Echoes of Wheatley
Story: "After the fall, player loses the portal gun, setting up the first section to retrieve it"
While designing this level, I aimed to redesign Chapter 8, "The Itch," from the original game. The chapters are more entertainment-focused compared to Chapter 8, but Wheatley still seeks to kill the player.
That was my first document for the level
Delving Into My Design Choices
In the first scene, there was a very critical mechanic that I wanted to teach the player, that the white gel clears the other gels, so I had to make sure they didn't miss this mechanic no matter what. To achieve this, I took the portal gun from the player and had him open the first 2 portals to fixed locations.
Rather than pressing buttons in what I call the "control room", all the players could do was walk on the conveyor belt. I took care not to give the player unnecessary distractions. And tried to encourage the player to use the mechanics that first caught his eye when he first entered the scene, in order.
When the buttons are activated, the orange gel should flow but should also be cleaned, attracting the player's attention cleanly as you can see on the right.
Tunnel Scene
I tried to create a cinematic experience in this scene.
My goal was to keep the player's attention always forward.
The falling cube neutralizes the drone.
This could give the player an insight to solve the next puzzle shown right below
First Level
Fun was also one of my expected goals in the Second Level. Opening portals above drones and killing them with balls almost entertain all my mates with whom I did the playtest.
Second Level
Third Level
The Bouncy One
When the player enters the level, a clean design greets the player. The jumping cube with blue gel has to break the glass and get out. For this reason, the glass breaking mechanic is quickly introduced to the player, which will be used to reach the solution at the same level.
The breakable glass mechanic is introduced twice against the player's will. For this reason, I added the 3rd breakable glass mechanic (the right back corner of the level) as a solvable puzzle and prepared an environment for the player to test their knowledge.
I had to remember that the expected goal of this level had to be fun. The best mechanic to achieve this was the jumping cube that kept running around the big room. All my friends who saw this mechanic in the playtests gave strange reactions. Like: "WHAT THE F..!", OH ITS RUNNING AWAY!!" These reactions were enough for me :')
Even though there is only one solution in the level (break the glass and clean the cube), I still thought that many different approaches would make the player feel creative and enjoy the level more. Like, the DUNK solution!
THE DUNK SOLUTION
The concept of cleaning a gel (in this case gel on a jumping cube) using white gel should be familiar to the player, especially from the first level.
When I first designed the level, there was breakable glass everywhere and it was like a maze for the player. The mechanics of breaking the glass were inevitably placed in the player's head, but this design both annoyed the player and made him waste a lot of time in the maze. That's why I rearranged the section with a much simpler design.
OLD DESIGNS
Fourth Level
and The Surprise
At this level, I prioritized puzzle design over expressive level design. I aimed to provide the player with a single mechanic (The button if you exclude the portal gun). My goal was to recreate the feeling of a control room, similar to the first level.
I wanted the player to feel stress in the last part, the element of surprise was the plan of the last level from the very beginning.
Almost all of my playtesters didn't know what to do at first, and I got the fear/stress feeling I wanted.
But the problem here was that almost all of my playtesters died at least once. No one could read the chapter at first. I wasted beautiful design for the sake of level's experience goal. Naturally, this was the most criticized part of the episode.
Caution: This level has extreme flashing lights and disturbing atmosphere. If you are uncomfortable, please do not go over this level.
The emotion and expected goal specified for the level in Assigment were:
-The player should feel like they are in a Nightmare and disconnected from reality.
-In this level, the player must learn a new mechanic. (In this case it is the Radiation Suit)
This level was given to me as an assignment by my lecturer. I had a relatively short time to complete it.
