Intro
Single Player | First Person | Non-linear | Puzzle
As a level designer, I felt inspired to create a playable, non-linear level, having "Fear" as the main theme.
While considering my editor choices, I decided to open up that good old game that's been sitting in my Steam library for more than a decade and check out its editor.
Having worked only in Unity and Unreal prior to this project, I was immediately drawn to the simplicity and immersion of the Portal 2 editor.
Designing around Fear in a puzzle game editor presented an interesting challenge.
The Level
The level is available to download and play on the Steam Workshop via the below link:
(you need to own Portal 2 on Steam in order to play)
Gameplay
The following gameplay video highlights the experience of a player new to the Portal series, slowly uncovering the game's mechanics, and building on the affordances they learn throughout the level.
Onboarding
Coming back to Portal 2 after a long time, I needed to re-familiarize myself with the mechanics, which helped me empathize with new and returning Portal players. Having that in mind, I designed a quick intro to onboard the game's basic mechanics. Keeping the same spirit, I designed the rest of the chamber to be playable and challenging for both the beginner and the veteran.
1. Jump distance
This is to teach the player that they can afford to jump a distance of 1 unit, and that the Deadly Goo is, well, deadly.
2. Portal gun
The only way through the impossible jump is to use the portal gun. Creating portals can only be done on white tiles. Crossing this section will teach new players how and where to use the portal gun.
3. Interaction
Presented with a deadly gap, the remaining option is to interact with the Pedestal Button to raise an underwater platform and move forward.
4. Crouching
After raising the platform, the player is faced with deadly lasers, which can only be crossed by crouching.
The Environment
Having "Fear" as the main theme, I went through the assets of the editor and decided to use water, aka "Deadly Goo", which instantly kills the player on contact.
This sparked the addition of platforming to the level, creating tension with every jump. Lasers and turrets were later added to add to the tension.
The objective of the level needed to be clear from the very start: to reach the exit door. The layout of this opening shot frames the objective with leading lines and lighting.
Having no map for orientation, it was important to create a vantage point early in the level to safely scan the environment.
Contrasting the high with the low, a section of the map was placed underground. This spiced up the gameplay by creating a mix of visually distinct areas, puzzles, platforming and some good old FPS action.
The Enemy
The turret presented an interesting challenge to design around.
New players feared it and worked their way around it, either by avoiding it or by using a box as a shield against its bullets.
On the other hand, experienced players ran confidently towards it while out of its line of sight, grabbed it and threw it to its demise.
Grabbing or pushing the turret wasn't intuitive for new players, so placing the player out of the turret's line of sight encouraged experimentation with these little bots, sometimes forcibly when the turret blocked the player's path.
During playtests, challenging a turret for the first time felt good for new players, especially when their challenge was rewarded with new paths previously unaware of.
Affordance
Having a wide range of assets to play with, it was crucial to limit the number of interactable objects available to the player, so that they build a mental inventory of specific affordances and avoid cognitive overload.
1. Pedestal Button for creating paths towards the exit
2. Cube, Sphere and their respective triggers
3. Beam and Light Bridge for player mobility
Playtesting
The initial idea for this level was to create a linear experience, solving a series of puzzles in a specific order to reach the exit and finish the level. After conducting playtests with new and veteran Portal players, I realized that each player had their own way of approaching the puzzles and the level as a whole, exploring different sections of the level in a random order, and coming up with creative puzzle and traversal solutions.
Given the feedback from the playtests, it was clear that non-linearity encouraged player agency and level replayability:
1. Players who discovered shortcuts to skip their way to the exit were interested in restarting the level to explore the areas they missed on their previous playthrough.
2. The frustration of being stuck on a puzzle or a platforming section often led players to seek alternative routes.
While on the topic of replayability, it's worth mentioning that the level doesn't have any saving system, which meant that dying and repeating the level from the start multiple times wasn't something I considered before the playtests.
I had to account for this fact and introduced shortcuts across the level to minimize the frustration of going through the same path with every restart.
Pacing
Opening up the level as a series of interconnected beats gave the player the freedom to platform, solve and explore as they see fit. Below is an analysis of some of the paths that emerged as a result and how each path marked its own pacing of the level.
1. Top view of the level's beats.
2. Unique paths and how they relate to different beats.
3. Pacing of each path.
4. Overview.
Takeaway
In addition to being a valuable learning experience, here are my key takeaways from working on this project:
1. Puzzle design is hard. What helped me ease the process is to start with the solution, and work my way back to an initial setup.
2. Testing puzzles is tricky. You're not sure if players are solving a puzzle or just confused because your level design sucks. Sometimes it was both!
3. Playtesting gave me insights into player psychology and attention. Watching others play taught me to stay humble, objective, and attentive to emerging patterns of play across playtesters.
4. The more the merrier. Designing for the beginner, the veteran and the speedrunner opened up new ways to design and play.
Thanks for viewing!
Steam Workshop link:
