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A: How the hell do you keep players from getting stuck in a level?

I can answer this question by asking another one: How is it possible to screw up a puzzle in the game?

Well, there are several ways to mess up. Given all the mechanics, players usually start to abuse them to get through the level not taking the way we intended them to. Therefore we are working hard to prevent them from screwing up a level. Generally, good level design makes it possible for players to have fun and mess around without destroying a level so that they can’t finish it anymore.

Most of our puzzles need crates to be solved. With crates you can activate triggers, get through breakables, reach higher places by stacking them and throw or catch them.  But what happens if that specific crate you need to solve the puzzle ends up getting stuck in a death area where you can’t reach it anymore?

That’s when our so-called „crate stopper“ comes into play. The handy crate stopper makes it impossible for players to sneak a crate beyond a puzzle-area.

Crate-stopper

The “crate-stopper” in our editor.

Its intelligent yet simple design prevents players from getting a crate from point A to B with neither of the character’s abilities:

  • Pushing / Pulling
  • Throwing / Lifting
  • Catching / Dropping

More important, the crate-stopper is not another mechanic or object. It simply consists of statics with specific dimensions. The only way to pass it is by shifting  to small and walking under it.

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