in Game Design

Making Contraptions

Casey’s Contraptions will be available in the US in a few hours! For those of you living in other parts of the world, it’s probably already available on your App Store. Go get it!

For the rest of you still twiddling your thumbs, eagerly awaiting for midnight, here’s some insight on what went on in the level creation for Casey’s Contraptions.

Casey 640x100

Built-in editor

From the beginning of the project, the idea was to have a level editor built in to the game. The level editor was the very first thing I implemented in the game. Before there were menus, or levels, or anything else, the game was a level editor without any goals.

That’s what Miguel and I used to create all the levels we shipped with. Nothing like eating your own dog food to make something solid and usable. This is the final level editor that players can use to create their own contraptions from scratch and send them to friends.

Level editor

The only difference is that user-created levels only have the goal of getting the 3 stars in the level, whereas game levels have a separate goal. This was mostly because of the UI work required to allow the user to set different goals affecting multiple objects. It would have been way too complicated, although we’re not ruling out the possibility of extending it in the future. Miguel and I had to edit level files by hand to add the extra goal information.

Levels. Evolved.

One thing that worked really well in Casey’s Contraptions is that we had a working level editor from day one. The first prototype was a tiny level editor! Of course, we’ve been refining it since then, but the core was there.

After a month or two of development, we implement some goals and the ability to play through the levels created. That means we’ve been able to make, play, and test levels for 6 months before shipping.

It was having that amount of time to create levels that allowed the level creation to mature and let us discover what went into a fun level, to refine the difficulty, and create much more interesting levels in the end. Some of that was influenced by what mechanics were fun and which ones weren’t (placing something in a pixel-perfect position).

The different game items also had a huge influence over the level design. Clearly their functionality is going to affect level design hugely, but the surprise was that the character of the items also influenced level design quite a bit.

For example, early on, most of the levels were about solving everyday tasks Casey had to deal with: put toys away, knock down a ball from the roof, pop a balloon, etc. But as soon as we started adding some of the more colorful items, like the doll, the piggy bank, or the RC truck, our levels shifted into being mini-stories: The doll is jumping from a building and you need to catch her, the piggie is being taken away on the truck, etc. That’s when we realized that we could make really fun levels based on playtime stories, not just real situations. Probably about a third of the shipping levels are playtime levels.

Skateboard

Creation process

Initially, we just created levels without thinking too much about it. Used whatever items we wanted and created something that seemed fun. We were learning a lot by doing that: Playing with item interactions, seeing what was possible and what wasn’t, which items we were gravitating towards and which ones were no fun to play with. We weren’t doing it consciously, but what we really doing was exploring the possibilities of the “level space”.

As you can imagine, most of what we created early on went out of the window pretty quickly. Most of the levels were insanely difficult, and a lot of them were simply no fun at all. We were also creating the levels to challenge each other to solve them, and while that was really fun, a lot of those levels were devilishly difficult. We’ve been dialing back the difficulty level ever since then.

The actual process for creating a level wasn’t very involved. Either one of us would go ahead and create a first pass at a level. Sometimes I would sit down and consciously decide to create a new level (especially if it was a level designed to teach about a new item), but more often than not, an idea would come up while doing something unrelated in the game.

Once we had this first pass, we would send it over to the other person and have them either poke holes on the design (if the level can be solved trivially by just dropping a ball somewhere for example), or tweak it to tighten it and make it more fun. Later on, we would revisit levels based on tester feedback or us becoming more experienced.

I estimate that the average time to create a level, from the first item added to the time it was added to the game, was about half an hour. Some of them were much faster, and some much slower though. And for yet some others, we struggled with them for a whole day and finally dropped the idea completely.

What makes a good level

As we quickly learned, making a cool-looking contraption and removing a few pieces does not a good level make.

The best levels always have multiple solutions. Otherwise, it becomes a game of “guess what the designer had in mind”. There are plenty of games like that out there (and I hate them all when I feel that it turns into that). So even if we started with a complete contraption, we would always make sure there were at least two different ways of accomplishing the goals.

