// Sect-Machina: Design Overview

// Level Design Breakdown

When designing the levels within Sect-Machina, my primary goal was to provide the player with a sense of scale as they progress through the world. In order to achieve this sense of gradual scale, the player initiates their journey from Mona’s rooftop, where they must jump from in order to progress.

Having gone from rooftop to street-level within the game’s intro, the player now feels small in comparison to where they began and will spend this next section of the level getting acclimated to the game’s primary mechanics of jumping, dashing, attacking, interacting with NPCs and wall jumping.

// Environmental Tutorials

One particular aspect of the game’s opening section that I wanted to focus on was being able to utilize the environment in order to give the player direction as to where they should go next without UI prompts or a dedicated tutorial. This allows the player to gain a better sense of discovery while naturally learning how to master movement mechanics and be more attuned to the environment.

This form of environmental tutorial can be seen in this alley section with how I implemented the orange neon lights onto the building’s exterior vents along with the zig-zag shaped cables that bounce from wall-to-wall, culminating in a visual cue that guides the player into a series of wall jumps that are required in order to progress further into the level.

// Area Transitions

Sect-Machina contains eight different areas (Downtown, Termite Tunnels, Construction Site, City Outskirts, Badlands, Caves, Sewer, and Marketplace) that each have their own style and exist to provide more diversity to the game’s world.

But, this variety of environments introduced a new challenge in having them blend seamlessly into the flow of the game and its aesthetic. To solve this, I made sure to blend elements of an upcoming area towards the end of the one that the player is currently in, as seen here with the transition from the rooftops of Downtown to the Termite Tunnels.

// Rewarding Exploration

Since Sect-Machina is a Metroidvania, it was important for me to figure out ways to reward the player for branching off the golden path. Thus, I implemented various platforming challenges throughout the world that allow the player to test their mastery of the game’s mechanics.

Within some of these challenges I also included breakable boxes that can be destroyed in order to fill the Mana bar (which can be spent to activate Moan’s Temp Heal ability). This inclusion provides an of element of risk/reward that the player must keep in mind before attempting each challenge.