With working on the level, I noticed that I needed to rework my lights as I have extended the length of the first section. But also, when play testing it I found that the lights were to bright putting you off as its difficult to view the platforms. So, I had to re adjust the brightness and the spacing which was simple however I had to play around with the intensity as it would go from light to darkness which took me some time to find the sweet spot with the lighting. With this sorted I moved onto the level itself as the first section is complete, but it feel a bit boring just jumping from platform to platform only to get to the end. So, to keep it interesting I have added in some collectibles to motivate the player to traverse the level to get the collectibles making it an enjoyable experience but also challenging. As the player has to risk it to collect all the collectibles as they will have to complete some difficult jumps that will require double jump to get them.
For the collectible I have gone for a wedge of cheese based on the name of my game “Lab Rats”. For the wedge of cheese was rather simple to make in Maya. With the collectibles I reused the coin mechanic to save me some time as I have this Friday to hand in my game. I only have two days before hand in, so I need to get my game completed even if it means leaving out some mechanics that I originally wanted to add in. With the collectibles nearly done I then moved onto the last part which is the end score for the end screen for the amount of cheese collected. Just so the player can get an idea of how well they have done. Which I a rough idea of how I could achieve this which my first attempt went alright but it wasn’t displaying it, so I had to refer back to the demo to work out my issue. This issue was easy to solve as I had forgotten to add the coin target to show what it was displaying. After that it worked although I need to improve my end screen as it looks rather basic. I will sort this out after I complete my games level and mechanics. As I would rather have a game that has polished mechanics than just aesthetics.
The next part of my game I am going to work on is the second section which will consist of mainly moving platforms, breakable platforms and etc. With this second section will have a mix of easy and difficult platforms to navigate adding a risk and reward system for the players who want to get extra points.
Thomas Morphew Games art 