27th August 2024, 7:39 AM
(This post was last modified: 27th August 2024, 9:08 AM by jc66266. Edited 2 times in total.)
You make a great point about first-time player experience.
The PR2 Campaign is mediocre. The level design is mostly okay (but varies), and doesn't always feature solid artwork that elevates its theme. The levels don't necessarily explore a specific theme and idea to its full extent, and they don't do a great job expanding on mechanics as you progress through the campaign. PR2's multiple campaigns are also underutilized (you mentioned higher difficulty campaigns and different campaign types which would vastly improve this). PR2's original campaign artwork is sometimes decently themed, but never strong considering these levels should be the best of what the game has to offer.
PR3's campaign is a mixed bag. Some levels have poor design, mediocre/bad artwork, or are too long and should be condensed into their best elements.
The better levels from PR3's campaign are sometimes unpolished but look fantastic and showcase PR3's unique mechanics.
The worst of PR3's campaign that comes to mind is the "Brick Tutorial".
Levels should not be themed around "tutorial" - even if they are tutorials, they should place you into an interesting and fresh world to explore.
Mechanics should be introduced and expanded on throughout the level and then even further throughout the larger campaign. "Mechanics" could refer to movement, movement with specific blocks, item use, combining mechanics, etc.
You have a great point about having specific people all designing a cohesive campaign.
A "Play Solo" (or even a "Play With Party") tick button would be nice. The best way to experience PR for the first time is with others on a high-quality campaign. With the added option of solo Time Trialing like PR3's campaign. Maybe you could collect campaign medals regardless of Solo or Multiplayer. I think having (most) campaigns work as both single-player and multi-player races would work (though not easy). A Time Trial and Multi-player focused campaign to choose from off the bat would be solid (even if you could do either solo or multi-player).
Having both PR2's Newest Tab and PR3's hosting tab would be good. Self-verifying levels by completing them (and giving players a recommended stat set) could offer some amount of quality control. Since you mentioned how underplayed "All-Time-Best" is, having that tab be rotating from a larger pool of highly rated levels and older LoTW levels could be nice too.
Earnable currency to purchase cosmetics (along with random drops) would be cool. Having no control over getting specific pieces with a large pool is a bit sad.
"Play to win" stat mechanics in PR are a bit lame. The player should be able to use all available stats without grinding dozens of hours (except Hats that add to stats, if there are any).
Hats being nerfed/buffed makes sense. Hats that are way too strong limit gameplay variance. Having a button on each level to select from the level's available hats would make 'hat-banning' feel more feature complete.
The "zooming" feature you brought up is a good idea. I think making the camera pull back automatically as you speed up would be nice as well (and letting you fine-tune it for each level in Level Editor settings).
On the topic of level design and campaigns..
One thing that's always been missing is a Level Design tutorial. Imo the best way to do this would be to unlock a "Creation Campaign" after racing some of the campaign levels. Each level would take you into the Level Editor, following pre-designed instructions with text pop-ups and screen highlights. The player would build a small chunk (or chunks) of a level, then it would zoom out and build the rest of the level for you and fully art it. Completing a Creation tutorial unlocks the ability to race on the full level in the Creation Campaign.
Most of the tutorials would be short and to the point. Introducing a design concept (or multiple) for the player to learn, then in the full level they can get inspired by how the level expands upon the chunk that they built. Giving the player the tools to make their own high-quality levels - in short bites that are separated by racing on the full high-quality levels. And giving some baseline knowledge to pick up on subtle design choices when racing on any campaign level too.
This would essentially be an interactive version of your thread on level creation.
The level/tutorials could include:
https://pastebin.com/ngdJpLFt
A Level Design tutorial would be ambitious, especially one that isn't clunky or boring while conveying key points.
But I think it's important to bridge the gap between Player and Creator, which to me is kinda the essence of the game.
Plus more well-designed levels coming out would increase the overall quality of the experience for all players.
Anyway this is a great thread. I hope you end up having a directing role in the campaigns for PR4, noone would be more suited.
The PR2 Campaign is mediocre. The level design is mostly okay (but varies), and doesn't always feature solid artwork that elevates its theme. The levels don't necessarily explore a specific theme and idea to its full extent, and they don't do a great job expanding on mechanics as you progress through the campaign. PR2's multiple campaigns are also underutilized (you mentioned higher difficulty campaigns and different campaign types which would vastly improve this). PR2's original campaign artwork is sometimes decently themed, but never strong considering these levels should be the best of what the game has to offer.
PR3's campaign is a mixed bag. Some levels have poor design, mediocre/bad artwork, or are too long and should be condensed into their best elements.
The better levels from PR3's campaign are sometimes unpolished but look fantastic and showcase PR3's unique mechanics.
The worst of PR3's campaign that comes to mind is the "Brick Tutorial".
Levels should not be themed around "tutorial" - even if they are tutorials, they should place you into an interesting and fresh world to explore.
Mechanics should be introduced and expanded on throughout the level and then even further throughout the larger campaign. "Mechanics" could refer to movement, movement with specific blocks, item use, combining mechanics, etc.
You have a great point about having specific people all designing a cohesive campaign.
A "Play Solo" (or even a "Play With Party") tick button would be nice. The best way to experience PR for the first time is with others on a high-quality campaign. With the added option of solo Time Trialing like PR3's campaign. Maybe you could collect campaign medals regardless of Solo or Multiplayer. I think having (most) campaigns work as both single-player and multi-player races would work (though not easy). A Time Trial and Multi-player focused campaign to choose from off the bat would be solid (even if you could do either solo or multi-player).
Having both PR2's Newest Tab and PR3's hosting tab would be good. Self-verifying levels by completing them (and giving players a recommended stat set) could offer some amount of quality control. Since you mentioned how underplayed "All-Time-Best" is, having that tab be rotating from a larger pool of highly rated levels and older LoTW levels could be nice too.
Earnable currency to purchase cosmetics (along with random drops) would be cool. Having no control over getting specific pieces with a large pool is a bit sad.
"Play to win" stat mechanics in PR are a bit lame. The player should be able to use all available stats without grinding dozens of hours (except Hats that add to stats, if there are any).
Hats being nerfed/buffed makes sense. Hats that are way too strong limit gameplay variance. Having a button on each level to select from the level's available hats would make 'hat-banning' feel more feature complete.
The "zooming" feature you brought up is a good idea. I think making the camera pull back automatically as you speed up would be nice as well (and letting you fine-tune it for each level in Level Editor settings).
On the topic of level design and campaigns..
One thing that's always been missing is a Level Design tutorial. Imo the best way to do this would be to unlock a "Creation Campaign" after racing some of the campaign levels. Each level would take you into the Level Editor, following pre-designed instructions with text pop-ups and screen highlights. The player would build a small chunk (or chunks) of a level, then it would zoom out and build the rest of the level for you and fully art it. Completing a Creation tutorial unlocks the ability to race on the full level in the Creation Campaign.
Most of the tutorials would be short and to the point. Introducing a design concept (or multiple) for the player to learn, then in the full level they can get inspired by how the level expands upon the chunk that they built. Giving the player the tools to make their own high-quality levels - in short bites that are separated by racing on the full high-quality levels. And giving some baseline knowledge to pick up on subtle design choices when racing on any campaign level too.
This would essentially be an interactive version of your thread on level creation.
The level/tutorials could include:
https://pastebin.com/ngdJpLFt
A Level Design tutorial would be ambitious, especially one that isn't clunky or boring while conveying key points.
But I think it's important to bridge the gap between Player and Creator, which to me is kinda the essence of the game.
Plus more well-designed levels coming out would increase the overall quality of the experience for all players.
Anyway this is a great thread. I hope you end up having a directing role in the campaigns for PR4, noone would be more suited.
