I don't consider myself artistic or "good" at drawing. My strength is definitely writing code and solving problems for game development. However, I didn't see any way around drawing level design ideas. I tried using a drawing app to white box level layouts, but it just wasn't quick or flexible enough. I picked up a sketchpad and some drawing pencils (although, they are probably overkill) and started sketching out some level ideas for Drifted.

This gave me the ability to quickly get something out of my head and see if it made sense, and I can erase what doesn't work and just keep going. It's quick and extremely useful. Don't get me wrong, I'm just doodling when it comes down to it. This also drew me towards playing games like Super Metroid and Castlevania for inspiration and to see how they tackled level design.

Super Metroid: annoying vertical level layout.

Super Metroid (at least at the beginning) has several long vertical sections that honestly are pretty annoying. If you're trying to ascend it, it's easy to miss a jump and fall several platforms lower than you started from. But this did help me to see ways to allow for some vertical freedom without the use of platforms that you can jump through like in Castlevania.

So, my plan is to then scan the sketch and pull the image into Unity and building the level on top of it. And I also thought it would be pretty cool to record it and time-lapse for a fun video series.

If you still haven't checked it out, here's the prototype for Drifted. Don't forget to leave feedback either on Twitter or here in the discussion below!

Game Design devlog drifted level design levels metroid castlevania