Crystal Crawl was a seven week game project in collaboration with Microsoft where we were to make a vertical slice of a free to play game made for the Windows Surface 2.
In Crystal Crawl I was in charge of the level design and building the three dungeons we had in the game. I also did a lot of scripting including the three spells and the upgrading system for the tower.
We wanted to build three very different dungeons to show how the game can play both early and late in the game.
We decided to have the camera locked room by room and also that you can’t leave the room until you defeat all the monsters in the room.
This meant that every room needed to feel and play different and also that the different dungeons needed to have a different feel and look to them.
There was also the time factor, it was important to create the different dungeons without putting to much strain on the artist to create assets. Mostly I decided to play with the floor plan and put holes in the floor as well as expanding in the walls to create a different floor plan for each room.
Tutorial Dungeon
The tutorial dungeon was the most important to us and the only one where we decided to add hero pieces and scripted events.
In the tutorial it was important to clearly teach the player the controls as well as the goals of the dungeons.
Easy Dungeon
The easy dungeon is exactly as it sounds, easy. Most rooms contain only a few enemies and are quite easy to defeat. The dungeon is fairly straight forward and it is usually only one or two exits at each room to avoid getting lost.
Hard Dungeon
The hard dungeon is where we really wanted to challenge the players. I wanted this dungeon to be darker than the others and decided on a prison theme.
This dungeon is really hard and there are several rooms with multiple enemies. The most challenging rooms contain several mushrooms that will shoot both mortars and bullets at the player.
The player needs to be skilled and smart to complete this dungeon.
