OVERVIEW
PROJECT BREAKDOWN
Deadline: 4 Days
Made with Portal 2 Level Editor
Team: Solo
Playthrough: 7 minutes
Level's location: Mid Game
TIMELINE
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Concept Phase
Polish Phase
Building Phase
Playtesting Phase
INTENTIONS
Focus on a specific feature: the light bridge.
Utilize the various facets of it.
Create small and big twists during the puzzles.
Change the way to use the game's features.
USED BRICKS
Main Brick
Light Bridge
To respect the intentions and to ensure a diversified experience, I've made a short list of the different interactions allowed by the Light Bridge that I wanted to use.
Interactions diagram
Platform
Wall
Roll if it's sloped
Wall
Create a sloped platform
Secondary Bricks
To play with the Light Bridge, I decided to use these different bricks:
Sphere
Cube
Angled Surface
Other Bricks
Finally, there are other bricks that do not interact directly with the Light Bridge but that either interact with the secondary bricks or allow to frame and limit the experience.
Sphere Button
Cube Button
Glass and Grates
Frizzlers
Pedestal Button
Glass Pannel
Aerial Faith Plates
LEVEL FLOWCHART
DESIGN TECHNIQUES
Teasing on start
In the beginning, the player sees directly the Light Bridge to highlight it.
Just after a little walk, they will observe a cube that falls.
Finally, they can spot the exit door through the window panel.
Note: The first idea was to put the exit door but because of the Light Bridge source, I couldn't.
Re-use the space
In order to challenge the player on his space perception and to add more value to the room, I re-use the same space in various situations.
Also, the player will use it in different ways, while having a common base.
Learn and twist
The first two puzzles will teach the player to move on the Light Bridge (to get the cube) and to use it as a wall (to stop the sphere).
After, these mechanics will be twisted:
Move on the Light Bridge with a cube and Use the Light Bridge as a wall to stop the player while holding the sphere.
Also, as a hint, the player will associate the cube as walking on the Light Bridge and the sphere as using the Light Bridge like a wall.
It could be interesting to break this association in a further puzzle if the level was longer.
Help for the player
After some puzzles, the player can open shortcuts to simplify navigation and create a sense of progress.
Here, the player can get a cube quicker.
When the player opens the way to the Aerial Faith Plates, this Frizzler is then disable.
PLAYTESTING PHASE
Issues found
Difficult to know where to start
Delineate Areas
Creating a wall that opens partly with the Sphere and then permanently with a Pedestal Button.
Glasses and Lights
Use Glasses and Lights to show the way and to attract the eye.
Readability
Cable simplification
Use and see
Buttons close to their areas of effect
Final Puzzle
The number of angles made it less readable and on some cables, the height caused reading problems.
The player now arrives from below and the cables are more direct.
Before testing (already updated)
After testing
2nd Sphere Button
The effect of the 2nd Sphere Button is the most difficult to understand.
The angle of view on the horizontal Frizzler is too small to make it very visible. The cable did not allow the player to understand quickly either.
I then put a Glass to force the player to direct the Frizzler. The cable has been simplified too.
Finally, I couldn't lower the Frizzler because of a skip.
Slow Navigation
More White Panel
Shorter distances between points of interest
Other solutions removed
Block with Grates
Player could recover the sphere with the right timing without the Grate
Limit the white pannels
The player could pass the sphere. Also, the grid is far from the wall because of a bug that allows it to pass the sphere through.
Some white panels allowed the player to reach heights without a light bridge using falling speed.
POST MORTEM
I was able to respect my intention and the result is enjoyable.
There are still issues with the readability and navigation. It would be better to make interesting the entities' recovery when players have to re-use them.
It helped me improve my skill in prototyping quickly a level and organizing playtest. It also challenged me on puzzle design and project tracking.
I'm really proud of the result and the production as a whole. I had a lot of fun in making this level. It was my first time using the portal editor and publishing a level on the Steam Workshop.