Team 24
Alex Hodges, Khaled Messai, Ana Nguyen, Caroline Wang, Haven Whitney
Git: https://github.com/Eirawen/P2_T24
Trello: https://trello.com/b/B7sh77Jk/workflow
Game Information
Game: https://eirawan.itch.io/my-life-as-a-teenage-slime
Scope: MVP
Focus Areas: Level Design and Narrative Architecture
Target Audience: Ages 16+
Final Playtest
Part 1: FinalPlaytestVideoPart1.MOV
Part 2 (post run interview): FinalPlaytestVideoPart2.MOV
Artist’s Statement
My Life as a Teenage Slime follows the adventures of a shape-shifting alien slime who has left their home planet to embark on a long journey. Along the way, they crash into a strange and unfamiliar planet. As the slime reorients themself, they are eager to find a place high enough where their banged-up spaceship has a chance to fly away back into space. The slime encounters helpful animal guides along the way, teaching them how to navigate the land salmon-style or cat-style. Finally, when the slime reaches the summit of a tall mountain, they realize that their time on the planet, which they now know is called “Earth,” was actually pretty fun. As they enter their spaceship, do they leave and continue on their journey, or settle down and stay?
My Life as a Teenage Slime is a puzzle platformer with a heartwarming story about a slime and the friends they meet along the way. This game is for young adults, who might relate to an alien slime that is navigating a new world. The shape-shifting gameplay lets players experience different platform mechanics — jump, swim, stick, and squish, which are necessary to explore and solve the various challenges found in the environment.
Concept Map
Values and Formal Elements
We knew that shape-shifting would be the central mechanic and narrative focus of our gameplay. We wanted our game to convey a story about fitting in, finding your community, and how the people you encounter in your life can shape your identity. We believed that the mechanic of shapeshifting, where players change forms yet do not change who they are, could allow players to experience the game world from new perspectives.
Our team had different backgrounds in Unity. Therefore, we decided to create a 2D platformer game including puzzle aspects. We believed this would allow every team member to make significant contributions, with those more experienced in Unity being able to create interesting mechanics, and those less experienced in Unity able to quickly learn the basics and assist in level design.
Our initial formal elements were as follows:
Objectives
The primary objective of our game should be finding out where the slime belongs. Do they fit in most with the salmon, always busy and on the move? Or perhaps they can find a parental figure in a cat searching for her missing kitten? Additionally, we wanted players to piece together a narrative about the world itself; a post-human Earth full of overgrown cities, talking animals, and mystery.
Procedures
To introduce game mechanics to players, early on we knew that each form should be introduced one at a time. Therefore, we believed having 3 substories would allow players to learn the mechanics of each animal (fish, cat, and bird) before combining all forms (and lessons) in a final level.
Conflict
To fit in with our coming-of-age story, we wanted conflict to relate to the player being unable to fit in with different animal communities. For instance, we discussed challenges related to disguising oneself as a fish and not being identified as an alien. However, as we iterated through our game design, this form of conflict shifted into solving puzzles to help other animals (finding a missing kitten, helping fish swim upstream to lay eggs).
Boundaries
The main boundary of our game is the device itself. We designed our game to be played on PC, based on our technical backgrounds and personal game preferences.
Outcomes
Initially, we wanted our game to result in the player becoming human, restarting the cycle of humanity on Earth and raising new questions about the original humans. We also discussed the possibility of another slime chasing after our slime, but we decided against this path because it defeated the purpose of our narrative. Since our game conflict was primarily interpersonal, we decided there should be no way to “lose” the game. Later, we included obstacles that could teleport players to previous checkpoints, but the player never dies.
Resources
Since our game is a 2D platformer, we discussed the possibility of using currency and points like other 2D platformers. However, we ultimately did not include any of these resources because they were not necessary for the journey of our slime.
Rules
While there are no formal rules to My Life as a Teenage Slime, there are still implicit rules that originate from the setting/mechanics themselves. For example, it is never formally stated that hitting an obstacle will make the player lose progress, it is a consequence of the puzzle platforming style of play that players can experience and then internalize throughout the rest of the gameplay.
