Patricia Muñiz
Level Designer
La Abeja Antonio
2024- Self Developed
A simple 3D game, La Abeja Antonio follows a little bee that needs to collect pollen for his beehive.
Layout braingstorming, final 2D map and blockout
Level design breakdown
If the player decides to shortcut through the trees, they will take damage from bumping into them, establishing that it's easier following the main path.
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When the player first start the level the line of action in the composition guides you forward to the right, with the "noise" of the trees beside the path reinforcing it, as you follow along you discover your first flowers to the left.
Once the player arrive to the first flower they'll see a clear point of interest right in front of you, with some splash of a distinctive color, orange, from the flowers situated above ground, wich fill the pollen bar faster, hinting to the player to look up for flowers and also taking advantage of the verticality.
The player can also adventure through the side path to the right, wich circles back and also contains orange flowers.
Once above the wooden structure, following the flowers above, the player keeps seeing orange dots in the distance, creating a natural instinct to keep moving forward, as i explained in the beggining, the flowers are a mere excuse to guide the player through the garden, there's really no pressure to keep moving forward, so i guided them gently be always having the next objective in sight.
At the end of the curve a open space reveals offering the player an emotional reward being able to explore the little scenes.
Following the previous flowers mentioned, the player through the path texture itself but also the composition created by the trees can clearly distinguish the line of action that pushes them forward to the right but not being able to exactly know what's next, again reinforcing it with the subtle positioning of the flowers.
Here i increased the engagment, even just emotionally, of the player by making the last scene, the ducks, dynamic with movement, only present in the bee itself, some butterflies and the ducks.
Again following the path they'll keep finding elements that pop up reinforcing it's relevance with the positioning of the flowers, and also opening up to a large space filled with new scenes to give the player the same sense of reward for continuing through the garden.
At this point the player will have a clear vision to the left of the star of the level, giving them the sense of needing to complete the pollen bar, witch at this point should be almost full even without picking all the flowers behind you, reinforcing the game's laid back feeling. They'll also see the path to the right giving them an obvious choice, continuing to collect all the flowers or going back to where they started.
Following the path to the right it will naturally guide the player behind the house from the start, being able to see the beehive where they started. But there's no pressure to leave the little world of the garden as the game will only finish when they fill the pollen bar.
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With just one level to design, the goal was to create a relaxing experience where the player would naturally flow through the garden to discover every nook and cranny, with collecting pollen being a tool to guide them through the intended path.
Here you can see the process i used to design the level.