Well, in the second entry for Stray Dogs, I will talk about level design of the game. In Glacial World, I talked about how I designed the interactive elements of the game to be given a safe space for the player to get used to how they worked. Here I went to the next level, making every level revolve around a new mechanic, and developing how the player may interact with them.

This design practice has become prominent in newer Mario games, where the levels revolve around one core mechanic, which they may then throw away, or reuse safe in the knowledge that you will understand the inner working of the mechanic.

This practice, called “Ki-sho-ten-ketsu”, was based after a format of japanese poems, following a structure of: Beginning, Development, Twist, and Conclusion.

But back to Stray Dogs, the 2nd level was the best point in regards to the use of the technique.

The first step was introducing the mechanic, in the case of this level, the lift platforms. They can carry both the player and object to higher altitudes.

We then add more blocks, which the player needs to use the lift to stack into a tower to move forward. Managing the lift’s timing is key to accomplish this smoothly.

And finally… THE LIFT BETRAYS YOU! jokes aside, now what was a boon to your quest for food as become an obstacle, you need to move the crates through the lifts, preventing them from taking box up, lest you have to start again if you fail.

The difficulty curve wasn’t exactly smooth, but I was happy with how I managed to apply this to the game.