I struggle a lot with level design, specially starting. How do experienced level designers do it on command? Whats their normal process for defeating the blank page and where to get ideas for what to put in a level?

My approach for initial level design is the same for as it is for system design - I start with the kind of experience I want the player(s) to have and the kind of feelings I want them to feel while engaging with my level. With those in mind, I can work my way backward from there by thinking about how I can craft a set of coherent places that will evoke the experience I want players to feel, and how I can connect those places with transitional spaces that draw the players through them. What feelings do I want to evoke in each place? What order do I want these feelings to be felt? What kind of overall theme do I want to tie the experience together?

First, let's consider the kind of physical places you've been to. Most places you've been consist of smaller places connected by transitional spaces. A house is a bunch of places (rooms) connected by transitions (doorways, hallways, staircases, etc.). A museum is a bunch of places (exhibits and exhibit halls, gift shop, foyer, etc.) connected by transitions. A school campus is a bunch of places (classrooms, offices, parking lots, quad) connected by transitions. Each of these places carry a sense of where and what it is, and people navigate those places by remembering where they are relative to each other, and which transitions from their current place connect to which other places and where. That sense of relative connection and orientation is also how players figure out how to navigate levels. With this in mind, we can consider initial level design.

I suggest trying to think of different themes and emotions you want to evoke with your level. A happy picnic in a park. A claustrophobic sewer. A spooky gothic mansion. A dream-like candy land. An enormously tall tree. A dilapidated robot factory. A derelict space station. Then, break it down into places you think belong within that kind of level theme - a spooky gothic mansion might have a fancy bedroom with a big four-poster bed, a massive hallway with suits of armor, a big kitchen, a ballroom, a banquet hall, a grand foyer, a dungeon, manicured hedges and a fountain outside, and so on. Finally, start thinking about how players will navigate from place to place within that level - where will you place the transitions so they will be able to progress through the level in the way you want? Once you've got these sketched out and connected, you've got a rough blueprint for your level.

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Ever wondered what it feels like to clasp hands with your dreams, to exist in that magical moment where unbridled joy illuminates your world only to let go? He snatched his trusty electric guitar off the rack and wiped off the dust that have built up around the pick ups, on the fretboard, and on the strings, he then clamped the tuner on the headstock and plucked the strings with a pick one by…

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POCAHONTAS (1995) dir. Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg 

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On the topic of ‘bad mascot horror video games for kids’ the exception to the rule (or rather, something that understood the assignment) would be My Friendly Neighborhood.

I don’t want to spoil anything if you haven’t booted up the game before, but just…don’t be fooled by jumpscare compilations or the character design. From the opening cutscene this game grabs you by the fucking throat. The mechanics have thought put into them, the voice acting is top notch, and christ the fucking story - a complete story, one that has an end that isn’t promised in future ‘chapters’ or left ambiguous.

Yes, it has jumpscares from goofy muppet monsters, but they’re not cheap tricks. Once you learn how the game works they’re easy to avoid or at the very least anticipate - not to mention they’re survivable with the healing mechanic. And just when you think the scares are done, when you’re well into the game and have all the tools you need to navigate around potential jumpscares, the final act dunks you into the deep-end with the actual horror and nightmare fuel puppets.

I’m not sure how much the game as a whole qualifies as ‘horror,’ but it’s certainly being lumped in with the Whatever-Mascot Horror Game of the Week genre. Which is a shame because My Friendly Neighborhood is leagues ahead of those other games. It has more in common with survival horror than it does with mascot horror in terms of gameplay and tropes. It’s literally just the ‘monster’ designs leading people to assume its another Poppy Playtime clone complete with half baked story and repetitive, unimaginative gameplay loops. And that’s so far from the truth -

My Friendly Neighborhood is like if Sesame Street and Resident Evil had a beautiful muppet baby that opened its eyes to have an existential crisis when confronted with the horrors and apathy of modern capitalism.

i’m sitting here, hand to my mouth, other hand clutching at my chest, in a wild array of emotions. oh my fucking god. seeing vox and alastor go from that ill fated little one night stand to giggling together after the show finale and saying they LOVE each other. oh my dear god. and holy FUCK alastor is smart but he’s so dumb sometimes. vox asked if he loved him and al was like hmmmm idk man i feel abt you how i feel abt mimzy but just more passionately. and after being asked how exactly he feels abt mimzy he IMMEDIATELYYYYYYYYY exclaimed that he loved her like. HAUAHDHEHWJENFB. if i were vox i would outwardly cackle too. YIU JUST SAID YOU INTENSELY LOVE VOX YOU EMOTIONALLY CRIPPLED CANNIBAL!!!!!!! FUCK THIS IS THE BEST FIC EVER. it makes me so happy i don’t know what do to with myself. @ alastor: GET LOVED IDIOT! @ vox: GET RECIPROCAL LOVE IDIOT!!!!!! (friendship wise). idk if it’s bc i’m not as allo as i thought but like , platonic love is just as serious and powerful as romantic love ???? i would burn the world down for my friends and care abt them so deeply sometimes it scares me. who tf cares what type of love it is. LOVE IS LOVEEEEEEEE. and i’m probably gonna be eating my words but ive gotten to the point where i genuinely think these two can be Happy together and i believe it. FUCK

RELATIONSHIP ANARCHYYYYYYYYyyyy ahaha this was such a delightful ask to receive. I'm so glad you're enjoying reading Alastor's unreliable narration as much as I'm enjoying writing it. Thank you so fucking much! <3