The first draft of the level design was inspired by my Uncle’s house in Scotland – Greenburn Haugh. It was a very rough draft, but even here I knew I wanted to guide the player’s movements along “loops” of safety, being able to dip in and out of “danger zones”. I designed accordingly:
- Layouts are structured in circular shapes against the wall, creating a bunch of safe, looping paths for the rat to be guided along
- Rat hole is positioned here to create a wider loop around the house (thicker yellow line demonstrates this loop). Door should be left open, so you can run in a circle around the layout. This stps the player from being able to switch from room to room so easily.
- Danger zones are in the middle area, with a few safe spots inside to quickly run to. Danger zones being in the middle also allows access back to safety from any angle
This iteration had several flaws – first of which being there was no door to the living room or kitchen from a different part of the house. The flat, overhead look also meant I didn’t consider a lot of verticality, something that we need in the game.
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