Types of Competition
As our game is single-player, most of the competition comes from the conflict between the player and the game itself rather than between multiple players. We wanted to focus on the player vs. game style of competition, as is common in other games in the genre of puzzle platformers. It also fits our narrative theme, as self-discovery is inherently an independent journey, though the help of others (such as through the meeting of different characters within our game) can make it easier.
Playtests/Testing Iteration
Playtest 1: Sticky notes narrative
Main questions: Does the narrative have any gaps or holes that don’t make sense? Would you (the player) be invested in this story?
We presented our narrative through a series of sticky notes and explained the story to the playtesters as a series of events where alien runs away from home and lands on Earth → wants to find a community where they feel like they belong → have several encounters with animal communities and shapeshifts to fit in → they don’t fit in at any of them so they experience flashbacks/changes → becomes human at the end.
The feedback was that there was no clarity on why the players needed to navigate as different animals or why they needed to integrate into animal communities in the first place. They also wondered why the alien ran away from home and why the ending is to become human, rather than something else. There were a lot of questions about the alien abilities in general and how that translates to a 2d platformer game.
For iteration: We changed the narrative to add more information about the background of the alien through flashbacks of them running away from home. We also made it more clear that the slime is an angsty teen, so they are trying to integrate into these communities with the purpose to find their own identity and see if any of these cliques are the right fit for them. We justified the human ending by introducing more context that the Earth is post-human and that the slime becomes a human because they want to choose their own identity and become something new that isn’t already the status quo– in this case, a human. We also decided to make cutscenes in the beginning, middle, and end of the game to give more context for the player to understand these values.
Playtest 2: Puzzle concepts
Main questions: Are the puzzles in the levels able to be solved without much confusion and introduce some type of fun (challenge, discovery)?
We made a rapid prototype of the city level on notability.
In this prototype, the city level gave hints that alluded to shapes and the order of the shapes were based on how many times the cat would meow. The shape hints ended up being too vague and led to confusion on what the password was/how to advance. For puzzle 2, the physics of some of the puzzles were not obvious, such as the fountain to the slide because the playtester did not know the premise of the game or that there was the ability to shapeshift into a salmon that could swim in water. There was also no onboarding or tutorial system for the city so the playtester did not know what abilities the cat had. They did like the layout of the city puzzle and everything felt unique enough so it wasn’t repetitive.
We also worked on the design of the water level during this time. Our iteration process branched wildly as we considered many types of puzzles and obstacles for the players in this scene, from traditional jumping platforming with precision form switching to obstacle courses of flying trash. We decided on an obstacle course in the river leading into the city, with a transition near the end of the level to a puzzle in the entrance to a sewer into the main city. Along the way, the player is traveling with a school of salmon migrating upstream who need help to get into the city.
For iteration: We reduced the city level to two main puzzles to make the deadline feasible and also easier for the player to learn and use the abilities of the cat. It was clear that introducing a physics puzzle, cat abilities puzzle, and a riddle puzzle was a bit too overwhelming for one level. We also changed the riddle system from cat meows and shapes to align more with the narrative. The hints were now based on the bodyguard’s hidden name, and all hints were based on one word, STAR. This made it so the player could progress without having to find all the cats and getting stuck. We also kept in mind to add a tutorial later on that introduced the player to the hotkey shapeshifting mechanic, jumping, bouncing, and sliding abilities of the cat.
We found it challenging to design a mechanic for the air level that felt distinct enough from the water level’s mechanics. We also struggled with its narrative flow, as we never had very strong opinions on this level to begin with, and only included it for the sake of having a Water/Earth/Air level. After re-evaluating our justification for including this level, we ultimately decided that the mechanic wasn’t necessary.
In between this playtest and the next playtest, we also made progress in the art, with assets for the different forms of the slime being designed. We also started considering the level flow and how each would link to the next for the best mechanical cohesion.
Playtest 3: Narrative Design
Main questions: Does the narrative have a cohesive storyline? How helpful are cutscenes? Should dialogue between characters be depicted via text or pictures/symbols?