The other thing to avoid in a level is the possibility of trivial solutions. If a level can be accomplished by placing a single item that drops and causes the goal to complete, that’s not very fun. It was a tough balance between leaving enough freedom to create your own solutions, but making it so there were no really “cheap” and boring ones.

The stars were tricky. Each level has thee stars you can get, but they’re completely optional. Initially I wanted our levels to be easy to solve, but each star was progressively more difficult to get. Getting the third star required some serious thinking. My reasoning was that people would solve the levels first, get comfortable with the game, and then come back and get three stars in everything. Boy, was I wrong! It was clear right away that most people wanted (no, expected!) to get all three stars in their first pass through the game. So we changed most of the levels so getting the stars is not hugely difficult, especially in the early levels.

Letting the testers loose on the game was an extremely valuable experience. Not only did they catch a fair share of bugs, but they also had a fresh perspective on the game. It was amazing seeing them solve levels in totally different ways than we had anticipated. It was extremely rewarding to see people come up with solutions and even interactions I had never considered even though I had written all the code.

Here’s a good example (Spoiler alert. Skip ahead to the next section if you don’t want to learn multiple solution to one level).

Here’s one level I designed called “Angry Doll” (any references to popular iOS games must be purely coincidence, by the way 🙂

Doll1

This was a level intended to highlight the use of the slingshot, but you already had the doll and one slingshot in place (and the doll misses the pig with its initial flying kick). One possible solution I had in mind was to use the remaining balls and slingshots to alter the course of the doll and knock the pig down.

Doll2

There are a few different ways you can do that, which made it an interesting level. However, I was totally unprepared for some of the solutions the testers came up with.

This solution uses multiple slingshots on the doll, which changes its course and adds a lot more force to it. It flies straight for the pig and smashes it on impact. Not just that, but for extra style points, the tennis balls go flying out on a totally chaotic pattern, and they get all the stars!!

Doll4

This other solution might be my favorite. It completely bypasses even the intermediate goal (alter the doll’s trajectory) and instead attaches a slingshot directly on the piggie bank and smashes it against the wall (getting a star along the way). Genius!

Doll3

Item sequence

There was one additional constraint to making levels that we didn’t start dealing with until fairly late in the project: Item sequence. Initially, only a few, simple items are available to solve the goals in each level. As you play your way through the game, we introduce new items slowly, making sure their properties are well understood before introducing a new one.

The first time you complete a level with a new item, you’re “awarded” that item, and you can start using it in your own contraptions in the level editor. You can even see the stickers of the items you’ve earned so far on the cover of the “My Contraptions” book (I was playing Psychonauts at the time, so I suspect that might have influenced that design decision a bit).

Mainmenu

Having a set item sequence meant we had to be very careful which items were available in which level. We kept a spreadsheet with all the levels, and which items were introduced when. Every new item we introduce follows the following steps:

  • When an item first appears, it’s already placed in the level. That means the player gets to see how that item behaves.
  • The next level, we give that item to the player so he or she can place it in the level to solve the contraption.
  • Another level or two making use of that item. That reinforces the behavior of the item and makes the player comfortable with it before moving on.

We were shooting for fewer levels, but it’s not hard to see why we ended up with 72 levels in the first version of the game.

To be really sure we were respecting the right item sequence, we even wrote a script that parsed all the level files in order and spit out where each item was used. It even made sure that every item followed the rules above (first placed in the world, then available to place by the player). This will continue being extremely useful as we add more items and levels in future updates.

Tank

Make your own

There you go. That should give you an idea of what was involved in creating the levels for Casey’s Contraptions. In the near future we’re planning on holding contraption-creation contests and we hope to highlight some player-created contraptions. Go ahead and buy the game and start practicing to make your own contraptions. Remember: The crazier the better!

16 Comments

  1. Finally a game similar to The Incredible Machine for iOS. At least, that’s what I’m thinking when seeing the screenshots. And that’s a good thing.

    Is this iPhone/iPod only, or also iPad? I think it would work great on iPad!

