Systems & UX Designer

Level design on ReBoot was an intensely iterative process. This was the case because the player metrics core movement mechanics were constantly shifting throughout the first half of development. We went from a very physics and realistic gravity based movement system that allowed players to modify their mass in game, to a hybrid of realistic and falsified physics, to a purely falsified system in a matter of weeks, all while attempting to make levels. This resulted in the rapid evolution an iteration of reboots level design. As we gained a better idea of how the player moved through the environment, our levels evolved from being incredibly simple with only a few obstacles and speed surfaces to keep players  from being overwhelmed, to being massive sprawling  cities with a variety of different environments for the player to explore at breakneck speed. This shift in design philosophy occurred because we believed that constructing one large level would hold players attention for longer and be more enjoyable than a series of simpler smaller levels. The larger, city sized level also offered a tremendous amount of repeatability for players who like to constantly improve their scores, as the variety of different routes a player could take to achieve their goal increased with the size of the level.