We playtested our narrative by showing our playtester storyboards of cutscenes that would appear in the intro, end, and in between levels. In our playtested storyboard, the dialogue was pictorial.
Initially, our playtester enjoyed the art but was confused about what was going on in the story. The symbols were too vague, and it was hard to derive meaning from them. As a result, it was difficult to portray our main character’s complex feelings and the reasons behind those feelings. For example, our slime’s inner turmoil of needing to belong to a community, yet feeling like they are not quite fitting in, was hard to get across using crude symbols and simple cutscenes. Thus, our playtester felt “emotional whiplash” as it was hard to understand why our slime would switch so quickly from a happy to sad state. Additionally, finding new animals and then leaving them in an upsetting way was too sad and emotionally charged. From this feedback, we opted to make our narrative less complex and to switch to text-based dialogue. Our slime’s reason for meeting new characters and then leaving them became less convoluted as we changed the slime’s goal from needing to fit in, to simply needing to find a way to return to space. There were also no more flashback scenes that told the slime’s backstory, as again, flashbacks confused the playtester both in terms of where they were in the storyline as well as what they should be feeling. Overall, we felt that this fit with our original intention of creating a heartwarming game, as it was not very heartwarming for our slime to be feeling down and wanting to leave, even after the fun adventure they just had with their new friends.
We were also curious if our narrative fit our gameplay. While our game at that point was still in its early stage, our playtester commented that full blown cutscenes felt jarring and would actually take them away from the experience of the game. We therefore decided to only have cutscenes in the intro and end, and instead deliver our narrative through dialogue with NPC characters. From these changes, our narrative shifted from enacting to emergent. Our original narrative told the player that they were an alien slime who ran away from home, who had a complex backstory, and who was experiencing very complex feelings. Now, we moreso have an emergent narrative as we no longer explain why the slime left their home or any of their backstory. Additionally, we added an option for players to choose, at the end of the game, whether to stay on Earth or leave. This gives the player a chance to create their own story for the slime, and lets them decide what the slime’s future looks like.
For iteration: We changed the narrative to be less negative about leaving each community, instead focusing more on how the slime grew in each community and what it learned. We removed all pictorial dialogue and most cutscenes in between all the scenes. We made it so there would only be cutscenes at the beginning and end of the game and have written dialogue and interaction with NPCs in between and during levels.
It was also mentioned after a playtester looked at our planned puzzles that the water level at the time was much shorter than that of the city level immediately following it. This was jarring for the player and didn’t seem to be consistent with our intended gameplay length and overall design. To fix this, we extended the obstacle course of the water level by adding a second phase that was more difficult than the previous one, broken up with a small separate jumping section to add variety and interest.
Playtest 4: Digital prototype
Main questions: Is it easy to navigate the scenes and understand what to do? Are the button mappings easy to learn? Is it easy to press the right button at the right time?
This playtest was the first time we tested our digital game in class. The playtester found that the hotkeys for each animal weren’t intuitive. We had set X for slime, C for fish, and V for cat, but there was no clear connection for why these values were chosen. For instance, C for fish was confusing because players expected C to map to Cat. Finally, since there was no place to review the controls, players had to ask us and be reminded of the hotkeys.
There was also some confusion on why they could shapeshift into a fish in the city level, so there is a disconnect between the narrative and the mechanics because our narrative has it so the slime should be able to learn the abilities of each animal community it integrates into and use it into the next one. It was easy to navigate the scenes and there weren’t any areas of confusion.
Other notes were that the cat could be bigger because its size compared to the camera layout and background made it super tiny and hard to see.
There was also an issue with the center of gravity of the player to where the sprite would spin constantly and be upside down or turned sideways when moving.
The playtester also wanted an option to die and respawn in case you get stuck because there was an issue with clipping through the ground or completely dying if you fall through the boundaries of the game and have a loop of endlessly falling. When squishing the slime, it should be less squished. Another big point of feedback was to give a tutorial at the start to show what you can or can’t climb in the city level, what medium you can or can’t move around, and how to switch between animals. This is because we used the same sprites for different types of buildings and there was no indication which one could be slimed up, had no colliders, or needed the cat to bounce/slide off of.
