Alpha Mask Striker Update 8: Level Design - Area 2: Mystic Rooftops

Alpha Mask Striker

Level Design: Area 2 - Mystic Rooftops

Intention

- Offer a more challenging round of play by introducing different enemies and adding dangerous obstacles such as traps and pitfalls.

- Expand upon the available items and power-ups the player can use

- Teach the player how to open colour coded locked doors with secret colour keys

- Give the player puzzles to solve in order to progress, find secret locations and obtain collectibles.

- Supply the player with a shop, where they can buy useful items with the currency they have collected

Objective

1. Expand gameplay to keep the player engaged

2. Tell a narrative story through gameplay with the game environment, colours and setting

Map Design

More open environments leaving room for more combat scenarios. Different heights of elevation for the player to make use of their movement and jumping abilities. Multiple branching pathways and secrets to discover.

Walkthrough Screenshots
































8.

Area 2 Setting

After climbing the stairs from Area 1 the player will see a change in the surrounding area. Colours of walls will change and various alien devices will be seen around the area. Parts of the terrain will float in mid air, almost as if the planet is being abducted by a strange force.

When the player reaches this area they will have two ways to go. If they head to the right they can use some nearby objects to bounce to a higher balcony, once on the balcony they can head inside the building to discover some useful items.

Head back and go up the stairs to come to an intersection, if the player heads to the right they will go straight to section 10, if they go left they will head to section 9.

9.

When heading left from the stairs the player follows a path to get to a large combat area where the door will be locked down as they enter the room. Defeating the enemies in the room will reopen the door. There are two other rooms that the player can get to from here. On the right will have another small section with aliens to defeat to exit the room as well as a shop that the player can purchase useful items from however the shop doesn't open until nearby enemies are defeated.. On the left you can see a window with a secret item behind it. To get to it you must locate a secret key in the area and return to unlock the door blocking the entrance to the secret room.

After the player is done here, they will head back and continue to section 10.

10. 

The player will enter a large area that will be plagued by aliens. The path ahead is blocked by an alien lockdown door and will open once enemies in the area have been defeated. If the player jumps up across balconies on the right they can find the berserk power-up which heavily increases the players gun fire rate for a short time. 

11. 

After getting past the alien lockdown door this area contains more aliens to defeat to progress forward. Floating buildings move around slowly around the area, splitting this section off into islands. Players can time their jumps to jump on these buildings to get to different locations where they can find useful items as well as enemies and secrets. To progress through the level the aliens must be defeated to open up the alien door that leads to section 12.

At the beginning of the area there is a secret passage that can be opened by hitting a secret switch in the area. Going through the secret passage leads to section 11A

11A

Entering the secret passage leads to a small area with many targets hidden around the area. If the player shoots all of these targets the blue walls will smash, revealing a secret item. One of the buildings in this area will have some useful pickups hidden behind it.

12. 

After getting to section 12 the player will approach a large building that can be entered after activating a nearby mechanism. Entering the building will cause the room to go dark, the player is ambushed by glow in the dark aliens and the room will be on lockdown by a magic purple wall. After defeating the aliens a glowing switch will appear from the ground. Hitting this switch opens a door that allows the player to move onward and drop down a hole to get to Area 3 - Alien Territory.

Move to Area 3 - Next Blog Post