Hello everyone! My name is Velin Tchalakov and I am one of the level designers on the Fat Loot team. In this blog post we will be exploring some of the nuances of the mist level, and the changes I made to it to make this level more fun to play. The three things I will talk about are: Guards, Teleporters, and Artistic Design of the level.
The mist level allows players to sneak through the palace to capture the treasure, while trying to not get caught. One of the main ways of getting caught is by a Guard. These little guys patrol the corridors with their lanterns and won’t hesitate to catch anyone caught in their light! Even Fat Lady gets caught sometimes.
In previous play tests however, we saw that the guards were more annoying than anything. So it was my job to go ahead and fix the annoyance factor. The first step was to get rid of half the guards. The previous iteration had 10 guards! I was able to get it down to 6 by expanding the current guard routes. Below you can see an image of the new paths:
The next thing to do was to make the Teleporters more useful. Before, no one would use them because they were out-of-the-way and didn’t add much value. They didn’t get you closer to the treasure nor did they make it easier to steal it from another player. To this end, I changed the routing of the teleporters as such:
They are still out-of-the-way to get to, but now you can teleport closer to the treasure. Finally, I made them one-directional. It may be easy getting to the treasure, but it is still just as difficult getting out.
I also made the Teleporters slightly more noticeable. Instead of being a faint particle effect on the ground, they are now Guard statues!
And our talent artists are now working on giving those statues an animation, so that when bonk their nose, a trap door opens up underneath you, teleporting you to your new location.
The last thing I want to briefly mention is that we are changing the aesthetic of the mist level as well (time permitting). In its current form, the level has a polished look, almost as though you are entering the Queen’s Private Gallery! But that is not the intent of this level. With mist fading in and out throughout the corridors, the level is the epitome of damp and slimy. Our artists are hard at work updating existing textures to emphasize the sliminess by having vines growing on the walls, rotted bookshelves, and more! I can’t wait for the new designs to be ready so that we can all experience the Mist Level of Fat Loot in all its misty glory!