For iteration: We changed the hotkeys to S – Slime, F – Fish, and C – Cat to be more intuitive and less confusing. We also implemented a sidebar on the screen to indicate what form you were currently in and the basic hotkeys for each. We added a settings menu with a button for controls to refer back to in-case anything nuanced was forgotten. We standardized the camera layout so it would move faster when the player moved and made the player appear larger. We changed the center of gravity so the sprite of the player would no longer spin or rotate as they moved. We added checkpoints and a respawn system so the player wouldn’t feel so frustrated if they got one part of the level wrong and had to restart at the beginning. We kept the squish of the slime because it was needed mechanically for a lot of the puzzles to squeeze through tight spaces. To address the issue with onboarding, we added an introduction tutorial scene, and mini tutorials at the beginning of the water and city levels to get the player accustomed to the new learned mechanics.
Playtest 5: Cohesion and Onboarding
Main questions: Is the overall game cohesive and intuitive? Are the onboarding process and tutorials sufficient after our changes?
This was the first playtest where the player was able to more or less play through the entire game with all main aspects added, including loading into different levels and reaching the ending of the narrative. While this was an exciting milestone, we did realize that many aspects of the game are not intuitive enough for players to understand without instruction nor signposted well enough so they had the resources to learn. In the introduction scene, for example, the player skipped through the dialogue explaining the controls and different forms the main character can turn into, leaving them lost as to what to do in the following levels.
The player also didn’t know how to set expectations for gameplay properly or have a mental framework for how to interact with the world. They were at first worried about jumping into the river as a slime, fearing it would kill their character. Similarly, they weren’t aware they could interact with characters in the world, which led to them skipping important pieces of the narrative in the first level before we informed them of this option. They called out this specifically while giving their feedback, asking, “When can you switch forms? When can you not? How am I supposed to know?” In general, they recommended that more information about the world be visually communicated to the player as clearly as possible, which we definitely agreed with and took to heart. This includes changes like making it clear that high jumping should only occur while in cat form, and that interactable objects could have a highlight around their sprite to indicate that you can interact with them and to distinguish them from their environment.
Further, the water level in particular was difficult for the player to finish, as changes in the state of the world as a consequence of their actions were not communicated in a way that they could understand and evaluate. For example, pressing the button that raises the grate in the sewer did not cause a visual change in the entrance to the sewer pipe, leaving players confused as to how the school of salmon was able to enter suddenly when they weren’t able to before.
This playtest and playtest 6 occurred on the same day, so we have combined their “For iteration” section for brevity as they point out similar issues.
Playtest 6: Level Balancing and Quality of Life
Main questions: Is the water level well-balanced and intuitive so the player can solve it without outside assistance? Is the mountain level balanced? Is the overall game cohesive? Is the player experience smooth? Does the game feel complete/finished?
Starting with the water level, the playtester had difficulty using the slime mechanics to climb up walls in the last puzzle so they were unable to progress. In addition, the buttons were not signposted very well as there was no indication that they could be pressed or interacted with. The water gate opening and closing was unclear so they couldn’t tell what was happening when the buttons were pressed. We had to move down the wall for the button mid playtest because it didn’t work properly to the point of not progressing.
In the city level, the falling obstacles puzzle introduced some confusion because the playtester didn’t know if the apples could kill you or not (in the water level they do, in the city level they don’t). The end of the storyline for the city also seemed a bit abrupt because there was a lack of dialogue to transition from the city to the mountain scene. For the mountain level, there were a lot of issues with the placement of platforms that made the player unable to progress. There was no clarity on which direction to go, what icicles did, the purpose of the boulders, which materials were what, and an exploit where you could just swim up the mountain level because it was entirely water.
Regarding cohesiveness, player experience, and feeling complete – the playtester liked the sense of progression and started to learn which forms are good for certain tasks. They liked that they could solve problems their own way and find ways to “get around” it to feel clever. Later parts of the game seemed more fun and rewarding than the earlier levels. The dialogue could be missed at times and seemed a little slow. They wanted a place where they could remember all the controls. The background assets and look of the art were appreciated.
