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Mountainside Temple
From Concept to Full Construction
After the Mountain Temple idea was set, I based a lot of my inspiration on mountains I had explored as a kid, as well as a trip I took the Grand Canyon just a few months prior to starting development.
For this Level, I was prompted by my seniors to create a level with the prompt of "something in the side of a mountain". Initially, I wasn't sure what I should go of of, so, that afternoon, I drew up a concept drawing on my sketchpad.
Once this was all set, I decided to base the gameplay loop of this level around A big one way circle that loops around, with other circles that you can stop along the way to experience. I was also told we would be adding a second collectible type to the game that I could use in the space.
Keeping with the theme of this game being loops with pathways that loop around and realigning the player to their objective
Action Block 1
Since this was the first level to use coins, the first thing the player sees is some stone steps up with 3 coins. They then see a bridge to cross, with the player being presented with two options.
1. Go right into the mountain.
2. Go Left to the steps with coins where it could lead to the collectable you can see to the far left
If the player goes left, they can follow a narrow pathway of rocks to jump over to reach their first collectible. Since this was intended as a later game level, I made the platforms harder to navigate.
Once the Player makes it to the collectible, they'll have been looped back around to the starting area. They can see other collectibles off in the distance, and also see there is only one way to go from here: left.
Action Block 2
Once the Player enters the cave, they'll see two options presented to them:
Go Left, or Right.
If they go left, they'll see a collectable they can't reach. They can discover another path to the left upon further inspection.
The player then must use jumping and gliding to navigate towards the collectibles in another challenge in the style of Action Block 1's optional pathway. They then are aligned to look back towards the way they came to proceed.
Action Block 3
Once the player gets back to the main path, they encounter another split, if they go left, they'll reach the other side of the mountain.
If the player goes right, they'll reach the other part of the cave, which leads a 1 way round about pit with coins to grab as they cross.
Coins lead them up, but, they glide to that strange part of the Temple that juts outwards. A Wind volume is placed around the corner so that the player can escape that area.
If the player does go up, they'll be brought up to where they can reach Action Block 6, and loop around to reach Action Block 4 and 5.
Action Block 4
I put a gap there to add an extra feeling of being inside a mountain temple which, probably has some holes or worn down cracks too it. That, and to add a bit of challenge to the level since, this was intended to be a later game level.
Coins also going back encourages the player when they loop back to come back this route should they desire.
Player can either loop back to the starting area after grabbing the collectable to the right if they missed something, or, go up to the left to the rest of the level.
Action Block 4
Once the player goes up, they can either head right to the rocks that stick out of the mountain they saw all the way back in Action Block 1, or, go left and make their way to the floating rocks where Action Block 6 is
Action Block 6
Whether coming from Action Block 3, or 5, the player can reach and loop around to get the collectable for Action Block 6, which is hiding out on floating rocks, which was intended to foreshadow which level would come next in the final product.
Within a week, 6 main collectibles and 30 coin-like collectibles were placed within a final layout, with an area the player could smoothly traverse in a way that loops around organically. I feel this one explored a more focused looping concept, and felt closer to a late game, longer level and was very happy with it.
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