For my second Mega Man level, the requirements were to feature two power ups from a list, and use any platforms and enemies from Mega Man 1 and Mega Man 6. I picked the oil powerup and the kick powerup. I also utilized the flip platform, plantform, and spike platform.
The first two screens are a quick tutorial of how the new platforms work. I’m proud of how I got the invisible tutorial to work. The flip platforms are pretty self explanatory, but for the spike platforms, I set up a passage where players will first step on a downwards facing spike platform to see it flip over, and then hit their head on the underside upwards facing spike platform to see how they can be flipped from the bottom. In the next screen, there are some plantforms and an easy enemy, so that when the player shoots at the enemy, they will see how plantforms can be opened by hitting them with shots.
The first powerup I introduce is the oil. The player first encounters a lake with a ledge too high to jump to. However, if they swim under the lake, they can acquire the oil powerup. The cave is full of water, so when the player uses the ability to defeat enemies, they will realize that the oil floats and that they can ride it across the surface of the water. Eventually the player loops back around up to the lake, where they can figure out they can cross the lake on the oil.
The second powerup I introduce is the kick. I have a ladder the player has to climb to jump to a ledge that’s out of reach. Because of the ladder climb, the player can’t use the oil to reach it. The player instead has to climb a different direction to acquire the kick powerup, go through a brief tutorial that shows how it works, and then return and use it to make the jump.
I had several people playtest the level today on October 24th. For the successful parts of the level, all players were able to figure out how to use the powerups, and everyone completed the level. Players liked finding the oil powerup in the cave, and then realizing they could use it to cross the lake they couldn’t cross before. The following screen, where players skate past a bunch of enemies, was always successful as well. One player really appreciated the kick tutorial that showed how it can be used mid-air to gain extra distance. Most players found the challenge level to be very fair and deaths were rare.
For the challenges, a few players couldn’t figure out that they should return back to the lake from the cave right away. I think I could’ve made the circulation more clear on the cave exit screen. More players struggled to find their way back to the spot where they needed to kick to clear a jump. Additionally, while the jump tutorial worked for some people, others got stuck on it for a while. The player ascends three screens with the ability, but some players got stuck for a while since falling at the top means you have to climb the whole thing again. The penultimate screen, despite only having two enemies, was incredibly difficult for all players. From one perspective that’s good game design, since it creates a notable challenge by combining a few simple elements, but in practice it was way too hard. I think splitting it up into two screens with one enemy each would’ve been better.
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