As mentioned before the game me and my group chose was Umibozu. The main mechanics in our game is to follow a terrain and kill enemies that’s in the players’ way of making it to the finish.
In order to present these mechanics to the player the start of our game is designed as an introduction to all the mechanics in a simple way. If you somehow would fail the trail you would only lose a maximum of 20 seconds progress and learn from your mistakes. In the picture below you can see the boat’s starting area at the bottom of the screen, the grey square in the center of the screen. In order to teach the player that the trees cannot be passed through we put three trees in a clump right in front of the player, forcing him/her to move out to the edges of the screen to continue moving. Secondly, we wanted to show the player that it is possible to move in-between trees, if there is a small cap between them. As seen on the second row of trees with 2 gaps between the tree in the middle, it is possible to move between either of the two gaps. Lastly, we force the player in a tight area with one enemy lurking in the tightest part of that area, forcing the player to shoot the enemy or the player loses one HP. That way the player learns that if the enemies are not shot the player loses hp if they hit you.
That’s the thought process behind our starting area, not too complicated as our game is pretty simple, mainly shoot enemies and don’t get stuck by obstacle.
After the starting zone the game gradually becomes harder and harder, with more difficult terrain to get through and more enemies in your way to making it to the end of the game. As we barely have time to implement a boss we will instead have a cut scene when the player has finished the game revealing the monster the player has been hunting. What will be revealed in the cut scene is still in discussion.
GameDesign 
Hello Axel Halén here!
I really enjoyed hearing examples of your game as teaching moments and how the player would proceed.
I liked that you included a picture aswell for clarification.
Would have been nice to hear why you made those decisions aswell.
But I understand that it is also a very minor part of the game that you are presenting in this blog post
It is also very nice that you go into detail about the small gap which the player has to go through and also make them understand that you need to shoot an enemy to clear that small gab
Nice to see what you did to replace the boss, but what i wonder was the thought behind that, or what caused you to not include a boss.
Cool that you included a function so that the player would not lose too much progress aswell and that it does not affect the game too much in terms of difficulty
Good luck with your game!
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Hi!
Interesting post you got here. I also think placing obstacles in the players way is an effective way of telling them to either move or get stuck. A question I have though is if you tell the player which controls to use for movement, or if that is something they have to discover by trial and error? Also, do the game move upwards automatically or by player movement? You mention that a player who fails the first challenge only loses seconds, but does this mean that they end up dying since the screen catches up with them? That was how I interpreted your text.
Your continued explanation of showing the player how to navigate among the trees is good and makes sense. When it comes to the first enemy encounter I still wonder if you tell the player the controls for firing or if that is up to the player to discover? Otherwise, it sounds like an effective way of forcing the player to shoot, where a player may have opted to move out of the way had it been possible.
Sometimes simple is better and you sound like you have a concrete idea of how your game should be developed going forward. A shame you do not have time to implement a boss, but cutscenes are, at least when you are a RPG fan like me, always nice to watch. I look forward to your finished game!
Keep up the good work!
//Therese
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Hi!
It is nice to read your blog! I like the part you will present the mechanics to the player at the start of your game as an introduction. This is really nice. Many games have a how to play button on the start menu as an introduction, but sometimes people ignore this information and start playing games directly. So it is nice to have a trail at the beginning of the game. This will make the players less confused.
Also, this picture clearly explains this small gap, otherwise it will be a little hard to imagine. But personally, I don’t really like the fact that you force player and the enemy are very close to this part. Anyway, I understand this part of the game is to give players a better understanding of the mechanics of the game.
Good luck with your game!
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Hi, I’m Emma of team Qilin!
I enjoyed reading about your designs! I think you explained nicely how you thought about level design, and why you made the decisions you made. It was interesting to read about the layout, I like that you introduce different types of obstacle constellations and especially that you use those to force players to realize that they must shoot enemies. One thing I have a question about is the thing about 20 seconds, do you mean that if the player dies in this first segment of your game, they will only have to replay a maximum of 20 seconds? If so, pointing out the specifics would have helped communicate clearer. Also, does the screen scroll? I also read the other comments you’ve received, and contrary to Theres, I assumed that the screen didn’t automatically scroll upwards. This might have been a thing you could have cleared up in your post. In addition to this, do you die from the trees through simply touching them, or does the screen catch up with you and crush you?
I think you wrote a good blog post, all in all! You clearly explained what you did – the level design for the start of the game -, how you did it – by arranging trees in various combinations -, and why you did it – to teach players that trees are bad and shooting enemies is good. Interesting and pedagogical design!
I’m sorry you’ve received so many comments, no one else in your group posted anything this week!
Good luck this week!
Emma Jelving Eklund
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