I felt I wanted to make a project where my sole focus was level design. I wanted to prove to myself that with only Unity's ProBuilder and some reference images, I could create a playable level that was not only fun, but demonstrated my level design skills.  

This climbing system created by Dias Games grants the player free-flow movement around a level using ledges and grabbing points, allowing a player to navigate a 3d space quickly. 

Even though this system was overall easy to understand and use, it proved to be an unexpectedly tough system to design a level for. This is because the system broadcasts to the player that their character was capable of grabbing and climbing seemingly any ledge. This meant I had to take great care in creating an environment that didn't seem to go against this logic so as to not confuse the player. If the player thought a climbing route was possible, then it will be. 

Before I even placed my first block, I needed to know what to actually build. My initial idea was just a tower, where the player has to climb against rising lava below. The tower would feature branching paths, with some paths being easier to follow but overall slower, and other paths being harder to follow but overall faster. In my head, I pictured these branching paths would create a sense of choice for the player.

However, very quickly I realised that this idea wasn't enough direction. I personally needed an abundance of reference images/concept art to be able to create an environment that not only looked good but was fun to play on. So I learnt that if I wanted to create an environment by myself with only google images, I needed to change direction and become less vague. So, needing to choose an already established structure I could easily reference from... I chose an oil rig.

Playtesting was something I avoided. I knew it was silly, but I didn't like the idea of seeing my level being scrutinised right in front of me and this was a huge set back. However, I did in the end give a WIP build to my friends to play and it was easily the highlight of this project. Originally I just wanted to see if my game was even playable, what I didn't expect to see was two hours of friends competing against one another for the best lap time. 

Asides from uncovering several areas which needed polishing, they showed me firsthand that my level was fun to play. Within a two-hour period, they went from simply learning the controls and wanting to hit all the buttons without dying, to discovering and testing numerous routes to find the fastest time possible. Between them, they started to create callouts and names for certain strategies, and they also uncovered bugs within the climbing system that allowed them to negate fall damage and maintain their speed. 

I understand that having a few friends playtest together is very poor playtesting practice. But, doing this playtesting session and seeing how much fun my level created, heavily motivated me to continue polishing the level and it taught me the importance of playtesting when discovering bugs and identifying the overall potential a game has.