Breakdown and Analysis: Level Design in Celeste
Celeste is a typical side scroller/2D platformer. Its level design is very discrete. The designer separates the player's gameplay process into small unit levels, with each playtime of only tens of seconds or even a few seconds. Such a feature makes it very suitable for level breakdown and analysis.
Mechanic
The mechanics of the player's core abilities are jumping, climbing and air-dashing. And there are some operations that the players can do by combining these abilities, like wall jumping (jumping while climbing), and jumping after finished air-dashing.
And there are also some mechanics in the level that the player can use. Like when the player stands or climbs on some kinds of blocks, the metal blocks will move through the rail, the ice blocks will fall, and the stone blocks will disappear. But for now, I'd like to focus on the first chapter of the game.
Level Flow
Breakdown
The general structure of level flow is almost linear, because each unit level has a clear entrance, and the whole level flow is basically a tree structure. There are almost no circular paths, and players are moving in roughly one direction in the level flow. However, there will still be a few dead-end units in the level flow for the player to get rewards and return.
Analysis
I think the reason for the level flow design is:
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The game's core dynamics focus on letting the player use their abilities and operations to solve unit levels rather than finding a way out in a maze, so the structure of level flow should not be complex.
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Dead-ends with low depths, simple branches, and multiple approaches can give the player the feeling of exploration, but keep him from getting too lost.
Intensity Ramping
Breakdown
In a unit level, the gameplay process can be separated into several segments by the safe areas. In the safe areas, the player can stay safely for a long time, such as some static platforms and walls.
The factors that determine the intensity or difficulty of a level can be abstracted into the following aspects:
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The number and complexity of operations required in each gameplay segment.
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Overall length of gameplay in the unit level.
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Accuracy requirements and difficulty of each operation. For example, the width of platforms, the time windows that can be passed in the dynamic areas, and the gaps between the untouchable areas.
Analysis
It is clear that the intensity represented by the above aspects increases with the level flow, and the designer obviously gave the player more challenges with the growth of his skills. Besides, the designer also added a kind of collectible items "strawberries" in the level as an additional achievement to let players challenge more difficult gameplay segments.
Variety
Breakdown
As I mentioned above, the diversity of each unit level comes from the combination of operations of each gameplay segment and the combination of these segments, which constitute the gameplay process of the whole unit level.
Analysis
The combination of these operations directly affects the player's experience, and the spatial structure of the levels that provide players with these operations also provides visual diversity so that players will not be bored when they focus on passing through these levels.
Training
Breakdown
There is indeed a preface chapter in the game to teach you how to use the controller to do some basic operations, but it is more like a user manual.
But I think the way of training in the game is that in the early unit level, the designer will use some simple layout design to make the players realize how to pass through such a structure, and then after the players learn such a basic solution. The designer will challenge the player with a more flexible and complex way.
Here is an example: when the ice block first appears, it will fall to the player's way and kill the player. Such a simple dynamic makes simple consequences so that players can understand the feature of this kind of blocks. Then in later levels, the game will require the player to use it flexibly in later levels, such as climbing on the ice block to pass through the path by falling with it.
Analysis
If the design requires new skills from the player, it is very important to use simple and intuitive level design as an introduction to make the player quickly realize how to use such skills or how to deal with such level mechanics. Then the designer can let the player practice and challenge by gradually increasing the difficulty, complexity and even giving the player some puzzles of this mechanic.