{"author_name":"Benjamin","cat":"LD #21","comments":[],"epoch":1314090480,"likes":1,"metadata":{"p_key":"63711","p_author":"Benjamin","p_authorkey":"2952","p_urlkey":"99496","p_title":"I could not escape : Leveldesign","p_cat":"LD #21","p_event":"LD21","p_time":"1314090480","p_likes":"1","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"2952","us_name":"Benjamin","us_username":"\/author\/benjamin-soule\/","event_start":"1313712000","event_key":"7","event_name":"LD21"},"text":"

I entered this LD21 with my own additional theme : “No level Generator”.<\/p>\n

I’m designing game for a long time now and I have always eluded the leveldesign problem by programming levelgenerator for any game. Breakout generators, sokoban generator, shmup generator, etc.
\n I was pretty proud of it. Knowing that my game have sort of infinite ammount of levels feels powerful and trying to make them fun althought they were not craft-handed was challenging.<\/p>\n

Back when I was 14, My iconic game was Frontier Elite 2<\/a>. I had no clue what a random seed was, but having a universe on my 3.5 floppy disk sounds magic !<\/p>\n

When I started to read the LumdumDare blog, I was surprised by the time spent on leveldesign. Filling a .txt file with “O” and “X” was the kind of thing I totally wiped of my mind. It feels like and old age thing.<\/p>\n

That’s a very twisted point of view, but I cant help thinking like this<\/p>\n

Enough with the psychoanalysis, what about the game ?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In Rainbow Jail<\/a> I tried to design the level instead of procedurally poping block and baddies by reversing puzzle solution.<\/p>\n

and… Hell, it’s hard work !<\/p>\n

For manually designing these kind of puzzle, you have to think hard ! First you have to make some easy level. Not only player must achieve them by doing almost anything, but they must feel like they made some wise move to do it. After that, more challenging levels. For achieving this, you have to test.<\/p>\n

A lot.<\/p>\n

And I’m awful a this too.<\/p>\n

Spending all my time playing my own 48h game seems like a nonsense.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The hope : A Solver !!<\/strong><\/p>\n

So of course, I want to create a a LevelSolver that will check for me the ammount of solution for the current level so I can, just by blindly add or remove block, navigate between 0 & infinite number of solutions until I reach the “only 1 path” holy grail.
\n Well that would still be leveldesign, but it seriously take the generator twist. And moreover dealing with the fact that player can push some blocks ( sokoban factor ) is not making it easy.<\/p>\n

Back to reality<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had to face the harsh reality. For every single level, I will have to check<\/p>\n