level Design - Project Feline Devlog #33


Designing a game with fast movement is hard. The faster the character moves, the faster they traverse through levels. Play-time is fleeting, and nobody wants to buy a game with only a few minutes' worth of content. But creating large enough maps to turn a few minutes of gameplay into a few hours is expensive, even triple-A studios struggle with building large enough maps for fast-paced games. So how will I, an solo indie dev working on a movement-based game, turn my prototype into a complete game experience that lasts for at least a couple of hours? In this devlog, we dive into my level design process and explore how to tackle this challenge.

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Files

Project Feline - Pre-Alpha (Windows, 64-bit) 2.9 GB
Version 0.11.1 Mar 11, 2022
Project Feline - Pre-Alpha (Linux) 2.5 GB
Version 0.11.1 Mar 11, 2022

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Comments

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Great devlog. I've faced this issue myself in my momentum game, and there's nothing like shared misery among gamedevs. Never considered the open level route, it's a really great solution! Currently I'm looking into the concept of mutators to add a bit more replayability.  You've given me alot to think about for the future though!

OK, Now combine the movement, flashing and breaking properties on a single obstacle.

Of course, I’m kidding. Ad a software developer my self, who more interested in designing software, I would have thought of tackling this issue by procedurally generating the levels, or creating a level which is designed condensed then stretched out. But this only works if you don’t have a story to think of, or don’t want any visuals; still I think these kind of levels can be used for inspiration.

Since you already figured out how you want to tackle this task, I’d rather recommend to stick with it, than to try this. This is just my 0.2 cents. (And I mean worthless idea.)