For iterations: We completely revamped the water level visual design to make it more clear to the player what needs to happen in the level. When pressing the buttons, the gate opening and closing is now more obvious. We also moved button positions to make it possible to reach and make the gameplay make more sense. We also changed dialogue to be more clear and offer more insight into the mechanics of the game, both in the tutorial introduction scene and later on in the narrative. We fixed the sticky wall situation to make it possible for the player to slime up and actually progress after solving the last puzzle of the water level. We added many more quality of life improvements to make the player experience better, such as pressing spacebar to advance the dialogue, adding music/sound effects, and an in-game settings menu (accessed through escape) that allows the player to edit volume, see controls, and unstuck themselves. We improved overall narrative flow by adding transitions in between scenes and tightening up the dialogue to be more open ended and have the player create their own narrative for themselves. The mountain level was changed significantly to resolve both the bug where the entire scene was water, platform location, and to make the walls sticky so that the players could slime form up them as well.
Playtest 7: Final Playtest
Main Questions: How’s the water level’s new design? How is the revamped mountain level? How does the game feel as a cohesive whole?
As for the water level, the playtester successfully figured out the puzzle, but remarked that the fact they had to press the button at the top twice was a bit confusing. It was hard to see the screen beneath the water and realize that they were supposed to press the button in the first place. In addition they expressed some discomfort at the fact that the apple obstacles spawned from the void.
Progressing to the city level, the playtester enjoyed and had fun with the bounciness of the patio umbrellas. They did read through all of the dialogue, but did not figure out the puzzle, claiming to ‘not be locked in.’ However, this was quickly rectified with them turning back to talk to the nearest cat, which let them solve the puzzle just fine. They also managed to bypass the entire falling obstacle sequence by turning into a slime and sliding up the side, but this brought them a lot of joy.
Getting through the mountain level, the player traversed it with a few deaths to the icicles. The player liked the narrative input of the cranes. They struggled to complete a jumping sequence at the top where some ledges were too close together, and at one point went entirely the wrong direction to the right. They also expected the large boulders tumbling down on them to do more than just move them back. They enjoyed the visual spectacle of all of the icicles falling and claimed to enjoy how the level felt more difficult than the previous ones.
In the ending of the game, they chose to stay on Earth.
They successfully traversed the game from start to end on their first playthrough in about 24 minutes. They remarked that they enjoyed the movement and art direction of the game, and that their main gripes were with the ending to the water level puzzle and occasionally the direction from which to progress was not clear. They did claim to have fun!
For Iteration: Immediately afterwards, some minor changes were made to the mountain level’s layout in order to facilitate the difficulties faced by the player. In the future, we would like to experiment with different control schemes and letting different players choose their own. Some players preferred their WASD and others arrow keys. We primarily designed around arrow keys but a few scenes (like inputting the answer to the puzzle in the city scene) require use of the mouse and so making controls and inputs coherent throughout the entire time would assist in the player experience. It would be prudent to change some other aspects of level design throughout the entire game to make it explicit exactly when it is possible to traverse a wall as a slime or not, what walls are permeable or not, and to highlight the intended direction to progress. The game stays indefinitely on the ending that the player chose which leaves it unclear if it is supposed to keep going, and perhaps a fade away to signify the finality of the moment would also signpost that better.
Narrative Architecture
We also focused on narrative architecture for this game. As mentioned before, we wanted an emergent narrative where the player could create their own story for the slime. We begin the game with a cutscene which provides some context of who the slime is and their simple goal of trying to reach a high enough place to fly away from Earth in their damaged spaceship. This goal follows our level progression, as the player gets higher and higher as they move from a water level, to a city level, and finally to a mountain level.
