QINGYUAN FAN
(Adam Fan)
Colorful Slime
Level Design
This page is dedicated to explain the intention behind the Level Design of Colorful Slime. As a puzzle platformer, the level design is at the core of player experience.
It is imperative for players to understand the color additive mechanics for them to solve the puzzles, thus we keep the first half of the game essentially the onboarding area, and it can be divided into two parts. In the first part, when the player touches another slime, its color will change accordingly. Only with the corresponding color can the player go through the doors between sections.
The next section is the second half of the onboarding area, where players will encounter platforms, jumping slimes and spikes. Players will have to use jump and charged jump to move forward. This is also where players are introduced to color cleansing buckets for the first time. As the player is red after passing the red door in the figure below, meeting a red cleansing bucket and turning black would make it pretty clear what this environmental effect does.
In this section, players will face the white door and realize there is no way to get through it without collecting Green and Blue light from other sections.
More puzzles test players’ understanding of the additive color theory.
The spikes in these sections will cause players colorblinding, so it becomes imperative for players to memorize the colors needed to pass the door and figures out a way to get those colors. Based on the playtest results, we simplified the level to encounrage players who are good at platforming to pass without being colorblinded.
The last section is a question with multiple correct answers. If players are not good at color theory, they can just follow the color change available to them and go through all four doors to get white color. But for those who are good, they can utilize charged jumps and their understanding of the color theory to pass this section fast.