11 months ago
11 months ago
11 months ago
11 months ago
SuperNova, here are some general level making principles:
* The player's naive approach upon seeing the level should not be the solution.
* After thinking about it and working through the possibilities, a clever idea should come to light that is the solution.
* It should feel like you learned something or that something cute/amusing happened.
* All of the puzzle should be involved in one of the false paths or the true path, such that none of it feels extraneous.
* Usually a puzzle should not have multiple solutions - if you discover that it does have them, try to eliminate all but the most interesting solution. If you can't, it may be OK to publish anyway if all of them share an interesting trick in common, or all of them are hard to spot. Basically, a puzzle should be 'about' learning something, and if you don't have to, it 'fails' at its purpose.
* How hard the puzzle is doesn't matter as long as the feeling of satisfaction you get when you finish is big enough for how long you spend on the puzzle.
* The puzzle should be well playtested before publishing to ensure all of the above qualities are true. (You can get a second playtester if you're not sure yourself.)