Introduction
In this post, I will be looking at different levels from games similar to mine and I will look at what’s good about them. I’m doing this to help me see what I could use for my level and if I could use or develop any of their ideas.
Levels
Adventure Pals
The first game that I decided to look at was The Adventure Pals. This game plays like a normal platforming game with a couple of twists. A big part of this game is the collection of coins and collectibles in the game. I think this part of the game is good as with coins you can buy health potions and bombs to help you. The collectibles allow you to get unique outfits and skins for your character. The combat can become a bit boring as its just a lot of clicking. The story of the game is quite a basic story of trying to rescue someone so the story isn’t a priority.
Each level has four small stages each with at least one collectible and at the end of that, there’s one final stage with a boss. I really liked the bosses but because of the number of levels, it can become a bit boring. They do eventually add some more interesting mechanics to each stage but there not a lot of verities.
From what I could find the game hasn’t won any awards for and it doesn’t really have a strong player base. But I can still use this game as an example of some mechanics I can use in my game. It is quite highly rated on steam which means it must be quite a good game.
Dead Cells
Dead Cells is a rogue-lite, Metroidvania action-platformer. You have to explore an ever-changing castle. There are no checkpoints in the game and the aim is to slowly get better over time by dying and retrying. The game is different every time as weapons, power-ups and the level are different every time. I do like the idea of having power-ups and items in different places in each run. But this might be quite difficult for me to do in unity so ill definitely keep this in mind. The art style is a detailed pixel style that I think works really well and looks great in the game. I might struggle to do quite as detailed pixel style but I think it will look good anyway.
The map is randomly generated each time run through the game. This creates a lot of replayability as the game can be different each time you play it. Depending on the size of each room is how many enemies will be in it. I like this idea of limiting the number of enemies depending on the size of the room. The pacing of the game is set so that there are intense parts are offset with more relaxing parts to keep players interested.
I then found that Dead Cells had one the game award for the best action game. The games player base has also been strong still long after its release which shows that the game has some qualities that player enjoy. I think it’s important to look at what makes the game successful and why players are still playing it.
Cuphead
The last game I decided to look at was Cuphead. This game is a performer like the others but has a really unique style. The game is made up of different basic platformer levels and boss fights. The game has one set difficulty that means the player is stuck with the hard difficulty. I like the idea of one set difficulty but I won’t have my game quite as Cuphead though. Cuphead also has a good level selector that allows you to walk around as the player in it. I really like this idea of an intractable level selector for the player to use. I could try a smaller version of this in my game that would be easy for me to do.
The actually platforming areas of the game are quite basic level layouts with some verity between each level. But there are plenty of enemies for the player to deal with which makes the levels a bit better. I particularly like the intense parts of these level as they really make the game fun and interesting to play.
I lastly found that Cuphead won lots of awards for lots of different things but mainly for its art style. The games player base has also been very strong since its release. The main reason for the game’s praises is it’s unique art style and look.
UI
For me, the UI of my game won’t be super important to the success of my game but it’s still important for it to look good. As its what the player is first greeted with and having a good looking one will keep players interest when first started up. But I don’t want to spend too much time on just creating the main menu. So I want a basic one with some simple buttons and background.
Evaluation
Overall I think looking at these different games has helped me to come up with more ideas and different mechanics that I could put in my game. I do like some of the ideas I found in these games. I think looking at these games went well although I did struggle to find games that related to mine.
Games Design 