Step 6 of 8 professional level design

Objectives and obstacles

This step was a large section for me, and what has taken the longest so far, because the level i want to make it primarily a puzzle level i had to think carefully about puzzles i wanted to make but also if they are possible with the limitations i have of using kismet in udk. So firstly i went about putting down all my ideas i could think of, weather they were puzzles or something i would like to have in my level such as a gameplay element of a cinematic. 

Below you can see some of the basic idea i jotted down, as you can see there were quite a lot of ideas i explored i wanted to think of. I wanted to do this because i didn't want to start creating the top down map and running out of ideas and just adding in filler to the level which is never good, even if some of these ideas wont be used it still exploring different ideas and concepts to fall back on if something doesn't work out.

Ideas

-Jigsaw puzzle, where the player has to move pieces around to form a path or maybe the player has to collect jigsaw puzzles to form a map of some sort.

-Writing can glow up, or appear on parts of the environment to inform and guide the player.

-Player comes into the island on small boat, into large boat building, can see the large monuments and focal points on the way into the island.

-Player has to jump or is told to jump of the edge of a platform, if the player takes the leap of faith platforms appear or will rise.

-Endless tunnel, use portals to make it endless

-No other character is seen in the level, half way through could start seeing silhouettes or character in the distance, is the player going mad or are they real. Would the player want to chase and discover what’s going o n. Could make it so the player might not even notice these, but would be interesting if people noticed, have them as translucent shapes moving around

-After the player arrives on boat, they find the fountain for afterlife; they are then taught how to use this power (once player drinks potion HUD could pop up with note to explain what’s going on)

-has to find items that slot into doors to open them, like keys but more interesting. Could be shapes or some sort of key.

-Puzzle to get light to beam into container, then player needs to rotate container to beam the light into gem or something that will flow into door and open (or light beam goes into gem on door). Might have to do 2 containers or more to make it more difficult.

-After player drinks 1^st afterlife potion at beginning a warm light will radiate from the player lighting the path on the journey.

-Moving stairs puzzles, rotating platforms puzzle

-Wheel puzzles to rotate into place to fire of a sequence.

-Word riddle, can have a riddle in writing and player has to move letters on wheels, the correct word will open the door. Or beam a light down or fire of an event.

-shape puzzle collect shapes to put into shaped holes, once put into hole they glow to show they are activated.

- Rubik's cube puzzle, rotate cubes so that colours or icon is the same as corresponding cube. (Look at notepad)

-Fake optical illusion room; walk into corridor, room goes dark then could toggle on objects and assets on the ceiling as if the player appears like they’re walking on the ceiling. Can change throughout area.

-Player is forced to jump of ledge with the platform out of jumping distance, could increase jump high and distance when player comes to this area, player has to have faith and jump. Changes back to normal jump distance after this.

-Puzzle to turn taps of some sort to fill beakers to way platforms down to fire of event.  Could have four beaker and you have to move something each time in order to fill them up.  Has to find missing pipes to put into into tap mechanism so water can flow.  So find the correct pipes for the correct taps. Then activate each tap so fill beakers.

-make water flow to activate a water wheel to move a chain to fire of an event.

- Has to collect 3 artefact's in the game to open normal doors, not a puzzle but leads to the end goal where the player has to place the 3 artefact's into the end mechanism to fire off the ending sequence. 

After noting down these ideas i also wanted to do small quick sketches to try and visualise how these elements would work within a level so i create a large image exploring these ideas.

Level Mind Map 

Now i had a good foundation to work on i wanted to create a basic mind map to try and refine down these ideas and piece them together into something that would fit together. this mind map helped organise which puzzles and elements would come first in the level and what would happen after that, also if the player has multiple paths to go down or if the level is just completely linear. 

Here is the mind map i come up with... although this has something to follow it is only the core elements of the level other pieces can be added in between or even parts can be moved around, things can change and they most likely will depending on how the level will play.