Last year felt a tad off for me as well (though maybe not as bad) hence skipping this year.

It felt weirdly small to me. Like beyond the students (who were great) there weren't that many game devs around.

Reminded me of old 90s stories of game expos where sleazy arcade salesmen were the front men.

Big games are only big because big smart people work in big groups. Collab early collab often.

Now onto the next level!

We could definitely do better about using our design budget and I'd be concerned with how LOUD this level is visuals wise. In some ways that is what I'm going for but also I would want to collab with my level/env artist far before my blockout hit this amount of "detail".

For it being a few days I'm feeling pretty good about this blockout but to be honest there's A LOT of work to do here if it were to hit production. There is simultaneously not enough and too much given the size of the space and the amount of interaction.

Aaand the end. You made it to the market congrats. Not much to say here. For starting on this area it definitely got left unattended towards the latter couple days when I was filling in the rest of the level. The interior is especially basic.

As we pass our crescendo we enter the falling action where the player must...well fall. Some very light traversal down the side of the building. Only real callout here is notice the small adjustments to the camera when in tight spaces. Important for player experience. Framing

The big crescendo moment in this traversal puzzle. Using the zipline is a nice switch up in traversal and is a fun way to get players to the other side of this police blockade. Taking advantage of the elevation.

Continuing to climb on up. Getting a better idea of the underbelly of this city and seeing the area from different perspectives.

Want to make something cool? Make it big. Want to make it REALLY cool? Make it big AND move.

Just trying to reward the player with some neat vistas

Side path time, now we're getting into some basic traversal and the "rules of the game". I heavily use fire pits to "subtly" direct the player to where they need to go while also lighting the space. Also cool vantage points.
TBH a lot of work to be done here still, that's life

To be a bit clearer here that crime scene will block the player in, forcing them to turn around and re-assess. If they found the side path before walking up to it (idk they think treasure is down there whatever) they might solve the puzzle before they even know it's a puzzle

Movement creates great opportunities to not only frame the player but misdirect their eyes to what you want. Here I'm using the cop car to not only create a moment but to better ensure the player does walk up to the crime scene. I want them to miss a side path.

Doors before keys

Yeah it's something I need to do more. It definitely doesn't scale. The lag time between layout and initial block out to get the team on board isn't exactly great for people looking to be convinced on the initial idea.

Honestly with tool sets these days I try as much as possible to limit layout time.

Listing out my major beats, moments, etc are all necessary but then I just want to get in the engine and start trying stuff out.

That being said I'm always jealous of those who can draw beautiful layouts.