2D Level Design- Any Tips? Thread

So I've put together, at this time, quite a lot of levels for our little 2D adventure Sprout the Game.

It's not my first experience in level design, but its my first time really truly feeling the pressure of doing a very good job with it. While I think I'm starting to get the hang of it, I still find it incredibly difficult. From reading books and such, I've learned that building rhythmically is paramount. ie, Jump, jump, dash, jump, jump, dash.

I've also learned that breaking up the level into different paths so the player has choices about which way to go is also, apparently important.

So I've done all this, to a certain extent, but I'm still not sure my level feels "compelling".

The level in this video has been tweaked quite a bit since this video was made, but I think it will give you a pretty good idea of what's going on.

Anyone with any experience about 2d level design have any tips?

Well, it seems that you have run into a classic problem of knowing what your game is about.
Even though you have a pretty good grasp on creating levels and getting the experience of the game going to are stuck with, "Should it be more logic based? should it be this? should it be that?" phase. So with this game, it is pretty slow, so with a direction that I would go would be to make it more of a puzzle or a challenge to get some where, making the player really think. Also by the video it wasn't too clear on what the objective was of the game, could you explain it a bit?

Ah, you've pretty much hit the nail on the head! Action/platform with puzzles or puzzle boggler with action?

The objective of the game, once it's a little farther along, should be more clear. Restore life to a barren Earth and, uh, like any sidescroller, go right.

Well, with the video you showed, I couldn't really see any kind of action genre just because the game play is pretty slow, so a puzzle game would probably be best, also don't be afraid to make really pretty levels. If you aren't going to focus on fast game-play then you can really blow away your players with your environments.

I mean, it is a puzzle game and that's always been the plan, but it's about deciding how much action there should be. Obviously we've got some enemy interaction stuff going on, but the enemies aren't particularly fast.

Yeah, I see that, so you should probably work on developing more puzzle mechanics? Maybe being able to go underground or something?

sir this is epic hope you make it towards greenlight if want to launch it:)

Ah thanks! The game's changed quite a bit since way back then though. We're using Unity and it's 3D now...

Check out our page for pictures and news and stuff like that. I hope the change doesn't disappoint you!