The Rayman universe feels very disconnected. Rayman 1 is a colourful playful fantasy world, Rayman 2 is a mysterious grand epic, and Rayman 3 is a more specific and more humouristic take on Rayman 2. Most of these games have little in common with each other, besides Rayman. Betilla and Ly, Tings and Lums, a Great Protoon and a Heart of the World (and a Primordial Core, but that is explicitly a synonym), a Hall of Doors and a Teensie Highway, and ever so on. Rayman M/Arena is clearly connected to Rayman 2 (in characters, environments, and music composition - the same kind of music, but changed in style from 'adventure' to 'race/fight'). Rayman Origins harkens back to Rayman 1 and involves elements from Rayman 2, but it does so in an unsatisfying inconclusive way. Rayman Legends... Is weird and does its own thing.
With this game, I want to tie the universes of Rayman 1, 2, and 3 together, as well as M/Arena in so far as that Henchman 1000 and Razorwife should have existed in Rayman 2. I want to have a universe where Mr. Dark's twisted creatures and Black Lums can co-exist, and where having both the Great Protoon and the Heart of the World makes sense. A universe where Mr. Dark, Polokus, Jano, Robo-Pirates, Black Lums, and the Leptys, can all play a role without infringing upon each other's capabilities.
Of course, I will fail in this, in so far that the Rayman universe is internally so wildly inconsistent that I will need to pick and choose elements. Why did Polokus not destroy the Black Lums, why didn't we need four masks to contact the Bubble Dreamer, why do scared Red Lums turn into Black Lums while also fuelling Robo-Pirates - does being eaten by Robo-Pirates not sound extremely scary? And ever so on. But, I feel like I have a nicely cohesive story and a nicely consistent world worked out!
Thus far, I have created an introduction, as well as the first two levels. I am intentionally making this game in a tiny resolution, because in a platformer game, what you can and cannot see is very important. You could scale up both the resolution and the graphics, to see less, but sadly my graphics skills are non-existent and I am relying entirely on my own terrible pixel art and online spritesheets. I also think a tiny resolution helps with level design. Plus, this small resolution would allow me to hypothetically publish the game for e.g. a phone.
Speaking about level design, I feel that this is a surprisingly undervalued or underestimated subject for platformer games. Most people... Design a level? And that's it? For me, a level needs to do a few things:
A level needs to fit in a larger world. Rayman 2 and 3 do this adequately enough, Rayman 1 does not; there is no reason why we couldn't start our journey in Band Land, then go to Picture City, explore the Dream Forest, find the Caves of Skops, climb the Blue Mountains, and end our journey in the Candy Chateau (and that only because 'Chateau' kind of implies a final level, with the villain living in a castle). In Rayman 2 and 3, on the other hand, locations mostly flow logically from each other; you can imagine journeying from the Woods of Light (a light wood) to the Fairy Glade (a darker wood) to the Marshes of Awakening (a neutral swamp) to the Bayou (a darker swamp) - although then, theoretically the Hall of Doors should be able to bring you everywhere, so...? I suppose you can handwave this by saying 'ah, but the portal stones at the end of the levels are connected to the next one in the sequence, and Rayman doesn't actually go back to the Hall of Doors, that is only shown for the player to be able to select a level' - but then the Teensies saying 'you need to pay an X amount of Lums to enter Y location' part falls apart. Of course, at some point, gameplay elements trump worldbuilding elements, and the Hall of Doors is a beautiful concept, I think (I also like Revolution's take on it a lot, though!).
A level needs to teach the player something. Introduce a new element, teach the player about it intuitively and naturally, and have it come up in different and more difficult situations. Of course, you can probably not do this for every level, and that is perfectly fine in my opinion! But it is something I think about, also with regards to difficulty. Teaching, or introducing a new element, doesn't need to be contained to one level in my opinion; you can introduce something new at the end of one level, and then use the next level to explore it further. It might be tidier or neater to dedicate one level to one element, especially from a gameplay perspective, but from a worldbuilding perspective I like to have the player end in a location that feels like the beginning of a new level. This works great in 3D (the player ends the level by running towards the castle's door in front, the next level starts clearly inside a castle), can work well enough in 2D if your graphics skills are good, and... Still kinda works even if your graphics skills are bad? Hopefully?
Also, the other side of teaching a player something, is that the player must be able to trust the game. This is something many platformer games fail at, including Rayman Origins/Legends - sometimes I jump into a pit and die, sometimes I jump into a pit and find a secret - but Rayman 1 did this very well. If I spy a Ting at the edge of my screen, the game will take care of me. In a similar vein, exploration should be rewarded.I hope to achieve all of that with my game.
As I said, so far I have created two levels, as well as eight bugs / works in progress:
-Ducking works awkwardly, because I ideally want to have a transition animation between standing and ducking;
-Walking up and down slopes doesn't display the correct animation(s);
-There is no animation to indicate that you can talk with characters (two Teensies, so far) by pressing E;
-There is no animation to indicate that your fist is charged and ready to fire;
-You cannot jump and punch (intended for now, might change in the future);
-You cannot hang;
-I intend to add more decorations to the levels (e.g. small sand clouds, cracks in tiles, amphoras, who knows).
-I intend to add a main menu and a level transition menu (like Rayman 1's world map or Rayman 2's Hall of Doors) - the controls are either WASD or the arrow keys, space to punch, E to interact with the Teensies).
I also figured out how to create a video, and decided to put the intro directly in this post:
https://easyupload.io/q6sb2v
Do enjoy, if you'd like, and I am very much interested in any criticism you may offer!
I do believe the .exe in the .zip should work, but let me know if it doesn't:
https://easyupload.io/1druxb (link valid for 30 days)
Have a good night, people!
Polokus was created by Lums, so the Black Lums are on a higher level of power than he is. And Rayman Origins happens after Rayman 2, so he's already been brought back, and the masks will never be needed again.
Would it make sense to replace it with a different liquid? Maybe lava, or at least water that is obviously polluted? That would make it a much clearer danger I think, since falling water is basically just rain, which usually doesn't hurt Rayman… And I also didn't realize you could wait for it to drain, that's a pretty cool last resort!