    Apparently it’s not yet available at this very moment in the Belgian App Store though.

    • Hi Bernard,

      Casey’s Contraptions is iPad only right now. We’re working on the iPhone version. I suspect it’ll hit the Belgian App Store any minute now. Enjoy!

    • Congratulations: your game is iPad game of the week!
      (at least in the Belgian App store; but this is probably a global thing)

      I’ve been playing the game over the weekend, and I’m really enjoying it. As I’m getting closer to the end of the included levels, it would be great to play even more. I’m looking forward to the extra levels. A system to browse trough and play user generated levels – just as in LittleBigPlanet – would be perfectly suited for this game.

      Some constructive feedback:
      – I would like to be able to save my solution also if there’s no internet connection available (e.g. on the train; the iPad I’m using is not 3G-enabled).
      – I would like to see other people’s solutions. My game center list is pretty empty, as game center doesn’t allow searching for friends on Facebook and trough my email contacts. Perhaps a rating system for other people’s solutions would be appropriate here.

  2. Hi Noel,

    Great concept! Do you have any plans for ports to other platforms (e.g. Android)?

    — Bob

  3. Congratulations on an absolutely wonderful game. I am in love with the art style, and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all your blog posts and tweets over the last few months, following along with your trials and tribulations along the way to a top notch AAA title. You should be very proud of a polished, sweet game that appeals to me so much you have no idea. This is my favourite genre of game – I’ve been playing every variant since the MS-DOS era of The Amazing Machine.

    I absolutely had to beg and plead that you strongly consider making an Android version (or standalone PC version!) so that I can buy it.

    Keep up the great work, and pat yourself on the back for a job very well done.

  4. Just checked out the app – impressive work guys! I love the polish you put into everything, and making the level editor first is a great idea! Hope it does great for you guys, you definitely deserve it!!

  5. Just bought the game for my kids. REALLY really nice game. Congrats, I like it very much.

    JC

  6. I bought the game…

    Then I found out it was iPad only 🙁

    Well at least I know my 3 dollars went to a good developer.

    Enjoy!

  7. I am very excited to see this come out. Buying the game was the first thing I did when I got home from work today.

    Congratulations on the release and being the 7th ranked paid app! 🙂

    -Josh

  8. Been playing this on and off all day, that says a lot as I am usually busy cat herding. Great level design and engaging gameplay. Love the multiple solutions. I am also impressed that you held off on the iPhone version until you could get the gameplay working just right on that form factor.

  9. Can’t wait for more levels! (those empty menu entries are so sad-looking…)

    How about:
    1. Expanding the “My Friends’ Contraptions” idea to a full-fledged web-based sharing levels system? (you already have http://shared.caseyscontraptions.com/, just make it accessible from within the game)
    2. Writing a similar blog entry on the actual tech involved in making the game (have you used any engine like Cocos2D?)

    Thanks for making what’s (for now) my favorite iPad game 🙂

    • Hi Eddie,

      Thanks! #1 we’re already taking care of for the next update. #2 should be coming soon (no Cocos2D, just straight C and OpenGL) 🙂

  10. Hello Noel –

    I have been following the development of Casey’s Contraptions since the beginning, and while I had no doubt about the quality of the game, I was surprised to see the game was basically flawless from version 1.

    We are working on our first iOS game and we will be nearing beta test status in a few months. Is there some tip or suggestion you could give us about the best way to beta test an iOS game? Did you use any third-party tools like Hockey App or TestFlight? The part that concerns me the most is how to organize users’ feedback – not only about game bugs and crashes, but about gameplay balance.

    Thanks!

    • Thanks, Harry. We used TestFlight for distribution of the beta. We didn’t have a good method for collecting feedback other than reading all the emails and compiling our thoughts. The most important thing was probably sending out early builds (to just a few people) and asking very specific questions. It sounds like I should write a whole post on this 🙂

      • Thank you for the reply! And yes, a post would be very interesting for everybody I think.

        Keep on making great games!

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