The Story Begins - The Game Maker's Companion: Game Development - page 318

General Principles
As well as the specific layout and mechanisms of the level design, there are some general
principles that we have applied to the level design in line with the game design theory.
• Although Flynn can die from falling, we have been very careful to make sure that this

only happens when the player makes a true mistake. Most of the heights of platforms
have been adjusted to make sure that Flynn won't die by dropping off the end of a
rope ladder, for example. We have even put in little slopes that push the player toward
the safety of a platform in such cases. This helps to avoid unfair punishment .

• This level has a lot of talking in it. When we pull the player into a conversation where

he can't move, it's important to make sure that he is in a safe spot. It would be unfair
punishment if the player can get killed while unable to move, so we will make sure
that whenever Flynn has to choose between dialogue paths, he is out of danger from
patrolling baddies.

• We'll try to make a clear distinction between aggressive skeleton pirates that need to

be dispatched using the charge and more friendly human pirates that Flynn can
reason with. Establishing unwritten rules like this in your game helps to provide clear
goals .

• As Archie is the only one who can collect items, we have tried to make sure that they

are always somewhere high out of Flynn's reach so that the player doesn't assume he
can collect things too.

Saving
How often should we allow the player to save? As you probably know, Game Maker allows you to
save and load at any point using F5 and F6. This is a very handy feature, especially when you're
testing, but it could make the game too easy. We think that part of the challenge of our levels is to
successfully do a succession of the challenges before you are allowed to save, so we have disabled
the save feature and instead added invisible save points that activate the first time the player
collides with them.

Game Play Tweaking
One thing you'll no doubt find when you build your own levels is that no matter how carefully
you've planned beforehand, once you've actually got the level in front of you, some things will
work and some will not. The walkthrough may give the impression that we know exactly how the
player will react to our level—but we really don't. We may think that this should provide a good
progression, but it may not. Not even the world's greatest game designers can plan something
like this on paper and have it work first time, so there's nothing wrong with tweaking your design
and deviating from your plan as you go along.
In fact, if you're not changing things, then something's wrong because game design is an
iterative (step-by-step) process. However, beware of changing something after two weeks of
playing the same level, just because it seems far too easy for you and you're getting a bit bored
with the layout. Unfortunately, this is the game designer's lot. You won't enjoy your own games
as much as you do others, because you will have tested them so many times that it all strikes you
as far too easy. You will have heard the jokes you wrote in the dialogue until you're sick of them.
Remember, the player comes into this for the very first time. Get your friends to test your levels
for you, and notice where they get stuck and where they laugh. They're a much better indicator of
how your players will react to the game.