Through dialogue which hints at the extinction of humans and game props which look man-made, the player gets a hint that the slime is navigating a post-human Earth. Yet, we wanted to create a heartwarming atmosphere for the slime who has landed on an unfamiliar planet and for the player who is in an environment where humans no longer exist. Thus, within each level, players learn more about the friendly inhabitants of the land, which are familiar animals, salmon, cats, and birds, wanting to help and befriend the player. At the same time, we maintain a sense of adventure through levels which require players to jump, dodge, and explore.
Then, at the end of the game, we show the slime’s character development. Initially, they were very eager to leave Earth. However, upon meeting new friends, they realize that they had a good time here. They are stuck between the choice of leaving Earth and continuing their journey or staying. The player gets to choose how the story ends, where neither ending is better than the other. It leaves it up to the players to decide what is best for the slime in the story that they envisioned.
Most of the narrative is delivered via the intro and end cutscenes, along with some dialogue between the slime and NPCs. The cutscenes help immerse the player in the game world as it sets the mood and objective for the player. Then, as the player goes through the levels, they are reminded of the objective through interactions with other characters. The story of a slime exploring new places and meeting new friends is simple and linear enough for the player to keep track of the storyline and game world.
As for emotional impact, we hoped to convey a heartwarming, coming-of-age story. To do so, the slime meets different animals throughout the story where they get to learn new skills and take on new forms. Thus, at the end of the story, the slime has grown and obtained new perspectives from the friends they met along the way. The ending cutscene shows the slime feeling a little bittersweet about leaving Earth. Players can choose what feeling they want to leave the game with — bittersweetness if they still choose to leave Earth, or contentment if they choose to stay.
Level Design
Water Level
Clarity of Objectives
We define the objective for this level through interactions with the salmon found in the river. They set the goal of making it upstream for their migration, which aligns with the overarching main character goal of finding a high point to fly away from the planet. By intertwining these two objectives, we give the player a reason to help the salmon on their journey and a reason for the reward offered by the salmon after the scene is complete, namely a piece of the main character’s spaceship returned to them. Further, the genre itself as a side scrolling puzzle platformer offers a meta objective to the player of progression, encouraging them to keep moving forward. This is one benefit of a closed world and story as compared to a more open world format.
Progression
We deliberately designed puzzles to progress in their difficulty and required mechanics. For our first obstacle course, we have players navigate an obstacle course in the river. Apples spawn at a slow rate, allowing players to learn how to avoid them. If players are hit, they learn they will be sent back to the last checkpoint. The second obstacle course is a series of fallen logs that the player must jump through. Although arguably less challenging than the previous puzzle, including this second challenge gives players a break between similar types of challenges and allows them to switch between their slime and fish forms, since some logs are easier to cross as a slime. The third challenge is almost identical to the first, but it is more challenging because the spawn rate of obstacles increases dramatically. Finally, the fourth challenge introduces buttons, which players have to press in the correct order. Like the second challenge, this puzzle also requires that players switch between their slime and fish forms. Specifically, this puzzle requires that players use the shrinking ability of the slime form. Without utilizing this feature and successfully solving the puzzle (by climbing the pipe in their slime form or compressing down to a smaller form to get through the gap), players are unable to progress to the next level of the game, thereby enforcing our intended progression.
Flow
Since our game is a sidescroller, players want to follow the flow of the river further right. Our obstacles are logically matched to this objective, where obstacles may push the player back to the left or otherwise prevent the player from moving further right. Additionally, the majority of our level is set within a river. Later, this feeds into a small sewer system for our last section, which smoothly connects our level to the next (the city).
Mechanics Integration
The water level offers a mix of mechanics in its gameplay both while in slime form and while in salmon form. For example, the first stretch is primarily meant to be played in salmon form, and the player must dodge obstacles in the water while swimming and then complete a series of jumps. The latter half, however, needs skills only available in slime form, such as compressing to fit through a small gap or climbing up the exterior of the pipe. This is meant to provide a ramp up into the main gameplay expectations of switching to different forms as they suit your current environment.
Player Engagement
Although this level is the first proper level of gameplay and is therefore meant to be an easier introduction to the mechanics, we believe that it still offers engagement to the player. By creating several NPC interactions and breaking up the puzzle sections and introducing variety to the gameplay and forms the player is moving in, we hope that, although this section may be easy for a veteran puzzle platformer player, it can still offer interest in its overall design.
