What is Atlas Will Fall?
Atlas Will Fall is a game I developed as an undergrad Computer Science student at the University of Kentucky.
This project is a short Metroidvania Platformer in which I designed and implemented a robust suite of movement abilities, along with one unlockable powerup needed to complete the level.
Additionally, I designed an interconnected level that takes full advantage of the player's abilities to present interesting roadblocks that the player later learns how to overcome.
This game was developed in Unity, and I am the sole programmer and designer. I also made the art and animations myself.
The Design Behind Atlas Will Fall
I think the best tutorials serve as condensed versions of the full game, teaching players not just how to control their character and overcome basic challenges, but also what to expect from the game in terms of overall progression, level design, and even themes.
Atlas Will Fall was conceptualized as the tutorial level of a larger Metroidvania, so in keeping with the philosophy outlined above, it serves as a bite-sized Metroidvania in its own right. The player can familiarize themselves not only with the movement mechanics, but the world structure that would be present in the larger game.
Challenges: The Level
Level Structure and Backtracking
Interconnected worlds that block progression through the use of ability-based locks and keys are one of the defining hallmarks of a Metroidvania, so I knew I needed to design the level with that in mind.
So that begs the question: if the player encounters a lock they can't get past yet, and must return to that lock later, how does one make the required backtracking interesting?
I solved this problem in three main ways: teasing the player with upcoming challenges, fast shortcuts between related areas or at the ends of challenges, and providing the player with a suite of fun movement abilities that significantly cut down travel time with skillful play.
The player knows that the vents are breakable from the opposite side, and will shortly find out that the doors a little further down are controlled by switches somewhere else in the level, making them wonder what is behind both sets of obstacles.
Both challenges on either side of the elevator shaft contain information needed to complete the other. The intended route is to mostly complete one of them, break the vent, fully complete the other one, and finally take the shortcut provided by the vents right back to the challenge the player couldn't quite complete before.
The base movement speed of the player is quite slow, which works together with the level design to encourage the player to experiment with their movement options, speeding up traversal significantly and making it more engaging.
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Lesson: Playtesting
I made this version of Atlas Will Fall in 2023, before I fully understood the importance of playtesting. I've since shown it to some of my peers at University of Central Florida and discovered a couple interesting things: players do tend to follow the intended path and enjoy the level design, and they tend to struggle with the controls.
The success of the level design was a pleasant surprise considering it hadn't been playtested. The iffy controls, now that I'm looking at this game with a more critical lens, are not a surprise. They are tailored to what I personally find comfortable after years of both clicking the mouse wheel to activate special abilities and making heavy use of the Alt key for dodging and sprinting.
Playtesting early, as soon as I had a usable player controller, would have quickly revealed how unintuitive and uncomfortable these controls are for many players. It's easy to fall into the trap of uncritically leaning into what you as the developer find intuitive, but that's a dangerous space to be in. Playtesting is invaluable not just for finding the best designs that resonate with your target audience, but for breaking yourself of your own bad habits.
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Usage of AI Tools
I didn't use AI tools on this project at all. While I think early versions of ChatGPT did come out around the time I was working on Atlas Will Fall, I didn't use them.
