How to Create A GOOD Platformer Level in Geometry Dash 2.2

hello everybody I'm mcap you might recognize me from my most popular project breakout Redux in this tutorial I will be going through all the essential things a platformer Creator needs to have in mind when working on a new level also real quick I will be mostly talking about platformer game design in this video this is not a video where I show you a specific design to mimic or show you a formula of things to copy instead I'll be focusing on getting you ready to work on a platformer level to ensure a fun and satisfying creating experience for you and all those interested in trying your level I divided the video into chapters for you to come back to whenever you need to hope you enjoy it's extremely important to know how hard you want your level to be from the very beginning with a normal classic level you could just wing it till you get a feel on how hard it is but with a platformer you need to know exactly how hard you want your level to be because in this category levels are long and take way way longer to complete than a classic level so the margin of error when gauging its difficulty gets way higher and the consequences are way worse I don't think robtop or every single moderator who sends a platformer would actually bother playing the entire level before rating or sending it but get a general feel first now I'm not saying all moderators do that but there has got to be cases where at least a few moderators didn't bother playing a whole level and went with the Vibes only the problem with platformer levels is that you need to get the player engaged all the way through platformer levels get way way way much more hate than a classic level why because they demand your time they demand your respect they take from 15 to 45 minutes on average to beat and it's also not like a classic level in this sense with classic levels you could get exactly where you wanted in practice mode again in a minute but even in practice mode in platformer it will take you almost the exact same amount of time but maybe faster because you got better at the level but it's still so timec consuming so a level that demands this much time from the player then it just spits in the player's face by an unintentionally bad part will cause the player to Riot against the entire level and actually just hate it and insult the Creator themselves so when you open the comments on platformer levels and you find people just insulting the level all the time it makes perfect sense this is someone who played a level who wanted to have fun with the game then suddenly they just can't do that anymore and there's no way around it so okay how do I fix this how to ensure that a platformer level will be fun all the way through first get a lot of play testers preferably three someone who sucks at Platformers someone who's kind of good at them and someone who's very good at them start with a mid-range player someone who's kind of good at the game because now you will have the average opinion of a player on this level so you will go ahead and tweak it then give it to a good player someone who will beat it fast give and get to a good player first is bad because good players tend to ignore bad game design choices why because they are used to playing difficult stuff so they might not feel a steep change in their playing experience then finally give it to the worst player because now this will be the final filter of quality to ensure that your level is as best as it could be because even you could be way too close-minded to realize some stuff that needs to be changed in your own platformer because of how used you got to the gameplay that you made for example if you make a unique game mode you are technically the best player at this game mode until proven otherwise you might Overlook some bugs or unfund controls in your own thing because you're the designer of set gimmick you made it if you give it to a casual player or even a good player they might actually have a hard time figuring it out at first before even mastering it so it's always important to play test your levels to know the exact difficulty as for the rating the rating that you give for a level at the end of you uploading it is very important do not give the rating based on your own opinion but an average of the three play testers that you have gotten for your level this will be the number of moons that you will send it to robtop for because oh boy you do not want to get yourself in the hell that is a Mis rate entire platformer levels that look absolutely amazing and gorgeous have been ripped apart by the community because of Mis rate you can have a two moon that feel feels like a five moon or a six moon or a six Moon that feels like an insane nine Moon you can have an eighth Moon that is just an easy demon this can sometimes be roop's fault if you have the level play too easily rotop will just feel that this is the vibe you're going for and give it a difficulty tier lower but you need to make sure that the mods know that your level is a demon you have no idea how much a player's morale would increase knowing that they're spending their valuable time on an easy demon instead of a 78 Moon and obviously same goes for the lower difficulties now that I've gotten this section out of the video let's start the fun part first let's get the exploitation part out of the way now what does that mean basically level exploitation is when a player cheeses their way through a level to make it easier for themselves sometimes it's intentional and it's just a creative choice that the person who made the level had but sometimes you don't want that to happen sometimes you just want the player to play the level as you intended you also don't want them to see stuff that you don't want them to see and it all comes down to the mindset when you implement this mindset you will actually increase the overall quality of the level you're working on now what is it be an to your own level I'm serious when playing the level from the very beginning I want you