Level design is especially important in puzzle games, as people needs to understand what to do, but not how. In other words, we need to guide the player without being too obvious about what to do. This is easier said than done. Lots of investigation were needed.

We also wanted the puzzles to be as organic as possible. We didn’t want them to be glued puzzles, we wanted them to have sense in the world and the game's narrative. For this, the puzzle designer worked altogether with the level designer, to make them feel natural.

Wizard and golem are thought to work together, so the levels are created with that in mind. Using their mechanics in the interactions and trying to give this the polish it deserves is one of the key factors to take into account when level designing.

Levels should guide the player in a simple glance. For this we have to modify some 3d models, as they distracted the player too much. Some shined to much or were excessively colorful, two key factors for guiding the player without himself being aware.

We also have to take into account shortcuts and backtracking to make levels more interesting, giving certain degree of complexity. Dark Souls its probably one of the best references in this area, as it has a masterly level design.

Another important value to take into account is the golem speed. The golem, due to its nature is a slow character, so we shouldn’t make the player walk with it more that it should. To avoid this, making center base puzzles could solve it. This means that each room with a puzzle should be solved moving the golem the minimum amount. Puzzle elements used by the golem are closer, and the part made for exploration or others can be traveled with the wizard.

One of our best ingame examples of this its the third level, where a part takes place inside a volcano:

Emilia Schatz (Naughty Dog game designer) talked once about the importance of transmitting as much information as possible to the player without telling them directly. In Uncharted or The Last of Us they use all the time light, colors, movement or even sound to guide the player in the right direction.

We are trying to replicate the same with our limited resources of an indie student group. That’s why we’ve reserved our last project month to polish as much as possible our level design and puzzles.