Overview
Dungeon
2024.08 - 2024.10
Tlazolli's Forge
A self-contained, diorama-style scene set in the personal story of Xilonen, a new character, and designed around her rock-climbing skill.
What I did
The design
The level is split into three areas: climbing, combat and puzzles. I wanted the content to show not only Xilonen’s skills but also her quick, agile personality, so besides climbing and combat I added a timed puzzle that can only be solved by climbing the walls as Xilonen.
The challenge
The character’s final skill design changed from what we had discussed early in level design, so climbing in this level didn’t feel good with the actual controls — and there was no development time left to rework the scene.
The solution
I added teleport mechanics to the climbing gameplay to keep the flow smooth. The core climbing gameplay stayed in, and the level reached a high completion rate in testing and after launch.