Replaying a level, there are always things I wish I could change, but here I primarily I wish I had more time to focus on the art: using lighting and sound assets to create more of a horror mood during the section when the player is without a weapon, and using the techniques I’ve learned to play with the silhouette of rooms to break them up and make them less “big rectangles”. (In addition to various Doom engine tricks I’ve learned over the past year). Alas, if you ignore the texturing, perhaps this work can be viewed as more of a blockout, with how simple the shapes are. 

The other thing that immediately jumps out to me are the usual suspects that I find I struggle with when making levels: a lack of landmarks, and an over-reliance on symmetry (both of these can lead to disorienting the player– as well as making for a slightly less visually interesting level). If I had another chance at a pass, I’d re-design the “Panopticon” room that blocks the player’s exit from the dungeon; perhaps on one side of the room, I’d create some art assets that adds some drama to the exit door, as well as break up the rectilinear room layout. (Additionally, making this room circular might have helped tie everything together, as the circular boss room was meant as an inversion of this challenge).

Realizing that the hallways surrounding the hedgemaze are also samey, I did my best to break it up; one branch of the L has wooden pillars, and the other has windows facing a sludgey brown sea. In truth, this section was probably too small to get lost in, but the simplicity of the L shape leaves me feeling like a “baby level designer”. Contrast this castle with, say, any single section of any castle in Elden Ring, and you’ll instantly see the difference. Going forward, I’m excited to try to push myself beyond “this passage is an L shape” and “this room layout is symmetrical”. 

Additionally, I’d love to have added a weenie– a tall landmark, in the hedgemaze. Hedgemazes by concept are meant to be samey and disorienting– so in truth, perhaps this is the one place in the level it’s okay to be samey and disorienting. But similar to the hallways, having the player be able to instantly know which way is “north” might have provided a more frictionless experience.

Lastly, I do wish I could have fleshed out the final boss fight more. It’s really just a circular room that you’re running around, strafing and firing rockets at the giant boss conscribed to the center platform. I overcompensated for the simplicity of the setup by adding more chaos (pain elementals, with their constant spawning of lost spirits, are a great source of chaos). The original vision had this final chamber be itself a circular maze– with the player shooting switches to lower/raise walls, in a bid to rout the boss, and give themselves more cover. Alas, it’s merely a totally serviceable final encounter as is, but to me, it feels like it’s missing just a little something. Additionally, having one more maze might have made the level feel more cohesive, rounding out the intro-candle-lit maze, and the hedgemaze, with one final test; and perhaps tying it all together with the projectile-switch-hitting mechanic.

Cut sections:

• A cage-maze section, attached to the dungeon, that housed the key you needed to escape into the Panopticon; narratively, the player would be heading to the torture part of the dungeon to retrieve the key from a jailer.
• A collapsed cave system attached to the player’s starting jail cell, which perhaps makes more narrative sense as a way to escape a jail cell than a spooky candlelit passage with an illusory wall.
• An endlessly repeated staircase as the final challenge toward the boss arena. The player would have had to solve a puzzle to find a secret passage that would actually lead to the boss room.

My process of playtesting and synthesizing feedback was, as always, hugely instrumental toward getting a good final product. Watching players sequence-break in unintended ways is always irksome and delightful in equal measure– and I was forced to re-design some sections to make them part of the critical path, while others required re-balancing encounters/items in order to make them truly optional. 

And lastly, given more time, I would have implemented one last narrative moment, that would have reflected either the choice to save the prisoners or not. 

Alas, as is, it’s a fine level that I’m mostly happy with. It’s not quite portfolio ready as it is, but the lessons learned along the way were invaluable.