Level Design is Hard
The last two Chomatic Games projects (RuneWeaver and Dungeon Door) featured randomly generated levels and challenges. This seems to be all the rage these days ("procedural content"), but we felt we needed to get our hands dirty with real level design. Since in puzzle games level design is everything, that genre seemed the right fit.
Lemmings is Awesome!
What happened to Lemmings? Why aren't there more games like Lemmings? Or like The Incredible Machine? We wanted to do something that captured the feel of guiding helpless little guys to safety, but we also wanted the fun of placing gizmos on the level for surprising results.
You Can't Plan for Everything
Most puzzle games (excluding match-3 style puzzlers) are games of perfect information. Players generally see everything about the level right away, and can, in principle, plan the entire solution in advance. But sitting there and planning, while potentially engaging, is often less exciting than making dynamic real-time decisions. We wanted a puzzle game where the player has to think fast and change strategies constantly.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Complex, involved levels can be exciting, but also overwhelming. Great games handle this by masking the overall complexity of a challenge with constant localized focus. If the player only has to really think about what's on the screen, then the gameplay emphasis is on tactics, with strategy playing an important but background role.
You Can't Do it All…
Some puzzles have only one solution. This is bad. We wanted a game that encouraged creative and diverse thinking. Some puzzles have "perfect" solutions (minimal number of moves, every guy rescued, all bananas collected). This isn't necessarily bad, but we didn't want perfectionism to drive the player experience.
We wanted a puzzle game with an overarching goal, populated with many sub-goals in such a way that only some of the sub-goals need to be achieved, according to player choices. Having dynamic challenges is only feasible if the player is allowed some measure of failure. We wanted levels that were beatable on the first try by sufficiently skilled players.
… Or Can You?
On the other hand, we also wanted replayability, and a game that did appeal to perfectionists. Repeated playthroughs of a level should allow players to find their "perfect" strategy, and be rewarded for it. But it should have a different feel than the frantic uncertainty of the first playthrough. Perfectionists should get their chance, but when they do it's a much more strategic and planned gameplay experience.
Colorful, Cute, and Simple
Aww…. wook at da wittle Munchkins!
