Game Production Diary 4

This was the last week before our beta demonstration. We finally got together all our assets into one large pile to get them into a comprehensive experience. I finally got some time with everything we have. And the construction of the level turned out to be an interesting thing to do (I never doubted that it will be).

I had only a general idea of how to structure our level. The task we have allows us to create games with only the first level. In other words, you get to play a level and see that there is more to come but here is where the game production ends. Our game, however, is a whole game in one level. So, we need to try and create an experience that feels complete. The progression curve of the challenge must feel natural. And so I set out to try and deliver this curve. I choose a simple method; add more monsters as the player reaches closer the end boss. One might think that this approach is fool-proof. But, later I realized that just filling the level blindly with mods has a flaw. I had no track of the time it takes to reach the boss. And furthermore, I want to be able to finish the level and the boss in the time given for beta presentation. And just like that, I ended up taking time of my own level run, trying to figure out how much intensity in mobs should there be. In the end, I settled on the time for a perfect game run to take around 3-4 minutes. This leaves a good margin for a run that is relaxed, given that the player knows the structure of the said level. This whole ordeal made me want to research a bit on how to measure the time resources from the designer perspective. Can a good game fit into a time that is under 5 minutes? How long is an average shoot ’em up level?