Hey-oooh, guys and girls. I hope you guys are doing as great as possible. I'm back with another update on the devlog. I know that I haven't been posting as regularly as I used to, but work on the project is still ongoing. Me, I'm still learning to program shaders and have taken quite an interest on the technical arts side of things, which surprises me because I was afraid of anything programming for as long as I can remember. And to a certain extent I still am scared because it's an overwhelming subject to me.

As for the project itself, remember last post where I stated that the second level is being remade? Well, I am still remaking it and that is what I have worked on since my last post (project-wise, anyway). And since then, functional-wise, I am 75% done making iteration number 2.

Here's how it looks, bird's-eye view:

Structurally, the difficulty is toned-down a lot (maybe too much) and the hazards/obstacles are laid out in such a manner that they explore every scenario possible as of right now. Since I don't have enemies in the game, the mindset is basically "the environment is the enemy". Plain and simple, no two ways around it.

A new addition to the level is the long and hollow mesa in the middle of the level. This mesa came about similarly to how going out and around the tall sequoia tree: as an answer for the "variety" question. At first I was really skeptic about the idea, because on paper it seemed like it was not very interesting. But the idea kept popping in my head, even though I kept dismissing it. And since it kept doing that, I decided to give it a shot and see what comes of it.

Lo and behold. One long mesa, 4 different sections. Breakdown time!

This section is where I introduce the grappling hook:

This is the section where gameplay with the grappling hook gets slightly complicated, adding falling platforms to the mix:

This is the section where I throw off the player by introducing a different mechanic (the vertical moving platforms).

And the is the section where everything introduced before gets thrown in like a melting pot of mechanics:

To be honest, it's just OK-to-good, gameplay-wise. It's nothing spectacular or out-of-the-ordinary, it's more of an area where the the player can learn the grappling hook mechanic in an easy-to-learn environment. What might be spectacular is the addition of some big holes in the walls of the mesa that reveal the environment from time to time. Towards the end, things get more difficult, as the player has to use timing to his advantage in order to reach the end of this section. Improvements will be made to make it as good as possible, but the focus is to have a structurally sound foundation to the gameplay.

The stage following the hollow mesa is simply a transition area towards what was the entire second level and is now the last stage of the second level. Although I wasn't really for it, I added the jump pad in this transition area to get the player to the last area faster. But that may soon change it. This is because I settled upon having to only walk in the transition areas, no jumping or anything else that might cause the player to die. Just let the player breathe, take in the environment and allow the story to unfold during that time (for this level, in voice-over form).

The last area (which again, was previously the entire second level) will suffer some modifications to it, since I've also added a double jump feature. I've replaced the stylized cliffs from the previous iteration with BSP brushes so as to have better control over the layout of the area. I've stated before that I'm OK with the "happy accident" of stumbling over a path that the player can take due to the cliffs placed, and I still am OK with it. But I want more control over the layout of the level, because I feel that in this level I relied too much on the "happy accidents" thing. True, they got me going in a good direction, but I can't rely on that too much.

In the following days I'll continue working on this second iteration and keep you guys posted. After this, I may take a break from level design (should I finish the tree level too) and focus on implementing the swimming and the wall climb mechanic.

Anyway, that's it for today. See you guys in the next post hopefully I'll post sooner than I've been doing lately. Buh-Bye!