Sebastian Madsen

The player should experience varied gameplay in the level, and shouldn’t feel that it is monotonous or be frustrating to play.

Often I avoid this by having multiple goals that the player needs to clear. The whole game board should always have a purpose and feel necessary, and not just tacked on to fill out the board.

I like to design both complex scripting heavy and more classic basic levels, but these philosophies stand true no matter the type of gameplay I create for the level.

In the level next to this paragraph there are multiple different challenges. Snipe the vined parts and work with the freed blocks. The butterflies require a certain number of blocks on it’s color to be cleared, so you don’t only have to focus on hitting the target with the blasters, you also have to manage these butterflies.

working on an older game

PRS has been out for almost ten years now and has over 5000 levels, so our design conventions have changed during this time. Because of this, earlier levels might use old conventions that we’ve moved away from.

To fix the progress through such stretches we need to refractor the Saga, which is what we call the level map.

We’ve also decided to entice new players by remaking the first levels of the game. I’ve been in charge of one of these tracks, which I named the fast-paced track. The idea is to make players interested in the game by introducing new things at a rapid pace.

Apart from working on level design for Pet Rescue Saga, I also helped the game design team on events and meta-aspects for the game. For example everyone helped out on the recent addition of Petopia to PRS. A event where players build a town between levels.

We’ve also released a Chistmas-themed variant of Petopia with some updates such as a Christmas tree with presents that the players earns by completing quests. These presents were then opened on Christmas and contained boosters that the players could use in levels.

closing thoughts

Designing the Levels

Based on the game mode the gameplay of the level is widely different. Classic and Rescue levels are often more alike a typical puzzle where every move is important and needs to be planned.

Score, Hybrid and Collection can be a bit more explosive and unique because of the refill, which I can have full control over thanks to the scripting conditions.

I feel it’s very important that even if the player loses a level, the loss happens with the end in sight, to avoid as much frustration as possible. I want them to feel that it’s possible and that they want to try again.

But they should never just feel that they’re going through the motions, waiting for the part where they failed. This can be avoided with having interesting set-ups or with some randomization.

PRS has a mechanic called sliding. If a column is empty of blocks, the one next to it slides in it’s place. This is something you always have to keep in mind. For example, on the level I just talked about there are small sections surronded by vines. These are stuck in place until they are released, so the small sections in between have a high chance to slide. We use soft and hard voids to better control sliding in most levels. Blocks can pass through soft voids but not through hard voids.

To signal the differences we decorate over hard voids to show that those sections can’t be passed through. We often use the pipe-asset to show where special blocks spawn, for example bombs or blasters.