Empowering the Player: Level Design in N++ 

Amazing talk, N++ is surely a level design masterpiece.

This was a super interesting presentation & very helpful to someone currently immersed in level design. Here are some notes I took while watching this, maybe they'll be useful to someone. Thanks N++ creators! Notes on N++ Talk: * Movement is a performance that needs to be learned & mastered * The level should be intriguing & fun to navigate & manipulate * Ways in which levels can vary: * The general difficulty of the level * Length & duration of the level * Types of Movement required by the player - Traveling Vertically or Horizontally or a mix of the 2 * Flat surfaces or mostly angled surfaces * Types & Combinations of Enemies / Objects in the level * Various types of Pacing, whether the level peaks at the beginning, middle or end * Types of skills required on the part of the player - do you have to be patient? Or have really good reflexes? * Types of space in the level - more wide open or more narrow * Being productive is often about managing expectations & keeping yourself motivated & having the freedom to scrap an idea at any point * If you’re rating levels from 0-2 scale, 0 being repetitive & plain, 2 being challenging & with lots of variety, you don’t want all your levels to be 2’s. You want a nice mix between the 3 types, you want good DYNAMICS - like in music, the quiet parts make the loud parts seem even more loud. DYNAMICS BOI. Remember that. * It gets exhausting & boring to work on the same level for hours at a time - a remedy to this is to iterate through multiple levels updating those as you go * It can be difficult to fine-tune all the details of a level at one time, switching back-and-forth between them can break your concentration on other details - such as placing coins / gold, that is something you can go back & do for a bunch of old levels at a time, with the new insight you’ve gained as you’ve progressed * The N++ team has multiple routes for completing a level that they design: There is a basic completion route, there is an all-gold route where the player must collect all the gold pieces, this allows the player to modulate the difficulty of the level on their own * “Our philosophy is that levels are kind of like a conversation you are having with the player - we want that conversation to be playful & intriguing & constructive & loose, but never bullying or mean. N++ is difficult, if it were unfair or took cheap shots, it would just be infuriating.” * Use repetition to help players hone their skills, but don’t re-use exact chunks of levels, use them with subtle variations. * Sibling Levels - 2 different takes on the same idea

These kind of talks are one's you truly learn from. I've always hated those analysis youtube channels that will only talk about 'high level concepts' when there are so many other things that go into design.

Those metanet tutorials were huge, I'm so thankful for them

Came here expecting a coding language - leaving with my mind blown.

She was super nervous. But the talk was beautiful and really interesting!

Definitely one of the greatest platformers of all time. Back in college my internet went down for a couple weeks and all I did was play the original N to completion multiple times. Most games I don't even bother finishing, let alone try to 100%. The creative freedom in level solving (rather than pure memorization and pixel precision) is what makes this game so special. Rocket is my favorite enemy, sometimes I just relax and dance with it for a while rather than trying to win. :)

So not only did that one guy get his start doing a contest for for N+, but N itself was the result of a flash games competition? Competitions may be far more important than I thought.

I remember playing this on our high school's computers back in like 2007

This are people who play their game and understand it. This is how it must be done. This deep understanding of what you do and how you do and what it comes out and how it works... Those people are incredible.

This talk is great. High-level level design concepts brought back to real world examples over and over and over. Also played N in OG flash days 2004ish/5/6 so it's rad to see into their minds. I loved the game as a great simple feel, deep design flash game. In school we would all see who could get most gold or get through most levels before class would get out. Double thanks!

This game is like a study in level design. Great inspiration!

this was amazing to watch, I used to play in school lunch breaks back when it was "N-Ninja" maybe 12 years ago now, really inspiring to watch as I'm just starting out in games dev myself,

Great talk. I'm amazed at how fresh and original many of the levels in N++ feel, even after I've played thousands of them.

Ive been playing N since I was seven years old. Needless to say, I bought N++ the minute I found out it was on Steam. So fucking good.

This is one of the most lucrative games out there. Insane replayability, super addictive. Great talk!

More should look at this presentation for great examples illustrating what you're talking about as well as well organized and thought out. Was a huge fan of the original, glad to see what they've accomplished.

So much good advice, a lot of it is very intuitive but easy to overlook. I like that there are 8 rough difficulty estimations, for example, this level of granularity should make it a lot more accurate

Never heard of this game before but it has an interesting mechanic. Usually physics platformers are terrible and devs go out of their way to avoid physics stuff in favor of tighter controls, but it's nice to see one that has some acceleration and reflection put to good use.

OMG!!! I used to play this game all the time on the "Torontotron" at Site 3!

its exciting to see game developers be passionate about their projects

I love these two people. Thank you for n++

I remember this game! Soooo good

Great talk! Very interesting. Going to have to give N++ a try.

Really interesting talk! Perticulaly regarding the movement dynamics

Absolutely amazing.

23:16 I like how this level pops up with that particular commentary

Amazing video!!! i fucking love when designers are passionate about their work

Great talk.

It sounds like she constantly want to cry, But I would sound like that too in front of thousands of people

N, N+, N++ are AMAZING!

I was just playing that game yesterday

I loved the original N game, but I remember it being a hassle to find because with most search engines the would only search words with 3 characters or more, so I eventually lost track of it. So I'm delighted to see there's N++, I'll definitely give it a try!

Loved it!

I haven't heard about this game in so many years

Yeay! Commander Sheppard! :)

Something I took away from this: form follows function. The geometry of the level is only important insofar as it facilitates the content and the level's purpose.

The player level section of N++ is better than Super Mario Maker

Yeah, I wondered if I could toggle all the mines and survive as well. The answer: occasionally, yes, but usually... *BOOM* *ninja parts going everywhere* I'm looking at you, 'pixelightning'. ALWAYS THE LAST ONE!

I thought this videos was on making levels on notepad++😅

I played that game when I was younger I think it was pretty cool.

Poor Mare looks so nervous.

These people look like the characters from Being John Malcovich

where's Shawn McGrath?

0:12 Canadians do pronounce the T. Ben Affleck lied.

26:00

"an experienced player playing through the LAST SET OF LEVELS" if only they knew...

*mic inhale*

36:21

Be interesting to procedurally generate backwards: Regulate jump count and required accuracy for level difficulty. Start with a number of walk, jump, climb points. Plot multiple journeys, selecting for each challenge type. Place jump surfaces; fill in unused space; populate hazards. Self Play AI to test and confirm difficult based on extant levels... 🤔

47:28

She sounds SOOOO distressed and terrified. Am I the only one getting deep anxiety by listening to this? It's super interesting, but it's killing me

20:00 I'm sorry

Pretty funny to hear her say how "they created and FOR N++" when those features have existed in N+.swf since the dawn of Newgrounds

aaahhh... my dreams are finally coming true.... i can watch super smart, hot women talk about game design!

Anyone else thought this talk was going to be about Notepad++?

Hearing her breathing in my headset was not very nice, it was distracting me a lot :(

Loved the talk, though she breaths very heavily.

why is this lady so out of breath...chill out man. it was interesting but SO hard to listen to... sounded like she was touring her self because of how nervous she was

Lode Runner rip off?

20:01 hung among us