Rage Cave - Mason Barravecchia

Rage Cave

By Mason Barravecchia

CAGD 270

10/1/24

The Process Explained:

My RPG level 'Rage Cave' was playtested various times by the following players: Els F., Jonathan S., and Robert O.

They each played as the Warrior, Mage, and Rouge, and Ranger across various playtests.

What Went Correctly:

• Playtesters and the Professor verbally expressed their enjoyment of the linear design of my map in the early drafts.

• Players enjoyed the pacing, and simplicity of the map layout.

• Players enjoyed the unique naming conventions of enemies scattered across the map.

What Seemed Off:

During some of the later playthroughs, Players noted that there wasnt much variation in what could happen inside of my level. They also expressed feeling somewhat trapped due to how linear the map layout was originally.

To combat this, I re-designed the layout of my map, keeping it linear still, but much less obvious to the player that it all funneled down to the same area towards the end of the level. I achieved this by creating various hallways and rooms that were separated by locked doors, which made the rooms past them not visible to players until they chose to unlock said area.

Additionally, when re-designing my map layout and touching it up, I came across some issues when I re-imported my map design into the roll20 site. The placement was a bit off, so some doors and things would phase halfway through corridors and doorways, which overall made the map look a bit less quality, however, everything still played out correctly.

How Additions Helped Improve Overall Quality:

Implementing doors and keys helped my level because I was better able to hide pathways which helped players become more immersed in my experience overall. I like how the doors created more mysteriousness and ominousness to the level paired with the fog of war.

Due to my absence during the last playtest day, I was not able to record how the players reacted to the addition of items into my level; However, I strongly believe that the items would have helped the players feel more refreshed while playing, and possibly allow their decision-making process to take less time due to being able to strategize with the Items they recieved.

From my first iteration, I redesigned my level’s layout, created more non-linear pathways for players to explore so they could feel less trapped, and implemented a reward system where if players were successful in 100%’ing the level, they could unlock a chest at the end of the level after the final boss room.

Additional Topics:

When updating the final version of my level, having items made me think more spread out; I had to find a way to keep my map interesting, playable, and manageable for a tutorial level, and not have it feel too cramped with the addition of all the different items. This posed a challenge originally, but I believe overall it added to the experience and helped me create a more fleshed-out final edition of my level.

Adding things later on to a level that was originally created to be extremely simple made thighs difficult when they weren’t planned on being added originally. This allowed me to be able to think outside the box yet again and create something that worked with all of our requirements while still maintaining the simplicity of a tutorial level.

Even before adding the items and checkpoints, things felt very smooth (excluding some of the technical difficulties I had with macros acting weird during the second playtest).

Players usually went down the intended path, due to all paths funneling down to the same area at a certain point. I made it this way to seem less linear starting off, so the ‘bottleneck’ aspect of my map design would be more subtle to the players while playing.

Again, as I was not able to playtest on the final day I am unsure if this is completely plausible, but I believe the descriptions of how to use each item are clear, and the items are simple enough to understand and be used correctly in-game.