Platformer Level

Design a level that teaches, tests, and then twists what it taught.

What the user gets

What the user has to do

1. Say what the player can do and where the level is (or point at the project).
2. Approve the one-page curve.
3. Pick plates by number.

Rules this entry enforces

• Verbs before rooms. No layout until the movement list is fixed with numbers (jump height in tiles, dash length, coyote time). Rooms are made of verbs.
• Every hazard names its counter-verb. A pit is answered by jump; a laser by dash; a crumbling floor by speed. A hazard with no counter is a wall.
• The curve is written. Introduce one idea in safety → practise it with mild penalty → combine two → twist (the idea used backwards) → rest. Per idea. The level is a sequence of these.
• Checkpoints after every twist. Failure costs seconds, not minutes.
• One screenshot moment. The vista, the reveal, the moment the level's identity is visible in a single frame. Designed, not hoped for.
• Secrets reward the verb. A hidden room is reached by using a verb in an unexpected place, not by luck.
• Biome contrast. If the level changes biome, the palettes contrast (warm/cold, open/closed) per film-direction rules.

Example

Verbs: jump (3 tiles) · dash (4 tiles, 1 airborne) · wall-cling (2 s)
Hazards: pit (jump) · spike wall (dash through gap) · falling pillar (speed) ·
  crumble floor (don't stop) · patrol drone (dash-cancel) · wind (cling)
Curve:
  R1 flat, one pit, checkpoint     introduce jump
  R2 three pits of rising width       practise
  R3 pit + spike gap    combine jump+dash
  R4 spike gap over pit, must dash first   twist
  R5 rest room, collectible, vista       the screenshot moment
  R6 wind corridor introduces cling…

Related entries

• environment-scene — biome plates
• roguelike-generator — procedural variant of the same ideas
• pixel-art-sprite — tiles and player sprite for 2D