Level Design
The level designs for Grow will be focused on small to mid-sized areas in which players run, climb, swim, fight and dodge. A major focus will be creating multiple pathways for players to move around in and to have certain pathways available to only some in-game characters. This will allow players to strategise and will give an edge to the less physically powerful classes.
A balance between battle and egg capturing will hopefully be reached through level design. Having too open an area too heavily encourages battle over goals and leaves players feeling daunted, but having too small an area prevents players from interacting properly and causes them to feel suffocated. The intention is to reach a perfect articulation of space through repetetive design and playtesting.
The level aesthetic itself will be cohesive with the characters, subject matter and overall intended atmosphere for the game. Cute, fun and soft are what we're aiming for. As there is only one level planned for the game so far, the level environment will be quite generic. There will be trees, bushes, water and caves.
One side of the map will appear dark and scary while the other will be happy and bright, in order to match with the creepy and cute teams respectively. The middle of the map will be somewhere in between. This will hopefully emphasize a difference between teams and help players to feel closer to their team members. One risk is a loss of cohesion in aesthetic and care will be taken to ensure all areas of the map feel like they are part of the same game.
Water will be an important part of moving around the level, for some characters it will be a death trap, causing them to drown if they fall in, while others will slow down as they swim across it. Most importantly, skill classes will be able to swim faster than they will walk, establishing the need for underwater pathways, which will hopefully connect bodies of water across the level.
