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Jonas Tyroller2 Mar 2018

Sketching Levels for Ovus Nova - (Level Design Ideas)

Key insights

6 takeaways

01
The development philosophy for Ovus Nova prioritizes mechanical depth by utilizing a limited set of versatile features that can be combined for maximum strategic complexity.
02
The design process relies on iterative sketching and brainstorming to ensure every implemented feature offers multiple use cases and contributes significantly to gameplay variety.
03
Level design incorporates egg-free zones to restrict spawning locations, forcing players to adopt specific tactical positioning.
04
Walls are being implemented to manipulate unit movement and pathfinding, enabling the creation of complex layouts like mazes and protected safe zones.
05
Environmental interaction is driven by resource crystals for economic incentives and detonation prisms that introduce high-stakes risks regarding collateral damage.
06
Enemy variety is managed through modular variables such as health points and movement speed, supplemented by unpredictable behaviors like self-duplication and self-destruction.

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Transcript

hey guys this Jonah's making video games with you I already edited two videos today and for the rest of the day I just feel like doing some sketching and trying to get a couple of ideas for our strategy game over slower and I want to bounce some ideas back and forth with you and the main thing I want to think about is cool things we can do with a level design because I want to bring a lot of variety into a game just with the level design I don't want to add thousands of features so the goal is not to it.when feature after feature after feature particulars to amend a couple of features that we can use in very different ways and we can develop variety this way so just keep that in mind when coming up with ideas we're looking for ideas that you can do a lot of different stuff with and then you can combine in a lot of different ways and you already gave me a couple of cool like yourself oh my my arms getting tired so better get started now also

look at the beautiful weather oh my god oh my god and why is my voice so weird that's probably because I'm still sick hope that's gonna get better sometimes [Music] okay here we go yeah so we're looking for features that can be used and very in a lot of different ways and I think we have a couple of good ones here so for example here extra zones I already have a lot of different use cases how you could use this feature to create an interesting level design and that's basically perfect that's exactly what we want with just one one simple feature that we can use in many different ways which is definitely definitely possible for egg free zones as you can see I think there are no of interesting things you can do with it for example here blocking Beatrice so you need to hatch all of your excellent center directly next to the enemy spawner or you have to

hatch all of the X here at the corner or you can touch them at the center and then something one of my friends suggested is she simply was the lifting there's probably a really smart thing to implement because there are a lot of things you can do with walls that's why so many games have was allows you to shape and you love it so much so basically walls will just block your own creatures maybe they with pounds of weight maybe they would just be destroyed of taking a wall probably they would bounce off once and that enemies obviously would have to walk around these walls so the problem with adding that into the game is that I would have to add pathfinding and pathfinding is a little bit of a complicated matter it's not all that fun to implement it's quite a bit of work to get it running properly I think I mean it's definitely possible it's just a little annoying so that's something to keep in mind but there are so many things you can do with that's probably worth the effort for example the most building 11 to parts doing something like this so you have to

go all the way around and enemies also have to go all the way around just having some blocker serum samples or maybe you come shoot directly to the enemies or maybe you can have your little egg farm your safe zone and try to keep the enemies outside just stuff like that then more features you suggests a speed areas are basically an area in the level that speeds up everything that is in that area your eggs your creatures your enemies everything can speed up get sped up I think it's a cool idea but I couldn't find that baby was cast for it just by thinking about it the same goes for areas and because this video [Music]

resource crystals and basically how they work is they're just placed somewhere in the level and you can destroy them with your creatures if you manage to destroy them you get additional resources you can use on your abilities and I also have a lot of ideas on how they could be used for example they could be behind the enemies here in the middle block projectiles in the center in the corner there are lot of things you can do with this I think and then the idea for just crystals so they don't give you resources but they stop you from spawning X there and they also stop projectiles so if you make them a creature explode here your projectiles damage the crystals instead of the enemies it puts around this boar with bristled you just scatter them around there love different things to get with it not as interesting as free shots crystals but still useful and then also very interesting here the explosion for instance when you destroy them they explode and they destroy everything in a

certain radius including your own units and also including heavy units so you have to be very careful not to damage them otherwise it might destroy a couple of year units and then you can also try to stretch it strategically destroy the correct crystals to damage enemies arrows a lot of ways you could use them for example directly back so resource crystals that would be really means a lot of different ideas what you can do with it that's definitely a good sign for some ideas you just feel like what do I do with this and for some ideas you're just like oh I can do this with the same as with the egg freezer we can

also do a detonation prism that would be really interesting as well as oh when your features now and those zones you cannot make them explode so projectiles can fly in there you can shoot projections into that zone but you cannot detonate the creatures when they are in the zone and once again there are a lot of different things you can do with that maybe you have to catch your ex here on the outside of them and you have to wait until they play fly into the inside and set your net them there once again lots of cool stuff and then also destructible walls so if we have walls anywhere we can also make destructible wall so they work like walls but you can destroy them if you shoot them often enough they they get destroyed and that once again probably just allows you to do a lot of different stuff really cool first of all basic enemies I have already quite a couple of them

I think I might need more and I can use Orton by HP and speed so for the basic enemies that don't do anything special I think those are the two most important variables that make them different I don't know for many of those I want to make and then there was a little a little a couple of little gimmicks I could add to those if they are too boring for example they could duplicate themselves they could kill themselves they came by themselves okay game over I cannot keep talking and I'm losing my voice unfortunately I guess stuff like this happens as well so I am just gonna show you the rest of the creatures and they have a little description next to them so if you're interested you can read it yourself and we can do another video about this beautiful and we are right here which will be a really cool graph [Music]

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Summary

The development of the strategy game Ovus Nova centers on a design philosophy that prioritizes mechanical depth through a limited set of versatile features rather than an expansive, feature-heavy approach. By focusing on a small number of core mechanics that can be combined in various ways, the design process aims to maximize gameplay variety and strategic complexity. This methodology emphasizes iterative sketching and brainstorming to identify features that offer multiple use cases, ensuring that each element contributes significantly to the overall level design.

Key design concepts under consideration include egg-free zones, which restrict spawning locations to force tactical positioning, and the introduction of walls to manipulate pathfinding and unit movement. While implementing pathfinding presents technical challenges, the potential for creating diverse level layouts—such as mazes or protected safe zones—justifies the development effort. Additionally, the integration of resource crystals and detonation prisms offers dynamic environmental interactions. Resource crystals provide economic incentives, while explosive variants and detonation-proof zones introduce high-stakes decision-making, requiring players to manage unit placement carefully to avoid collateral damage or to exploit environmental hazards against enemy forces.

The design framework also extends to enemy variety, utilizing variables such as health points and movement speed to differentiate basic units. To prevent gameplay stagnation, additional gimmicks such as self-duplication or self-destruction are being explored to add unpredictability to enemy encounters. By focusing on these modular, interactive environmental features and varied enemy behaviors, the development process seeks to create a robust strategic experience that remains engaging through its inherent flexibility and the depth of its core mechanics.