to behave like a crankhead try your best to find every nook and cranny in the level that is not intended to be accessed it might sound simple on paper but most creators when they build something they just forget about everything and they focus on the main route of gameplay that they have made made and basically just have everything else as a blur force yourself to explore your own level again in the eyes of someone who has malicious intent this will actually ensure that when someone tries to actually aese your level you would have patched it a long time ago now level pacing level pacing is um it's quite important this makes or breaks an entire level misconception level pacing is not how long you take to beat a level but how frequently you engage with the level and do actual inputs in it there are levels out there that would drive a person actually insane because of how long the cut scenes are in them and where this cut scene is is very important to the level spacing usually a cut scene at the beginning or the end of the level is fine but a cut scene happening in the middle of the game play is usually the biggest problem with a level and let me be very specific with this a cut scene that happens in the middle of the level that you see more than once let's take an example shall we Le Citadel this is a level that has a door opening animation that lasts for 11 seconds now as bad as this is this would have been actually excused if it happened only once but instead the checkpoint placement makes it so that you have to do this section again watching the same 11 seconds over and over and over and over again till you actually finish the entire part the Creator could improve this by basically making the door animation last for only 3 or 2 seconds instead of a tedious 11 also cutcenes are not just door openings cut scenes can just be something in the level that happens I see many creators have the camera pan to a specific thing that's happening right now and then come back to the player again if done correctly this can be fine but sometimes the camera movement can be way too slow or just way too jarring for the player to actually like understand what's happening as for the camera movement do not use the camera for just anything that happens in the level use it when you really need to I think the door opening animation was not a significant enough thing that happens in the level that warrants the camera to pan enti to it to show it opening what would be interesting if you just pull the lever you will hear a noise and then you will go back again to check what changed in the level and if the door looks insignificant and just Blends in with the environment just point an arrow of course you don't need to do that but that is just an example of what you can do to not abuse the camera controls because moving the camera and then back to the player again takes a long time this long time could be used to actually play the level instead if you have something that's not not even part of the gameplay happen why just stop the player entirely and just have it fall in front of you GL Citadel always does this too those camera events even though alone they do not sound like a long long time but when you add them up to the whole level it just feels generally slow even if you're speedrunning it so what's the take from this only use the camera trigger when an important event is happening in the level if you over abuse the camera trigger this will just make the level boring for the player especially if you make it happen more than once which actually brings me to my second point the way you place your checkpoints is very very important if you place a checkpoint before a long transition and when the player dies they respawn there and they have to watch it over and over again Believe It or Not people will not be jerking off to how good your transition is but will simply close the level and just hate on it this one change could actually destroy the entire level one last note long cut scenes are okay under very specific circumstances if the cut scene you made will genuinely help the player progress in the level and has actual information about the gameplay you're about to experience sure make it long if the cut scene foreshadows something that you need to know that will happen later in the level sure also make it long however even if the cut scene is necessary do not make it happen more than once this is where people go wrong a repeating long cut scene even if it's informative to the level is boring the player doesn't really need to see this again because they already have heard it dialogues are also a form of cut scene you can choose to add a skip button to basically make the pacing faster that's an easy way to do it but you can have short consecutive dialogues that happen while you're playing dialogues while you're playing the level are so cool why don't more people do that I'm going to do this oh boy hazards now this will be a bit quick basically hazards are anything and everything that kills you in a level now this is pretty simple to understand a hazard should basically be something that looks dangerous to the player something that looks off if your world is full of round objects and basically the platforming experience has like flat surfaces then it's best to make it spiky well make sure that those hazards stand out very very much never make the hazards blend in with the background do not make it look like the hazards are part of the background that is one of the worst things that you can do how do you do that make sure to color them differently if you use strong colors in your level make sure to use the opposite complimentary color for your hazard so that people actually know what they should avoid if you're making an art or themed level you need to make a hazard that complements your own theme that also stands out make it Glow a specific way do not only resort to adding just a skull or an exclamation mark over the hazard no most players will actually overlook this and die to the hazards regardless also vice versa