City Level
Clarity of Objectives
In the city level, objectives are clearly defined through visual and textual clues that guide the player towards their goals. For visual cues, the player starts on the leftmost side of the scene and the only way to go is towards the right since everywhere else has a clear boundary. For textual cues, the player interacts with the NPCs and hidden triggers to introduce written direction. The NPCs slowly introduce the problem that we need to find a lost cat and that to progress, you need to talk to stray cats and explore the city. The primary objective is to navigate through the city environment by solving a hidden password puzzle and overcoming obstacles. These objectives are broken down into smaller tasks by interacting with NPCs, which are clearly communicated to the player through the dialogues and environmental storytelling.
The city level’s objectives are well integrated with the narrative in a way that it makes sense what to do next. For instance, getting past the initial tutorial area to gain access to the city reveals another piece of the narrative that there are stray cats and some sort of bodyguard. By interacting with these stray cats, you get pieces of the narrative background of Earth and Humans, while also getting direct hints to solve the secret bodyguard name puzzle. This ensures that each objective not only stands on its own but also contributes to the larger goal of progressing through the level and the game’s narrative.
Progression
The level design offers a clear sense of progression by gradually increasing the complexity and difficulty of challenges. The beginning of the city level has an “onboarding” section where they complete easy platforming tasks that get the player accustomed to using their abilities. You can see this in the small platforms to bounce off walls, obstacles to jump over, and a large pole to slide down. These early puzzles are simpler to introduce the player to the mechanics specific to the city level, such as navigating through buildings or utilizing the cat’s abilities for exploration.
As the player advances, the puzzles become more complex, requiring a deeper understanding of the game’s mechanics and a more strategic approach. This escalation keeps the gameplay engaging and rewarding. For example, the start of the city level involves basic platforming, while the next puzzle introduces problem-solving through interacting with NPCs while still keeping the basic platforming. This is also when we introduce a bouncing mechanic through the market stand roofs. We also make sure that they don’t forget that they can switch forms by introducing a part that is only solvable via slime at the bell tower. After solving this bodyguard name puzzle, the player is fully accustomed to all the mechanics and we ramp up the difficulty by introducing a time-based puzzle where they jump between two buildings to avoid obstacles.
Flow
The city level’s design ensures a smooth flow by arranging its layout to make it intuitive for exploration and engagement. The city environment is divided into distinct sections that gradually open up as the player completes puzzles and explores. This structure prevents the player from feeling overwhelmed and provides a clear sense of direction. We also intentionally made it so that the player doesn’t need to explore every area or talk to all the cats to progress, but doing so will give them more information about the narrative background and get accustomed to the new abilities. Pathways are intuitively designed, with NPC interactions guiding the player.
Mechanics Integration
Game mechanics are used within the city level to enhance the player experience. The shape-shifting ability, which allows the player to transform into different animals, is central to navigating the city environment. At the beginning of the level, we get a cutscene and then some dialogue introducing the player to the Mom Cat. They then learn that they can shapeshift into a cat and have new mechanics: jumping, bouncing off walls (wall jumping), and sliding down walls. Each form offers unique abilities that are essential for solving specific puzzles.
These mechanics are deeply integrated into the level design. Puzzles and obstacles are crafted to require the player to think creatively about which form to use and when, promoting a deeper engagement with the game’s core mechanics. For example, the onboarding requires the player to use the cat mechanics effectively to get over obstacles right into the city. The bodyguard password puzzle required using the cat’s jumping mechanics to reach some cats in higher buildings. The falling obstacles force the player to use the bouncing wall jump mechanic. All the puzzles in this level require the use of a form’s mechanic, whether it’s the cat’s jumping or the slime’s ability to climb up certain walls.
Player Engagement
The city level maintains player interest and engagement through unique puzzles, cutscenes, and NPCs. NPCs play a crucial role in this engagement, providing quests, hints, and backstories that enrich the gameplay experience.
