Journal Entry #2

Date: 3.3.2024

Activity: 

- Completed the 2D Gamekit tutorial

- Created a level using the assets in the 2D Gamekit

Notes:

I constructed the level around the principle introduced in the 2D Gamekit levels: collecting 3 keys to open a door and progress, but instead of putting the keys in different scenes, I opted to create 3 different paths in the same scene with some challenges, at the end of which the player can find one of the keys. The player can go through the paths in any order. To avoid backtracking, I placed teleporters at the end of each path that bring the character back to a central point where the paths branch off.

During the creation of the level, I quite often made the mistake of painting the tiles on the wrong tilemap, most commonly erasing the background tiles instead of the foreground ones. I also had the intention of including cutscenes, specifically in the path to the bottom left where the cutscene would show the player that there is a trapped box at the end of the top part of the path which they may want to get, however, I didn't quite manage to understand how cutscenes work, so I didn't implement them. 

I went through several iterations of the layouts of the 3 paths and the placement of the enemies and platforming challenges. During playtesting, I found that it was quite easy to clip into the wall and get stuck in some areas. To solve this issue, I put colliders in the walls so if the player character clips into them, they will get dealt damage and spawned back to the last checkpoint. I'm also unsure if I have placed enough health kits.

Invested hours: 

- 2D Gamekit tutorial: 20 min

- Studying the levels in the 2D Gamekit and constructing a level: 4.5 hours

Outcome: