Overview:
Fell is a 2D precision platformer with a retro pixel art style. My goal in creating it was to develop a small, simple, but very polished game and release it on Steam. After a bout a year of development, Fell released on Steam for free and now sits at over 3,600 players and 93% Positive Reviews.
The game's music was composed by a contractor I hired.
Achievements:
Designed player-facing mechanics and 30 levels, gathering over 3,600 players on Steam and itch.io with 93% positive reviews.
Designed a tight, responsive, and satisfying movement scheme, catching the attention of 4 speedrunners with 16 runs on speedrun.com.
Designed the game with accessibility and inclusion in mind from the beginning by using a high-contrast color palette, minimizing section repetition, and using no text in the game, making it friendly for those speaking any language and those with reading disabilities.
Created an auto-tiling technical design tool from scratch that saved 25% of level design time.
Documented design and development process on YouTube, reaching an audience of over 37,000 views.
Design Process
Player Movement
My goal for this project was to make a well designed and highly polished game, so the saturation of the market didn't dissuade me from making it. I knew getting the basic movement just right was key to making a great platformer, having played many myself and conducting market research.
To tune player movement, I implemented many popular features from the leading titles in the genre, like coyote time to give the player leeway when their inputs are slightly mistimed. Then, I iteratively adjusted all aspects of the movement scheme through early playtest feedback. For example, the acceleration is very tight, giving the player a lot of control of their character in the game's small, succinct levels.
Level Design
The game's level design and movement mechanics are inextricably linked. The movement system was designed to navigate the types of levels I wanted to make, and the levels were designed around that movement system.
Additionally, the entire game's levels were designed to be possible to be played backward as an extra challenge. In some cases, this made for interesting level design decisions. For example, there is a level designed for players to descend a chasm while avoiding a moving blade. Spring pads are on either side of the platforms around the blade to allow the player to climb back up, as well as add an extra level of dynamics as the player bounces up and down to find the right moment to move.
What Didn't Work
In most cases, however, I didn't consider much about the backwards experience, other than making sure it was possible. This made the playing backward experience dull. The player would face the hardest challenges in the later levels first, and then be playing through the trivially easy tutorial levels last.
The game's level design also suffered in the final level. Where most levels were designed to be short, but challenging experiences that minimize repetition, the final level is long and winding. I originally designed this level to be a difficult "final challenge" for the player, but the huge spike in level length and difficulty made it frustrating.
Finally, as an inverse to the tightness of the controls, many players felt the character fell too fast. The limited time to react when falling was juxtaposed to the tight control the player has in the other aspects of the game.