Levels in Kinetic Panic will be large, open-world areas that contain multiple energy beacons, in areas initially difficult to find or reach. The player must find and activate one of these beacons to break through the Corporations’ defenses and help the Lords of Physics save Earth.
Scattered throughout the levels will be real-world objects that can be fully manipulated by physics, such as the player colliding with them or being affected by an ability.
Design Goals
- While some beacons are easier to access with simple platforming skill, others will require creative uses of several of the player’s abilities at once. Because of this, the player will feel invited to revisit older levels once they have unlocked new abilities.
- Where possible there should be multiple ways of solving certain platform puzzles or reaching certain areas, incentivising creative use of abilities.
- Some harder beacons may be able to be reached earlier in the game through clever use of early-game abilities and skillful platforming.
In this respect the layout of the levels are inspired by games like Super Mario 64, but with an even more open-ended approach as to how to reach objectives.
Platforming Puzzles
Below are some sketches of potential platforming puzzles that illustrate these design goals.
In the diagram above, the player is the cirlce on the left and the beacon or objective the player wants to reach is on the right. The floor below is bouncy by default, with three platforms bouncing at a low height. (Or the player could move the The player may:
- Use the Velocity ability to push the platforms down quickly, so they bounce up higher to get to the next ledge.
- Use the Gravity ability to put the platforms into low gravity when they bounce, so they can rise up higher.
- Use these abilities on themself to try and bounce up onto the next platform in a single jump.
These are just some of the possibilities a simple obstacle setup can have.
The placement of both Energy Shards and Energy clusters is also important, and the amount of charges a player has at every step of an obstacle must be considered and playtested.
Here is a more advanced setup. With just two charges, the player can use their gravity ability to create a low gravity field around the large object in the middle, perhaps a billboard or a statue, and then use the Velocity ability to topple it over in time to jump on and use as a ramp.
Level Layouts
The visuals and general look of the levels, as well as the objects necessary to populate them, will already be covered in the Art section of the GDD, but below are some pointers for each one in terms of layout.
Hub World
The hub world is where the player enters after starting the game. The player has a choice of either going through a doorway on the left, or going up to the Altar to contact one of the Gods.