Level 3 Design
Throughout the entirety of the game, it was decided within the studio that each level within the game would represent a specific OS version of Windows. For level 3 it was decided that Windows Vista would be represented. To represent Windows Vista within the level, elements such as colour schemes and lines were specifically relied upon.
A stock background image of Windows Vista was found and a colour scheme was generated for the level with the use of the stock image. The colour scheme of chosen for the level were:
An initial sketch was created to ideate what the level would possibly look like. The initial idea I had developed was the arctic sky aurora with neon lights on the vista colour scheme behind a dark background. Below is the initial sketched idea:
Upon receiving feedback during studio, I decided to change that rather than having a colourful background I would use a dark background and add lines/rips similar to Windows Vista and make those lines filled with the colour scheme of Vista.
After the first version of the background was created, I felt as if the background did not resemble Windows Vista enough in terms of colour scheme and the amount of lines and the shape. Therefore I decided to make the lines neon by merging three seperate lines with different stroke amounts and gaussian blur effect amounts.
Neon light before merge:
After the neon lights in different lengths were created, I attempted to arrange these lines and layer them on a dark canvas. The lines were specifically arranged similar to the location of the colours within the default Windows Vista background. This can be seen in the final background version below:
After receiving feedback, from user testing from both the public and team 1 of the studio. A general request to make the background more simple was apparent. Specifically, the background was perceived to be too distracting for the user as the platforms were hard to see with the combination of the neon lights in the background. Thus within this version of the level 3 design, the amount of neon lights were specifically reduced and the direction of the lines were changed. The direction of lights were changed to be at an angle since the platform lines would only be vertical or horizontal. The second version of the background design can be seen below:
After upon the release of version 2 of the level 3 background design, more feedback was received. Specifically, members of team 4 raised concerns over the second version of the level 3 background. The key issues mentioned were:
- does not have enough detail for them to add platforms
- seems out of place in comparison to other level designs
- too basic
Although the first version was described to be more complicated, specific details of what team 4 required for a background design were clarified and outlined through discord. The following re-design of level 3 background was created:
It can be seen that this new design is much more in-line with the other level designs and in addition rather than trying to recreate a different version of the Windows Vista background, we used the main Windows Vista background however applied a gradient. After applying a gradient the tool bar was specifically designed through the use of illustrator. Progression throughout the level colour as the background starts off as vibrant and normal Windows Vista however, as the user processes through the level, the background becomes darker and slowly becomes pure black and white. Towards the end of the level artificial cracks of the background are present.
The level 3 map was designed through sketches to ensure each level progressively becomes more difficult and challenging for the user. The map designs for level 3 can be seen below.
Upon the request of other teams, the sizing of the background had to be altered - specifically, made longer. To overcome, this challenge, the background itself was extended to fill a length of 9000px without losing any quality or resolution and more design features were duplicated to the beginning of the background. This can be seen below:
