Designing on AW has been a lot of fun. The limitations no violence and no health bar or negative effects puts a hard rule for making stuff fun. The general theory to making a challenging level or collection task is to have some obstacle in the way that makes it a fun task of solving it. With no health bar and no fighting in the game, i had to make these tasks with physical obstacles that block your way in getting there. The challenge there is once you know the obstacle location then it becomes easier the consecutive times you go doing the same challenge. The design in AW i implemented are simple obstacles then come and go to break the repetitive nature of the task.

 

Fish collection task:

The fishes randomly spawn on pre-set locations. The asset itself has an animation that brings the fish out of the ground level in an arc formation. Once underground the pivot rotates 90degrees. The fish then comes out of a different location making it look like different spawn points and more natural spawning.
 

Flying rubber chicken collection task (yes, you read that right):

This is probably more dexterous than any other task collection. Trampolines on the ground, collection assets in the sky with a natural floating animation and fried egg saucer assets that prevent you from collecting the rubber chicken. The spawn points in the air are placed in an arc formation that matches the players jump patterns from one trampoline to another. This makes it easy for the player to easily collect the prize without much effort. Making the challenge more fun.
 

Slime monster task:

This task has A to B collection set. Gather task item ‘A’ from spawn set and deliver to spawn location ‘B’. Once task item is delivered, the catapult plays a throwing animation that shows visual cue of you hitting the slime monster. The challenge comes from finding the ammunition and getting to the catapult without slipping on the slime puddles on the ground. The preview shows snow and ice puddles, art updated to reflect winter themed slime monster.
 

Nix on rolling snowballs:

This was a fun asset to make. The task is to collect/shoo away the nix (NPC). The challenge is to do it without getting bumped away by the snowball that they are running on. The snowball has a script that pushes the player away if the player touches it. If the player hits the nix then the snowball crumbles down. The asset is on a pivot, it allows the snowball and the nix to roll around its radius. Quiet challenging and fun.
 

(Space Race) Multiplayer Instanced task collection levels:

These are multiple levels that the player goes into outerspace and has to collect space crystals within a set time period. Different levels load depending on the progression of the character. The levels have low gravity, allowing for higher jumps but slower speed while not grounded. The nix spawn in the levels to prevent you from collecting the space crystals and freezing the player for a limited time. Different levels allow different play styles. Having multiple players help and distract the timed event.
 

Talia’s Tower Platforming Game:

The idea behind this design was to generate a side scrolling platformer but load new layouts every time the player starts it. The start and end location stay the same. The middle modular block levels get pulled randomly from a number of pre-built modules. The modules can be difficult or rewarding depending on the random luck of it. Also the sidescroller travels vertical rather than horizontal. The levels were built with guidelines for basic layout composition. This adds more to the world of AW with diverse game style.
 

Sidescrollers:

Couple of sidescrollers showcasing the levels complexity and flow. The botanical level spawns the player in the middle of the level and lets the player decide which path to take (left or right). The level always spawns more assets than it needs to collect so the player does not have to run the whole level to finish it. Left and right side have different elements of game play for the player to interact with.The island sidescroller shows the linear flow with lots of interactive components in the level. This level is more focused on a fast run through rather than bringing up a dexterity based puzzle.