do not design normal object objects that look like hazards it's weird and confusing La Citadel yes this level again has a very weird way to tell you what is a hazard by making a surface smooth if you can fall on certain things from a long distance and you can stand on stuff that looks way spikier than the thing that is a hazard then this doesn't make any sense at all so when making a hazard for a level or a specific part of a level make sure it's consistent make sure it stands out and make it actually make sense [Music] one of the biggest reasons someone might find a level unfund to play is because of the camera since the camera is responsible for your field of view some creators might just accidentally use the camera triggers in a wrong way that makes the playing experience unbearable not being able to tell when a hazard is coming up is bad being surprised by it is genuinely rage game material so a combination of a hazard that doesn't stand out plus a camera that doesn't give you the correct field of view you shouldn't be surp surpris that people want to kill you in levels that have a lot of static rooms creators tend to move the camera immediately to the point where the Creator just doesn't know when to react exactly this is also best scene in yeah now obviously it's way more difficult to adjust a camera that transitions from a static room to another but this is also a skill that needs to be learned because when you want to jump with a robot or a cube or any other game mode from one room to another you're basically just jump scaring the player with the Next Room immediately without knowing how to react especially if you put hazards next to that transition that is just awful if you're going to do that and you're going to have the room appear immediately do not put hazards at all also when creating a level that requires vertical Movement Like a tower level for example please learn how to vertically use the camera properly and know the exact ratio at which the camera is supposed to move when you jump because if you don't know that the camera will look wobbly and springy and will make it less fun to play in general [Music] do not make your gameplay handh holdy it's boring let's say you have a gimmick where you push boxes around the level do not like highlight the box and like clickbait it and like make it so obvious that this box is supposed to be pushed actually respect the player's own curiosity to figure the level out that does not mean that you should leave the player alone in a stranded desert no give very necessary and slight information about how to get the ball rolling for the player and then they're going to figure it out themselves back to the Box example how do we make this box interesting to the player for them to interact with it the easiest and most simple way is to force the player to use the Box make the Box big enough for the player to bump into it now they're going to know that it moves it's way more fun and engaging for you to figure this stuff out yourself so that when you come across another box you know in your head that you can now move boxes like these and you will start to subconsciously move them now you know this is cool instead of just zooming in the camera on the box highlighting the box and telling you way move the box right now this box analogy could be implemented for any other idea you have inside of your head another example that needs you to respect the player's own intelligence is coin placements whenever you're trying to like hold like a secret collectible or a coin or whatever in a platformer do not make it painfully obvious where it is like this level for example that just literally has a sign that says hey there's a coin down there one of the best applications I've seen for a secret coin is surprisingly in a robtop platformer you know how the secret Hollow has shitty coins that don't make sense well there is only one coin that I really like a lot when you enter this section and you realize that you need to turn yourself into a ball you just go through the level get to the ball game mode and then Fall Again most players would choose to go right but you can actually go back again for no reason so someone with a curious mind could just go back in the level with the ball and use the ball's gravity features to you access a coin that shouldn't be accessed in the first place the only critique I have of this is that he should have at least made the coin a bit visible instead of just completely in the shadows but I really like this game design Choice it encourages players to look for more secrets and the more those secrets are well hidden the more rewarding it will feel collecting them which increases the overall enjoyment of a level continuity is also important do not make a certain object that looks a certain way move and then later down the level this same object just doesn't move anymore the most important trigger to learn when making a platformer is not what you think it's not just the spawn trigger it's the spawn the camera and the event trigger think of it as like an advanced touch trigger that has if statements that means that you can do stuff with it that happen when certain events take place the event trigger is mostly used for implementing sound effects picking the correct sound effects are very very important since sound effects are responsible for basically half of the immersion of the level implement M mening sound effects can be your own creative choice but make sure it fits the theme that you're trying to portray do not just put any sound effects and make sure that the volume of the sound effect is reasonable do not make sound effects that are very loud and annoying song choice is also important do not just use any song because you feel like it make sure the song Choice actually matches the vibe that you go with I think that's basically the same rules you have for normal GD levels actually you know what use the song that you feel like it but don't be surprised if people find it weird now here's a bunch of quality of life things that you