| name | level-design |
| description | Level, wave, and arena design patterns from the canon (Nintendo's kishōtenketsu, Scott Rogers' Disneyland weenies, Celeste's room design, Valve's experiential density) — structure, pacing, teaching through geometry, guiding the eye, wave grammar for endless games. Use when designing or generating levels, waves, arenas, or difficulty progression: 'design levels for my platformer', 'the level feels empty/confusing', 'players don't know where to go', 'make better waves', 'how should difficulty ramp', 'add more levels'. |
Level design
Levels are authored arguments: each one teaches an idea, tests it, twists it,
and concludes. These patterns apply equally to hand-built tilemaps and
code-generated levels — generators should emit the same grammar.
Core rules
- Four beats per level (kishōtenketsu — Hayashida, Super Mario 3D World):
introduce the mechanic safely → develop with real stakes → twist (one
variable flipped) → conclude with a capstone. One mechanic per level.
- The level is the tutorial. First exposure to anything new cannot kill:
show the crusher cycling over a pit you can't fall into. Never explain in
text what geometry can teach (Hayashida; Thorson).
- Pull with eyes, not arrows (the weenie — Rogers, via Disneyland): the
goal or its marker visible from afar; leading lines (platform edges, coin
trails) aimed along the critical path; one saturated accent color reserved
for interactables; motion for anything that must not be missed.
- Experiential density (Valve's Half-Life cabal): a stimulus — enemy,
pickup, set piece — every few seconds of distance traveled, never timers.
Audit generated levels for dead stretches >3–4s of travel.
- Deaths are the player's fault: telegraph every threat (wind-up, audio
cue, flash) and leave a readable escape. Surprise kills make players blame
the game and quit (Valve).
- Sawtooth difficulty: rise ~4–5 levels/waves, drop deliberately, rise
from a higher floor. Every 4th–5th level is a victory lap remixing known
elements. Rest stops (hazard-free screen, checkpoint, secret) after peaks.
- Short rooms, instant retry for execution challenges: death costs <2s,
respawn at room entry, no fade (Celeste).
- Two routes per room where possible: safe-slow vs risky-fast with a
reward on the risky one (Thorson). Asymmetric layouts — mirror-symmetric
rooms read artificial.
- Secrets reward attention, not pixel-hunting: signal with an anomaly —
off-pattern tile, coin pointing into a wall.
- Cut, don't patch: a room that's still broken after 2 iterations gets
deleted (Thorson; Valve).
Build procedure (level set)
- List verbs (jump, dash, shoot) and hazard primitives. Each verb × hazard
twist = a level seed. Order easy → hard.
- Level N teaches seed N using only seeds 1..N-1 as support. Plan the
sawtooth.
- Build each level in the four beats: (a) safe demo, can't kill; (b) first
real test; (c) twist — same mechanic, one variable flipped (bounce pads on
walls; the chaser now phases through walls); (d) capstone: seed + 1–2 old
mechanics, densest moment, right before the exit.
- Place the weenie first, decorate second. Breadcrumb pickups along the
critical path.
- Add the risky/safe fork and one signaled secret per level.
- Audit density (no dead stretches) and failure attribution (every kill
source telegraphed + escapable).
- Playtest mechanically: log time-per-room and death positions (a death
heatmap spike = a telegraphing failure, not "players are bad"). Self-test
at max speed and min skill.
- Optional difficulty last, Celeste-style layers: collectible on the risky
route per level, then a "B-side" hard remix reusing the same tilemap with
extra hazards — big replay value, near-zero new assets.
Waves & arenas (endless / horde / score-attack)
- Wave grammar: build → peak → breather. 3–5 escalating waves, a spike
(ambush/boss), then a breather (shop, low pressure). Repeat from higher.
- Debut enemies kishōtenketsu-style: new type appears alone in a quiet
wave → paired with basics → in a surprising configuration → folded into
the standard mix.
- Spawn timing is the knob: the same 10 enemies are a wall (all at once —
demands AoE/prioritization) or a stream (staggered — demands stamina). Vary
the pattern per wave (wall / stream / pincer), not just the count.
- Endless ramp:
difficulty = sqrt(frames * 0.0001) + 1 is a proven
starting curve for ~3-minute runs (Kenta Cho / ABA Games) — gentle early,
~doubled by 3 min. Scale "tension" parameters (speed, count) linearly with
it; scale "fairness" parameters (reaction windows, hitboxes) much more
gently.
- Arena geometry creates the tactics: an empty rectangle has one strategy
(circle-kite). Each feature adds one: pillar → line-of-sight play, choke →
funneling, hazard zone → area denial, open ground → breathing room. Give an
arena 3–4 such features.
- Risk/reward in waves: bonus points/drops for risky play early — fights
early-game boredom in score chasers (ABA Games).
Genre contracts
Per-genre checkable design contracts — what the space must provide before it
counts as designed. Apply on top of the core rules.
- Arcade racer: define the handling fantasy first (drift, grip, hover,
combat). The track owes: readable apexes, braking/drift cues before
corners, recovery width after mistakes, landmarks for orientation, and a
route rhythm. Shortcuts cost risk. Skill tests: racing line, boost timing,
drift angle, traffic threading.
- Dogfight / space shooter: pin engagement range, turn rate, projectile
speed, and lock-on/lead affordance — they define the dance. Encounters
need target readability, off-screen threat indicators, and deliberate
moments to reacquire orientation. Objectives must force movement, not
endless circular chasing.
- Tower defense: path topology and chokepoints create the placement
decisions — a good map has non-obvious tile choices, not one optimal spot.
Define build zones, tower roles, economy cadence; expose upcoming enemy
types (wave tells) before they punish.
- Pool / mini-golf / physics table: the physics and rules ARE the design.
Owed affordances: readable aim, force control, spin, legal-target and foul
feedback, camera reset. Each hole/table: one clear read, one trick, one
risk/reward route — reject any hole whose first shot is unreadable from
the tee.
- Boss fight: every attack = readable tell → avoid/defend option →
impact feedback → cooldown (punish window). Phases add combinations and
arena pressure, never just more health. Define camera-lock behavior and
arena hazards up front. Pick the next attack by player distance (close →
swipe, far → lunge/projectile) and forbid immediate repeats — a fixed
rotation is memorized in two loops and reads arcade-y.
- Puzzle: state the rule each puzzle teaches. First puzzle teaches,
second confirms, third twists. Failure reveals information — no hidden
dependency chains that force guessing.
Related skills: game-playbook (build order), onboarding (the first 30
seconds), game-balance (wave economy/scaling math), phaser (tilemaps).
