Game Levels

Level Design Goals:

 * Start off easy (don't want to scare players away)
 * Dying a lot is no fun.
 * Implement cool and interesting challenges.
 * Tough end game bosses.

Tutorial


Goal: Introduce player to the game

Learn the basic controls: movement, throwing, boost control.

Introduction to doors and the two types of switches.

Also introduce the player to basic alien types (chasers, peons, turrets)

Level1 - Basement
The "real" start of the game. The player starts out in the basement of the Alien mother ship. The basement contains the weakest of the alien types, and also houses several holding cells for crazed aliens. There is also a choice for the player to duke out with lots of aliens, or try solving a puzzle.

Have a mini-boss at the end of the level? Perhaps one of the "specials"like the plated alien. The plated alien will attempt to block your way out of the basement, you have to be fast enough to outmanuveur it.

Being the first level, this level should not be too difficult, but we still want to provide some challenge. Expecting people to die, just not too much hopefully. Overall, this level should still feel tutorialish, in that the player is still learning about some basic strategies.

Level2 - Bowling


After escaping the basement, the player finds himself facing an army of sleeping aliens. With some throwable objects and a deep chasm seperating himself from the aliens, the player can have some fun bowling for aliens.

A short and sweet mini-gameish level. Gets the player used to picking up and throwing objects, and using those objects to destroy enemies.

Level3 - "Tutorial"
The original "tutorial" level.

Problems with being a tutorial level: too many things in too little space. When we originally designed this level we did not have the level editor ready, so coding this level was rather tedious.

Overall, this level is moderately difficult and should be a good transition from the previous two levels. It takes a lot of what the player has been learning so far and puts it into use.

Level4 - Main Floor


This is the main floor of the mother ship. It is jam packed with enemies for the player to smash through. It introduces a lot of new concepts: alien spwaners, alien turrets, falling floors, spiked aliens, and bosses.

This may be too much to introduce in a single level and it is probably a good idea to create a few intermission levels before this one that introduces some of these concepts one at a time.

The player starts off in a massive room filled to the brim with aliens and a few alien spawners. The player must destroy the spawners and the original aliens in the room to unlock the door to the next room. In this next room there are a series of turrets that fire lasers that will slow the palyer down. The player can must navigate through this room to find the switch that activates the door to the next room. This next room contains a falling floor puzzle, The palyer must make his way across a chasm while floor tiles rise and fall in some pattern. At the end of the level is the boss room. The boss will consist of two aliens that must be killed simultaneously, otherwise one will heal the other.

Level5 - ControlRoom/Escape


This is the final level. The player must reach the control room, where the alien queen resides, defeat the queen, and escape the alien motehrship. This level will be filled with booby traps (falling boulders, walls of fire). It is very fast paced, leaving the player little time to make judgment calls, such as which route to take when running from the wall of fire.

At the end of the level the player faces off against the alien queen. The queen is capable of spawning several aliens to help her fight and she can also shoot a powerful laser. In order to defeat the queen the player must first destroy the four egg sacs protecting her. After these have been destroyed, the player can place the final blow on the queen.

Other Levels
Maze - The player is trapped in a labrynth and must find his way out. There are enemies all around, and after finding the right pattern, the player should be able to easily navigate his way out,

Brawl - The player must defeat many (100?) aliens. They will come in waves and special aliens will be thrown in the mix.