Barrel Blast - Level Design
Steam Trailer
My Responsibilities
Barrel Blast, released on Steam in November 2020, is an indie platformer built by Me First Games using Unity. As a Level Designer, I created 47 unique and original puzzle levels across a wide range of complexity and difficulty that appear in the final release.
My responsibilities included:
Designed, created, tested, and iterated 47 original and unique levels.
Created custom animations for level objects.
Set up and iterated camera changes.
Prototyped, tested, and implemented new game mechanics.
Design Process:
These are some top picks from my levels in the final release.
These are some top picks from my levels in the final release.
These are some top picks from my levels in the final release.
These are some top picks from my levels in the final release.
These are some top picks from my levels in the final release.
These are some top picks from my levels in the final release.
Concept
Every level in Barrel Blast takes place within the fictional Cannon City. The city environment may serve as part of the level, and every corner was considered when planning a new puzzle.
When concepting new level ideas, I kept a running set of icons resembling gameplay elements to use for quick iteration. Every level began as a blank canvas with a spawn location and a goal barrel. My process typically started with shaping the player’s critical path, roughing in the interactable elements along the way as I filled it out. Once the shape of the level was established, I took extra passes for hazard elements and collectibles.
While these drawings could only be estimations of physics behaviors and therefore no use beyond this stage, they served as a means to simplify the problem by breaking down the space into only 2 dimensions. The open format of digital drawing allowed me to create puzzles as simple or as complex as I wanted:
Level Building
Finding the Right Spot
One of my favorite parts of the process was taking the concept into the world. Each level is loaded into a persistent city environment, affectionately named Cannon City. The environment is complete with buildings of varying heights, moving wrecking balls, driving cars, and even an airplane flying above the streets.
Touching anything in the environment causes the player character to ragdoll and fall, which could be used to an extent in designing a level.
I typically gave the environment location some consideration at the start of a new concept, though I often chose once the concept was finished. This made it easier to expand on ideas in the concept phase without giving myself any physical constraints in the game.
Blocking Out
The starting point when bringing a level from 2D to 3D usually depended on the focus or point of interest in each puzzle. If I wanted to incorporate a piece of the environment into the player’s experience, I would begin with that section and build organically. More ambiguous levels typically started at the player spawn and progressed linearly. The block out phase generally followed:
Create the player’s critical path.
Rough in gameplay obstacles such as bounce pads, sucker spheres, color gates, etc.
Solidify the distances between gameplay elements.
Create game object animations as necessary and desired.
Animated elements are a common feature in Barrel Blast levels. Most often, cannons are animated to provide an extra degree of agency in the world, as well as present new challenges for players. These were almost always accounted for in the concept stage, and can drastically alter the shape and flow of a puzzle. In addition to cannons, spiked enemies also commonly have animated positions.
Level Content
Obstacles and Collectibles
With a playable level from start to finish, the next step involved filling out the empty space with content to communicate to the player. This includes:
Spiked enemies, which cause the player to ragdoll on contact and deflect the character away, often at oblique angles.
Collectible coins, which contribute to the player’s star rating each level, up to 3 stars. Earning level stars allows players to unlock more difficult levels.
Collectible rings, which are more uncommon than coins and serve a similar purpose.
Spiked enemies may be used as challenges for shot timing, or deterring players from certain areas. It was not uncommon to animate the positions of these spiked menaces for an extra threat. I also enjoyed using these little guys for decoration around the level and to help fill in the overall shape.
Collecting coins and rings in a level contribute to earning stars, up to 3 per level. Collectibles may serve multiple purposes such as guiding players along the critical path, or creating side-paths that offer an extra challenge. Shiny things are also just fun to collect in games. When designing side paths, it’s important to avoid one way travel that prevents access to other collectibles in the level.
Cameras
My final pass involved setting up camera triggers. With Cinemachine inside Unity, I could use a custom tool to alter camera settings through trigger volumes. Dictating the player’s view is a powerful tool, which can be used to foreshadow as well as build suspense and mystery.
In Barrel Blast, players can typically see a clear path forward from any given cannon. This is where combinations of the mechanics and tools at my disposal, such as obstacles or coins at the edge of the screen, allow for more diverse methods of communicating to the player.
This concluded my design process and the level would be added to the extensive library of challenges that Barrel Blast has to offer. Below is a gameplay video of the level featured in this page’s breakdown images: