What would you say is a good length for a level in a highscore game?
The game is a side-scrolling platformer and has four levels with increasing difficulty (smaller platforms, longer gaps etc.).
The game is not looping. If you have played the levels, you see an ending and that's it. You don't start in level 1 again. (Like in "Paperboy".)
And the levels are auto-scrolling and scroll one pixel per frame. If the left screen border catches up with you, you lose a life.
So, it's not like the shooters where your ship automatically moves at the speed of the screen if you don't press a button. And it's not like "Super Mario Bros. 3" where the border in auto-scrolling levels pulls you forward if you don't do anything.
Apart from the scrolling, the game is pretty hectic since you always have three opponents on screen at once. You can stun them, but as soon as one is outside the screen, the next one appears.
Since the level is built with a randomizer that just specifies platform width, platform height and gap width, I can basically make the levels as long or as short as I want since no conscious level design is included.
So, what would you say: How long should the shortest (i.e. the first) and the longest (i.e. the last) level of this kind of game be?
The game is a side-scrolling platformer and has four levels with increasing difficulty (smaller platforms, longer gaps etc.).
The game is not looping. If you have played the levels, you see an ending and that's it. You don't start in level 1 again. (Like in "Paperboy".)
And the levels are auto-scrolling and scroll one pixel per frame. If the left screen border catches up with you, you lose a life.
So, it's not like the shooters where your ship automatically moves at the speed of the screen if you don't press a button. And it's not like "Super Mario Bros. 3" where the border in auto-scrolling levels pulls you forward if you don't do anything.
Apart from the scrolling, the game is pretty hectic since you always have three opponents on screen at once. You can stun them, but as soon as one is outside the screen, the next one appears.
Since the level is built with a randomizer that just specifies platform width, platform height and gap width, I can basically make the levels as long or as short as I want since no conscious level design is included.
So, what would you say: How long should the shortest (i.e. the first) and the longest (i.e. the last) level of this kind of game be?