Concept

Duckmaster was created to be a puzzle game for mobile devices. So it needed to be simple enough to not overload a phone. At the same time, it was a grid-based puzzle game, it needed to be intricate enough to provide interesting and eye-catching levels for the player to explore. Most of the mechanics entailed throwing the duck onto buttons blocked off by water, hitting various color-coded buttons, and geysers launching the duck upward and forward. As the player progresses, they will find notes written by other duckmasters that have travelled through this world, and in them they reveal the backstory and creation of the world.

Onboarding

When I was brought on to this project, the team had stated that the focus of gameplay was to be light and fun, but still provide enough of a challenge for players to have value in the progress they make throughout the game. There were no other level designers on the team, so my addition to the team was almost entirely focused on level design, but seeing as how this was our first attempt at having a team larger than 5 members, I was able to contribute slightly to the systems development and narrative here and there.

Overall, this was my first chance to work on a project where I was able to focus primarily on level design. Throughout the building of Duckmaster, I managed to learn about and discover a vast number of experiences involved with process of building and testing levels.

Design

When designing levels for Duckmaster, there were only a few mechanics I was primarily able to use. The button mechanics were the most prominent in making puzzles more intricate. While the throwing of the duck was more crucial for the context and general feel of the game, it was still necessary for puzzles but had extremely limited use when it came to intricacy. The first few levels started out as ways to work with buttons and throwing the duck together. Keeping buttons in places that the duckmaster cannot walk such as across water or on an upper level. As the player progressed, I attempted to increase the complexity slightly by adding in the some other minor mechanics like including the geysurs or replacing certain buttons with pressure plates instead.

The geysurs, while fun for the player to experience, made puzzles a bit more linear, as once they used the geyser, that section of the puzzle was over. There was no way to mess up or miscalculate the use of the geyser, which made it less of a puzzle and more of a required path in terms of how it felt to play. The pressure plates worked well in this regard because it create situations that the player had to thinking through using the mechanics they had at their disposal. Maneuvering trhough the level in a specific order by discoveing which plate does what is exciting and promotes learning from the player. However, there were times in levels that the players would not be able to discern what a pressure plate does before pressing it, making it hard to feel like you have learned anything at all.

By the time we created later levels, we incorporate new mechanics that involve placing bait for the duck to be lured to, and buttons that need to be pressed in a specific order. The lure mechanics include an attraction bait, and a spicy pepper bait. The attract bait and pepper bait both worked as a lure when the player calls their duck back to them. The difference between them comes after the duck has reached the tile the player has put them on. When the duck takes the attraction bait, their return to the player starts from that space, meaning that the player can place bait on a space that the duck will walk close to, and it will pull the duck towards that space when it gets close enough, and then finish their return to the player from there. The spicy pepper one will instead cause the duck to jump forward from the space with the bait. This will cause the duck to still go out of its way to ge tthe bait, but will additionally launch them further, granting them access to a further distance from the duckmaster before returning to them.

These mechanics made it possible to add puzzles in more interesting ways that invovle buttons out of reach and in different sequences that are blocked by various heights or walls. All of these environmentall walls that the player must face are all placed to encourange the use of throwing the duck, placing bait, and even calling the duck back. As a whole, they allowed the player to feel as though they had progressed as they moved through the game.

Changes

Level Size

Primarily, since these levels were planned to be on mobile devices, our goal was to keep them generally small as to ensure that they would be playable. After building the first few of these levels, I noticed that the lack of space, both in horizontal and vertical directions, made it extremely difficult to fit most forms of puzzles. As a result, I attempted to up the size horizontally and see how much of a difference it made. In the end, the levels felt a bit more open and less crowded for the player, and it made room for slightly more interesting puzzles regarding the baiting system.

Moving PLatforms

In relation to the quality of the levels and the puzzles within them, I feel that having an additional mechanic of moving blocks or tile spaces would allow for the player to plan where they send their duck and place their bait to be lined up with a moving space. Additionally, this would increase the locations that the duck may need to be called back from, allowing for multiple paths a player can take in each level and adding more to the puzzle aspect. There were few moments where the player could choose between doing two actions that would have different results. Differing paths, whether they prevent access to the other or not, allow the player a moment of thought and planning. Even if the result is something minor, the player feels as though they are able to read the level and learn how mechanics will play out. It does always teach the player, but it solidifies that which they have already learned about the mechanics and how they work. Ultimately, adding in this mechanic would have allowed for more entertaining puzzles that feel alive and mystical rather than still and slow.

More Teaching Levels

The main issue with the level progression is solely based around the lack of informative levels present. If I were to continue development on this game, I would add a significant number of introductory levels for mechanics to help ease the player into the new ones as they start to appear. In a small sense, the levels present did this, but not in a way that was significant enough for the player to understand what they were supposed to be learning. This issue also falls on a lack of feedback and interactive UI elements, which could help lead players through these new mechanics, but there needs to be cleaner, simpler levels to allow for theses elements to teach the player effectively.