need to look at for if you're going to use a song make sure you know how big this song is for the entire audio of the level you need to max out at like 50 megabytes and that's like pushing it anything higher than 50 then stuff just gets a bit weird do not use like 10 songs if you're going to use like 5 Seconds of them that is bad colon told me about a level that has one in 10 chance of just playing a new song every attempt and the entire level is 120 megabytes that is almost the entire size of the game what are you doing now this just doesn't have to do with like flexing on people with slower internet but like the wait itself is also part of the experience if you have to wait for too long you might just get turned off from playing the level itself anyway and even worse once players figure out that this unknown megabytes of song is like incred ibly large they just will not play the level with your songs in it and the entire experience of the level diminishes significantly because a core element of the level is missing since you really wanted to use 10 songs I guess so yeah next time you want to like use a song in your level ask yourself is it really necessary to put the Undertaker's daughter in My Level if the answer is no then just shut the up one more quality of life thing that you need to look at for is to make people know what they're getting themselves into like if your level's long and it takes takes a long while to complete like an hour or 45 minutes at least you need to tell people that this level will take a long time to do so that they can be mentally prepared for it when someone plays a level you want them to basically respect your artwork so that means that they should be fully focused on it for the whole time someone could just be playing a casual platformer and then they realize that it just doesn't end ever you can put that in the beginning of the level or put that in the description or even when you're advertising the level make sure you let people know that the average completion time is within a specific range please for the love of God stop remaking other games I know it's fun I know it's easy I know oh Minecraft we're just having fun it's just completely fine do not remake entire games it's lame notice how even in the footage where I try to explain how to make a good platformer level we basically R out of footage and had to use Game remakes when Maddy was editing this I generally thought he accidentally slipped a clip of Super Meat Boy but it's an actually a recreation same goes with downwell same goes with Super Mario same goes with everything else like it's fine okay you can remake the game if you find it cool but do not expect everyone to like it I don't like it want know why because playing the actual game is a more fun experience Because the actual game you're copying is built for the mechan I've been building up this entire video for this one section what does the Swedish man like what does he look for in a platformer remember how I told you that this tutorial is not supposed to be how to decorate or how to technically do something there are millions and millions of tutorials on that alone but the thing I wanted to focus on today was basically just the core gameplay because yes the big man himself cares the most about gameplay no matter how good your level looks no matter how eye-catching everything is no matter how technically impressive it is if your level plays badly it's bad Platformers are not like regular classic GD levels where even when you watch a video you can appreciate someone's work in real time no Platformers are long and videos that are super long deserve to be played instead of just watched this is why the comments are ruthless in platformer mode it's because less people are watching videos of Platformers and more people are actually playing them unlike extreme demon levels or just demon levels in general in classic GD so when creating your platformer decorate should not be your most concern but the gameplay is most of your brain power should be directed towards the gameplay for the most part if you want to get an epic or a legendary or even a Mythic you will need to focus very hard on the gameplay especially for legendaries and mythics you will not rise there with bad gameplay you will not rise there with boring gameplay you will rise there with fun engaging and intuitive gameplay those who tell you that a legendary or a Mythic needs to look conventionally attractive no it's all about the actual Journey you take inside of this level the inputs you do the decisions you make not just the visuals one of my favorite legendary rates is Tornado by abstract dark a level that doesn't look conventionally attractive but it's one of the few levels that D to be unique in its gameplay it D to be unique in the way it portrays its theme I love this level because abstract dark cared about the player and with him being in my new platformer collab that is releasing in June me with the help of joxy and many other people excited to present the first ever mcap platformer collab I'd be lying if I told you that everyone knows what this level is about most people in it still don't get what the theme is about or how it's supposed to all come together but I am very excited for everyone to play it relatively soon and I'm thankful for all the people who worked on it you know who you are oh boy that was a long one this video was basically just something that I've been keeping on my head for a long time and I'm very happy that it's finally done thank you so much to Maddie for editing this video and thank you to my coffee supporters my channel doesn't make as much money as you think it does because I swear a lot I just do a lot of but I'm not going to like censor myself for this so if you want to support the channel you can support me there too so yeah I'll see you when it's finished

Channel: MindCap

Views: 49,285

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Id: dlkTwayS2MA

Length: 22min 55sec (1375 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 27 2024