Game Overview

Escape Alex Bank is a 2D platformer that has the player controlling a raccoon that is trying to escape a bank called “Alex Bank”. This is one of my many game jam projects and my work on it was comprised of designing levels and both building and playtesting them as well.

Itch.io link: https://carkol.itch.io/escapealexbank

Development

My work on this game consisted of the following:

• Communicating with my team on what we wanted the levels to incorporate.

• Draw out some of these ideas on paper.

• Build out the level on Unity.

• Implement enemies into the level.

• Use of environmental assets to decorate the level.

• Playtest and resolve issues with any design or technical problems.

The Idea

The whole idea behind this game was created out of the concept of speedrunning and the level design inspiration came from a game called “Celeste”. You have a timer present to beat the game and the rooms within the level are littered with traps and enemies. These two factors are what mainly influenced my work here. The general idea of the design for all rooms came from Celeste. What I mean by this is that Celeste’s platformer design is like a puzzle. You can’t beat almost any of them on the first try. Only after multiple attempts and understanding how all obstacles connect can Celeste’s levels be beaten. I tried to replicate that feeling in EAB.

The pictures to the right represent, from top to bottom, rooms 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Rooms 1 and 2 are very simple. 1 is there to introduce the guard enemies and the cards you need to collect to move to the next level. 2 is there to complicate the platforming with the moving platforms. Room 3 is the game’s main wall and it’s here where I would say the game truly begins. 3 also introduces the laser mechanic. It isn’t as long as the next rooms, but it asks for the most skill out of any of them from the player. The purpose of putting the biggest wall the game has to offer midway through was to create extra stress with the timer. Because the player loses so much time early on due to difficulty, it creates a feeling of fear that what is to come is somehow worse (and with a lot of time lost to rub salt!). We also don’t list how many rooms there are in the game, so the player is constantly guessing if the next one is the end (which serves as another stress factor!). The players will now genuinely be rushing through every room as fast as they can and this is why all the rooms that follow are bigger. Talking more of those rooms specifically, 4, 5, and 6 all follow a very similar format that allows the player to breeze through them if they are knowledgeable and skilled enough. The one interesting aspect that comes with a bigger room is the punishment it brings with any mistakes. This is because the checkpoint system of the game brings the player back to the room’s spawn every time they make a mistake. This isn’t as felt in 1-3 because they were very small areas. However, by room 5-6, this can be a genuine run-ender. By room 4, all mechanics have been introduced to the player, so it’s safer to ramp up punishments at this point. That’s another reason I decided to do this with rooms 4-6. The final room, room 7, is just a straight hall that has a very simple laser jump to grab the final security card. This is done to put all the player’s focus on the timer. If the timer is short, it will stress the player even further and hopefully make the run to the finish line incredibly epic. If the timer still has lots to go through, this final room is a victory lap and should make the player satisfied they managed to do what they did in such a short time.

The Lesson

I feel the main lesson I took from this project was how to handle designing a good wall for players to overcome. Originally, my design of the 3rd room was even more difficult than the result. My playtesting of it had me beating the level relatively easily. However, when my teammates played it themselves, they found it very frustrating. The timer was 5 minutes, and some of them struggled in that room almost all 5 (definitely not enough for the rest of the game). We talked about it further and they gave me good ideas to make the level a bit easier and fairer. Fair is the key term here because difficulty with fairness can be incredibly fun to experience. However, the second it stops being truly fair, games become frustrating. Striking that balance is key and was easily the most difficult aspect of this project to get right, but my team was very helpful, fortunately. If there is one part of my design I’d go back and change, it’d be some of the platforms placements and sizes. For example, at the beginning of the 4th room, it has two 1-block size moving platforms. I’d instantly make those 2-blocks if I could. One is just not enough.