in terms of understanding basics, i feel like a lot of the game play basics are taught to the player in a satisfying and cohesive way, like the wrench throw/force field power box being a grate one, that is honestly perfect, same with slide kick teaching, but with the vents there was never a moment in the first map that really taught the player that was a game play feature, for me in my mind i knew it as one due to half life, but for a new player i think it would be grate to just have a moment in the first map were the player must break and crawl through a vent to progress, that way its in there minds that this is something i can do, much like how you taught the players with the wrench throw and force field fuse box shut downs.
and same with the med kits and jump, the medkit is hidden away in a vent as a secret that can be missed by the player, when that is a important game play aspect for the whole game, so in my mind you could kill two birds with one stone, by having a part in E1M1 that forces you to break a vent and crawl through it to collect and use a medkit after being hurt, then the vent leads in to the room with the shotgun, and you can sneak up behind the enemy looking at the vending machine to dispatch him with ether the new gun or your wrench, this both allows the player to be introduced to the first real enemy of the game in a safe way, as well as know how to heal and how to attack with the wrench.
again this is purely my own lvl design brain, but hopefully its some food for thought.
I think you are onto something here - the first medikit on e1m1 definetly needs some rethinking
and right now it's not mandatory to learn to crouch .. I'll see if i can make this room better 🤔
of course on the other hand it's impossible to leave enough clues - so many people missed that you need to blast the big generator
and I thought that the fact it has a similar design to the wall generators would be enough 😔
at first I thought of course not blasting a nuclear generator would be something a sensible person would do and I was a fool ..
but then also nearly everyone tried to unleash the raptor on themselves so now I don't know what to think 😕
human thinking is mysterious 🤔
3 birds with one mandatory stone would be grate for all 3 of those.
It would work extremely cohesively as well in such a simple and effective way.
Break vent = this is something i can and now know how to do going forward
Crouch in to vent = this is something i can and know how to do going forward now
Med kit in vent = i want to explore vents in the future
You could also throw in the flash light teachings and make the vent dark as well and none of it would be to much as they all sync up to useful actions simultaneously, and even on repeat play, there is no real stopping, you could easy just break the vent rush through in seconds on a second run. but that small little trio set piece would go along way to seal some of the more basic actions you want the player to know in the later levels and episodes.
ok so far I got this area at the start:
(rest of the video is not relevant - but might contain 🐄 )
but I just realised this will not help people with motion sickness 🤔
I wish there was a less brutal way to demonstrate that fall damage is minimal 😔
tbh if someone cannot figure out how to break regular vents I don't know what can I do..
I mean there just needs to be a point where the hand holding stops .. I just don't know ..
this was supposed to be an easy game .. how it came to this? 😔
That looks honestly so much better! i cant stress enough how much that is a improvement already.
Ah man its so cool seeing my old space cow in game :D thank you so much dude, it fits almost to well... considering the burger place is the next map xD poor space cow... captured for tasty treats... lets hope it does not get the bloop treatment and become not so harmless hehe (:
honestly i quite like how barbaric it is xD, but if you wanted a less brutal way to show fall dmg is minimal, it would be to just not make it such a big fall, that seems like the logical conclusion to me, and instead of a red X just some blood or bones or something instead. everything else you have done is fantastic there. the crouching is much better and the med kits teaching, my only real issue lays with what you say, vent coverings teaching, so maybe you could use both types of coverings at some point, its more so that there are two types of breakable vents that is confusing, so if you can nail that they both do the same thing even though they are visually different that would be grate, but you are defo on the right path here for sure. even the first 40 seconds is such a massive improvement, just need to nail that both vent covers = breakable, which honestly you have really nailed id say with the first breaking the one on the pit down, i fully understand what you mean about hand holding, but with basic loop mechanics, i think its not really hand holding per say, its more so just initial teaching then the training wheels come off, if it was hand holding, then it would be a permanent indication 24/7 by your side, which i defo agree on not wanting, but initial teaching of basic game play patterns that plan to stick around through the whole game, should defo have a mandatory initial spotlight, and you are doing just that now with these changes, and it really helps a bunch.
but fantastic work man, please dont burn your self out though! and take breaks to chill, think of it as cooking a nice meal with the right ingredients, cus you sure as hell are cooking some good stuff here chef mutant leg, your just putting the final seasoning on 😁
Thought this might be a little inspiration for you :D (from the unreal 1 lvl designer)
one small idea if you did not want fall dmg as a gameplay mechanic, you could with the fall down to the medkit, maybe just have one of those fire emitters that was on E2M3 in that fall down, so that way the hurt is from something that is not the fall its self, so a short fall passing through the flame = get hit, then heal with the med kit, maybe that way would be better, if you did not want to implement fall dmg as a gameplay mechanic.
it would encourage a risk = reward that you are going for, plus you could have some fun with the idea that it is a incinerator/cremator for the hallow's disposal or something of the sort and land on a ash pile.
"but fantastic work man, please dont burn your self out though"
Too late 😔
young cliffy seem to had the right idea 🤔 (what a fall from grace huh)
but there is a next step to this problem: just don't ever instakill the player and you can get away with putting anything anywhere
(of course this brings the problem that you always need to add an escape route from pits and whatnot which is a lot of extra work)
honestly, people love experimenting with the game play, like you said about the raptor's, anything you say, Dont do, they are going to do it for sure, cus curiosity and wanting to see what everything does is just part of the charm of older games, think back to DUKE 3D, if there was a big Red sign that said, dont blow this up, you know for sure if you got a pipe bomb in your hand, your guna wana do it to see xD
so in my opinion, use that to your advantage, play in to that silliness, as a way to get players to do things you want them to do.
treat everyone like they are DD out of Dexter's laboratory xD (if you have seen that)