Moreover, the level’s design includes elements of emergent gameplay, where players can discover new ways to use their abilities or approach puzzles. This flexibility allows for multiple playstyles and keeps the gameplay fresh and exciting.
Mountain Level
Clarity of Objectives
In the mountain level, the path to the left is blocked off by terrain that the slime climbed, and the NPC messaging urges the player to go higher. NPC’s tell the player to meet them at the summit and advise them along the way. Following the rightward path they are led through angled platforms to guide them further upwards. The primary objective is to evade icicle spikes, boulders, and platforming while leveraging the slime and cat form to ascend to the summit.
The mountain level’s objectives are integrated in the narrative being that the overarching goal of the protagonist is to reach the highest point that they can. This is why they pass through the water level, it’s why they go through the city, and it is why they should climb the mountain. This is communicated through the protagonist’s dialogue, where they ask every NPC in levels prior how to get to an even higher location.
Progression
This level is the most platforming based in the game. The progression is accomplished by increasing the quantity of obstacles that the player has to dodge. The beginning of the mountain level onboards the player with an introduction to the slippery ice material in a series of simple angled platforms to jump through. A harmless icicle is triggered to fall as the player approaches it, foreshadowing their future presence, as a crane npc informs the player of the dangers of the mountain’s boulders and ice. It is a puzzle for the mind.
As the level progresses, the boulders increase in size, although they don’t do anything but push the player back (amorphous slime body and all), while the icicles drastically increase in quantity. It goes from 1, to 2, to a barrage during the final jumping sequence. This requires the player to fully exercise their control of different forms and wall jumping which they have honed throughout the previous city level. Overall, the mountain’s summit is the thematic conclusion of the player’s journey, so increasing the platforming difficulty with tighter jumps and smaller platforms was the approach taken.
At the summit, the player is congratulated for their achievements and impacts to the denizens of the world, and granted the final component of their spaceship. They are able to choose to leave Earth or stay behind.
Flow
The mountain level was designed to be a successive upward journey, and each part of the level either slants or directly faces upward in order to indicate that. There were originally some issues with clarity on that front, and so through iteration various slightly grayed out blockers and more deliberate “pointing” of platforms was adapted to accommodate that.
The ending sequence with multiple icicles is a little bit more chaotic, in order to mimic a mountain’s lack of human constructed linear progression, and to add increased tension because as the ice falls down, there’s also the choice of which platform to jump to. However, most generally still do point upwards in some way.
Mechanics Integration
Cat wall jumping and slime sticking are the key form mechanics in this level. It compounds on the lessons learned from the previous levels and asks the player to switch between forms on the fly in the middle of sequences. Players must dodge the icicles by transitioning quickly from cat form, to jump around and up the platforms, and slime form, to hold in place and carefully pass upwards. Other than the different objects (icicles and boulders), the primary new mechanic introduced is icy platforms. Many of the walls and jumping platforms are icy, which means they reduce the player’s friction and make pinpoint movements a little bit trickier.
Player Engagement
The level is shorter and has a relatively high tempo. Players are taken from challenge to challenge in rapid succession, and in the later playtests remarked enjoying the visual spectacle of watching icicles crashing down around them as they try to traverse to the summit. The NPC Crane at the beginning (Pierre) guides and motivates the player as they traverse upwards throughout the mountain, and the faster pace of the gameplay on top of slippier material keeps the players engaged.
Flow Across Levels
Overall, the flow across levels follows the main narrative goal of the character up towards a high point in the geography. We start along the river bed, slowly jump higher and higher up buildings and on top of umbrellas in the city level up, before finally ascending to the top of a mountain. This helps to create a subliminal arc and development, and we are careful to avoid interrupting this ascent with unnecessary detours. On a technical level, we linked each scene and area with cutscenes and narration to explain the main character’s departure and their arrival to their new environment. This further helps support the narrative progression and character development, as it introduces a type of parallelism in the player’s interaction with each animal community.
Finally, the progression in complexity of the game adds more interest and options as the player transitions through each scene, but the overarching goal and main mechanics remain the same. This ensures that the flow of the game should remain cohesive even as other aspects change.
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