Laser Thingy - Portal 2 Level
Project Length: 3 Weeks | Team Size: Solo School Project | Tools Used: Portal 2 Editor | Role: Level Design
Overview: A short Portal 2 level made for a school project, made with the intention of focusing on one main mechanic (lasers)
Design Goals:
- One Mechanic Focus:
Part of our assignment constraints was to focus on one specific mechanic of our choice as a theme for the level, I chose lasers (hence the level name) and tried to design each encounter around a puzzle where lasers were the key to progressing further in the level
- Progressive Difficulty:
One of the more interesting aspects of this level and assignment was that this was one of the first experiences I had with designing something specifically with the flow and increase in difficulty in progression as the player clears each encounter
- Environmental Hints:
While this was a challenge, one of my goals with this project was to make the level in a way that presents players with everything they need from the moment they enter the room, the challenge and the hints on how to solve the challenge should be presented immediately, and the player experience should be focused on problem-solving in creative ways using the tools and environment provided to the player.
Level Playthrough
PORTAL2.mp4Level Design Process:
This Portal 2 Level was my first real attempt at making a level while taking level design principles into account. I had made levels in level editors or drawn map diagrams before, but this assignment gave me the opportunity to really get into what level design should feel like with less of an emphasis on documentation and diagrams and more of the hands-on things like iterating and adjusting based on feedback from playtesting.
Takeaways from experience:
Playtesting is key; if you don't test, you won't know if the concept works in practice.
Sometimes the concept for a puzzle isn't logically doable the way it was originally conceptualized, but knowing how to adapt and fit ideas to constraints on the fly is a completely different skill on its own.
It's not only about creating the concepts and layouts for the puzzle rooms but considering their order/pacing, difficulty scaling, and the space between each gameplay beat in the level. The use of downtime to give players a break and adjust the pacing to prepare them for the next gameplay beat/challenge is a vital and often forgotten thing when planning out a level. After all, traversal is always an aspect of levels and moving from one section to the next should feel purposeful, it's not just a way to artificially lengthen the gameplay experience.