— PROJECT NAME
Breathless Repairs
— ROLE
Level Designer
— DATE
April, 2023
Created in 10 days for the Lv. 99 Game Jam 2023 with the theme:
“Take a Deep Breath”
Team:
Programmer – Covra
General Artists – Sergio Perez, SunnyBuns
Character Artist – YattaGD
Level Designer – Mairi Florence
Download link: https://covra.itch.io/breathless-repairs
Game Concept
A fast-paced, arcade game where you must make repairs to a villain’s lair under intense time pressure. Each area needing repair exposes you to various challenges until you fix them, and traps throughout the level will hinder your progress. Gas clouds make you intoxicated, causing enemies to spawn.The player must navigate the level carefully to avoid the dangers, while making sure to complete tasks. Completing the levels quickly gets you a higher score
My role
I worked primarily as level designer for this project, creating blockmeshes for each level. Additionally, I did more general design work, creating a design document to help unify the ideas each person had into a plan for the game.
Blockmesh of a level based around “Stairs”. The player must pass over the fire extinguisher before reaching the fire, teaching them the tool to use for fire. The can then either put out the next fire or swap to the wrench to fix the gas leak. The lower areas fill with gas quickest, meaning the player should prioritise the lower leak first, and if they aren’t fast enough, reaching the final leak would be hazardous due to the gas.
Time limitations meant the the fire wasn’t added to this level, however the gas leaks remain and the player still must move quickly to repair them all in time.
Blockmesh of a level themed around a “Well”. The player begins at the bottom, and must work their way up, fixing leaks as they go to slow the rising gas.
One of the gas leaks was changed to fire to make it more interesting as a later level, and more leaks were added lower down since there wasn’t rising gas levels in the final version.
An early version of what became the first level. The player would have to put out the fire to access the wrench while the area was filling with gas from the leak. The second leak was under the bridge, with the initial plan for it to require bellows to blow the gas away to get close enough to fix the leak. This level was designed to require all the tools to be used to fix everything
As the level ended up being the first level, the final version only has gas leaks, without the fire. Since the bellows were never implimented, the gas pipe under the bridge was made more visible.
The initial concept for a level that was intended to be an introduction to trap and obstacles. As the area below the bridges filled with gas, the danger from being pushed off the edge by the wrecking balls would increase
After issues around the trap implimentation, the level was too boring and symetrical, so I redesigned the layout for the final version (No screenshots of these changes in blockmesh form). I kept the same core around the bridges and the danger of losing time when falling off, but made it more interesting to traverse.
In the final version, there is fire that must be put out to reach the final gas leak, making the player choose which side to fix first. The main danger from falling now is the time lost meaning it becomes difficult to complete everything in time.