Wednesday, 28 April 2021

Rayman level 05: Sweet Death

 In Rayman´s Designer engine, the A to B typical goal of a platformer videogame is also accompanied by a primary task of collecting blue orbs called "tings", normally 100 tings you must collect if you want to reach the goal sign and consider the level finished. As that, you can take advantage of the mechanic by creating obligatory paths that could be left behind if it wasn´t for the obligatory collectibles that the blue tings are.

I am explaining this because all of my levels designed here have this property. As a special trait exclusive from my creations, I also made another optional collectible which are 100 dark blue tings scattered across the map. These dark blue tings have the function of guiding you across the level, they aren´t mandatory to collect and don´t affect the game whatsoever.


   Despite the name of the level, nothing violent or dark is coming here aside of meeting the nominal villain of the game, Mr. Dark. Originally, back when I was 11, this level´s name was "pastel, pastel" ("Cake, Cake" in Spanish), a not very expressive name.

The level starts with one of the unique "curse spells" mechanic that the villain, Mr. Dark, can cast directly on Rayman: shrinking him in size with no option to turn back to normal unless passing through an invisible anti-spell amulet.



The shrinked part doesn´t last for too long, luckily, or else it´d be too boring (Rayman can jump half the distance, run half the speed, etc. making the progress more sluggish). Basically after passing the first section avoiding bullets and clowns (enemy events) you can turn back to the normal size. Unfortunately, as a missed step from my first creations it something not many could notice how to reverse back to normal size. You just need to step on a precise area, which will be where you have to progress the level, but only once you have collected the necessary tings before (yes, this level is another "snail path design" footprint of my first levels).



If you decide to take the lower path of taking the necessary tings with the shrinked Rayman size you will figure out you need the normal size in an abrupt way: dying by falling into water pools.




As the "snail path design" follows. Rayman must path back and follow the normal road atop the map, here Rayman must move across icy slippery platforms that make him go faster but also makes his control harder. Including to the difficult is another "Mr. Dark spell" summoning a Bad Rayman copy which follows the exact movements of the players with a 4 second margin. Should Bad Rayman comes into contact with Rayman (the player), he´ll lose a life.




Once Rayman arrives to the first checkpoint of the map (which is in the bottom right of the level, the opposite of the starting point and half-way to the exit sign), Bad Rayman will cease chasing the player after moving in icy and bouncy surfaces.
What awaits now is a cross-river section, full of small icy pieces you must clear first from antitoons (the basic, small mook enemy in game).


There is an incresing difficulty curve here. The first "cleaning" icy pieces are easier but difficulty becomes higher the more you progress. At the last part there will be another summon of Bad Rayman and some indestructible, deadly red antitoons to deal with which require rapid reflexes and wit to come out from it.
After the rough path, there is another checkpoint, marking the final section of the level. The center of the snail shell path.


This last part is more relaxed, without the pressure of having a bad copy chasing you. It is an encounter with different enemies exclusive to the CAKE.MAP world of Rayman, crossing short small platforms until reaching the exit, located in the centre of the map.


Video display. A normal map by my standards. In this level you must reach the exit in the core of the map making your way through Dark minions and Mr. Dark himself:














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