Making levels (Patreon)

Hello! Lately the routine for me has been to make ample progress in Lethal Company so that I can play Splatoon as a reward to myself; in a few days that's going to be Zelda instead. I've never worked on a project this long, and I usually get more anxious the longer a project goes on--so it's interesting to note how steady the progress is and how relaxed I am.

The first thing I did the last two weeks was exactly as I planned: I created the next enemy in the game, which is an outside enemy. It might be my favorite enemy in the game (but maybe that's because it's the newest one.) It's a simple, aggressive AI; I decided not every enemy in the game needs to have some quirky gimmick. And that seemed to be the right call, because it's already good enough based on its appearance alone (and its wonderful kill animation). 

Then I added two more planets into the game, one with a new theme/biome. This is about how many planets I expect to be in the game at release (about 6). 

Then, the final boss of Lethal Company's development

The last planet I created has a special surprise which requires me building an entirely new procedurally generated maze with a different look and feel from the first one (with a lot more rich details required). This is a big undertaking that I've been considering and planning--actually since the beginning of the project. 

Creating the first randomly generated maze took up a large chunk of this game's development--AT LEAST a couple months--and it only recently got to a point where I feel satisfied with it. Designing, modelling, texturing, and detailing environments is by far my greatest weakness. It definitely feels like the most involved process out of any side of game development and is now the only thing that really limits me. 

I am eager to finish Lethal Company ASAP. But this area was part of my original vision for the game, so I decided that skipping it would not be acceptable. And this time around I was more prepared. I knew exactly how the random map generator would behave and that I would need to build the map tiles on a grid so that they can connect. I knew the scale/proportions I would want to build on.

There is a post here where I talked about all that experimentation last year and about "spaghetti" map design. When I allow the generator to make as many random choices as possible--letting chaos reign--and allow it to always connect back to itself by putting everything on a grid, it tends to lead to the best, most non-linear result. This means the maps are inevitably going to feel very curvy and random. But that's okay, because that fits the aesthetic of a sprawling factory of unknown purpose, full of pipes and tunnels.

Regarding that, there is something neat about the theme of the new randomly generated maze and how the wacky map generation will fit that theme in a different way. But I'm feeling like this area might be one of the best reveals in the game, so I don't know if I want to spoil it yet. (Will I put it in the trailers? I don't know.)

I've created all the "hallway" map tiles and entrance and one major "room" tile, and I am really pleased with the scale and visual style so far. Progress is very fast compared to the first random maze I created, but it's some of the hardest work of the whole project. I still don't know if showing it will ruin the surprise, so I'll wait to show screenshots. 

If there's anything you guys would like me to talk about, let me know. It could be related to this game or any others I've made.