This isn't about how to make levels look good; this is about how to make levels that communicate well with the player. They are not mutually exclusive, and doing both at the same time can also be a bit of an art, of course. But I will only be discussing making the layouts communicate their intentions better, not how to make levels pretty.I probably was too harsh on this one the first time, because most of the levels
aren't huge offenders. I think I played it up a bit because it's a problem that really stuck with me when it came up, and since it happens in the first level, well, that's the first impression you get, and first impressions can really stick with you. But some levels have a major issue here, so let's look at this in more detail:
First, a general piece of advice: Background objects are powerful decorative tools, but they're also very dangerous. There's a few common approaches to alleviate this problem:
-
Blur background objects:
Pros: can help distinguish backgrounds from non-backgrounds.
Cons: kind of ugly.
-
Animate background objects:
Pros: makes it more clear that it's not part of the terrain, because terrain doesn't animate.
Cons: can sometimes look like a trap. Still, unfamiliar objects often prompt me to use CPM in a positive way, because one of the first things I'm going to want to do is investigate it with CPM to figure out 1) exactly what it will do and 2) exactly where the trigger is.
-
Change the background object into terrain Pros: very effective if the object really, really looks like it could be terrain.
Cons: alters physics and only works on custom styles.
-
Place background objects out of the way such that they're not in way.
Pros: circumvents clarity issues.
Cons: limits where such objects can be placed in the level. This is my preferred method, and the one that I use in my levels; as such, I actually have a visual example to put here:
Background Object Placed Out of the Way Example
(https://i.imgur.com/e6Dulj2l.png)
Note that the clouds, which are not terrain, are placed below the area of terrain that the lemmings interact with.
So how can we apply this to TeleLems? The biggest problem level with background objects is the first one, with the huge car that's part of the background. TeleLems is composed entirely of custom style levels; I think the best approach here is the third method: make the car terrain. It already looks like it
could be terrain, so why not? You'd have to introduce a few extra skills to get past it, but I expect a few bashers would do the trick without being problematic. Make sure to test for any backroutes this would introduce, though.
Steel usually follows a convention. Following the convention is simplest, though this approach may be difficult to implement into the Dr. Who level, where it's the largest problem. Still, I'm going to go over it here. I don't feel like grabbing more screenshots right now, so I'll just use examples from levels I've already posted pictures of:
Conventional Steel Examples
(http://i.imgur.com/fhjwK5el.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/TEgpx3Wl.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/jUBXYryl.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/H4NAir8l.png)
If you've played the original game, you'll already know which pieces are steel just by looking. Notice they all have the same basic setup: rectangular, nails around the sides. While these levels all happen to use the original game's styles, a lot of custom styles follow this convention. Furthermore, most examples either make it shiny (like polished metal) or a bit dull (like weathered metal that's been sitting out in the elements for a while; this is the approach taken by the original games), and
typically it's a solid color. Still, it's not a requirement. Here's an example of one that uses a different approach while remaining consistent:
Different Steel Example
(https://i.imgur.com/RENR9Fal.png)
Of course, the major disadvantage of this is that if you're not familiar with the style, it may be a bit hard to identify where the steel is. Can you guess which part of the terrain is steel here?
Answer
It's the yellow/black striped part.
It's certainly creative, but it's not as clear. Fortunately, since this is a traditional style made up of a simple elements used to build up a more complex terrain layout, once you know what steel looks like in this set, all objects with that appearance will be consistently steel. Still, NeoLemmix allows style mixing now. I don't remember if it did at the time I made this level, but if I were to remake it now I'd definitely consider taking steel from another style that follows the convention, probably making the call based on if I used the style in multiple levels in the pack or not so the player would have a chance to learn the style's convention.
For TeleLems, in the Dr. Who level specifically: Two approaches stand out:
Option 1 (probably best): do the robot-things (I think someone said they were daleks? I'm not very familiar with Dr. Who)
need to be steel? Can small adjustments be made to the level such that it would work with non-steel robot-things? It seems odd that those ARE steel, while the thing the neutrals are in is NOT steel; I'd say either both or neither should be steel (and because the neutrals are inside the ship-thing, that can't be steel or they wouldn't be able to get out. You have the design problem that the levels are made of styles the user will likely only see once. Because of this, the player doesn't have time to learn the style's steel, so they can only fall back to CPM or conventional designs.
Option 2 (only if Option 1 doesn't work): If the robot-thing must be steel for the level to work, could they be moved to serve as decorative terrain, while using conventional steel in their current locations?