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Step 10Editing Objects: Adjusting the Difficulty and Creating Paths
When you're comfortable with the tiles, it's time to move on to editing the objects.
Though the tiles can certainly contribute to determining a level's difficulty, objects provide a more concrete way to tweak this. A level's enemies can help direct the player as they move through the map: enemies can make it very difficult to take a certain path, causing the player to try a new approach.
Remember to focus on minimalism: too many entities or too many types of entity gets distracting fast. Limit yourself, as this will give your level the most punch. You can't go wrong with more punch.
Start with the ninja and the exit, and then add some enemies and objects. Every object should be added with a purpose in mind. Never add objects just to fill up space -- this leads to maps that look and feel thrown together. Think about what will be happening when playing through this map. Does adding the object or enemy contribute to the gameplay? If not, it's probably unnecessary, and if you can't justify its existence, you should remove it altogether.
Levels that require the player to come up with a strategy for traversing the level are much more interesting. N is as much a puzzle game as it is a platformer, and levels which exploit both aspects of the game are 17 times more fun to make and play. See the images for examples of how to do this.
Though the tiles can certainly contribute to determining a level's difficulty, objects provide a more concrete way to tweak this. A level's enemies can help direct the player as they move through the map: enemies can make it very difficult to take a certain path, causing the player to try a new approach.
Remember to focus on minimalism: too many entities or too many types of entity gets distracting fast. Limit yourself, as this will give your level the most punch. You can't go wrong with more punch.
Start with the ninja and the exit, and then add some enemies and objects. Every object should be added with a purpose in mind. Never add objects just to fill up space -- this leads to maps that look and feel thrown together. Think about what will be happening when playing through this map. Does adding the object or enemy contribute to the gameplay? If not, it's probably unnecessary, and if you can't justify its existence, you should remove it altogether.
Levels that require the player to come up with a strategy for traversing the level are much more interesting. N is as much a puzzle game as it is a platformer, and levels which exploit both aspects of the game are 17 times more fun to make and play. See the images for examples of how to do this.
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