Hey guys,

We’re here today to talk about our process for creating level tiles for Beacon! Level tiles are medium to large areas that are randomly strung together to create a level. About 3-4 tiles will be used for each random level, with excess exits consisting of a start tile, an end tile, a treasure tile, cap tiles, and possibly random rare tiles such as gauntlets.

Here’s a how a basic tile starts off.

It’s got 3 exits on each side, providing room for random generation of the layout, and plenty of space for us to mess with to give it a unique shape. After saving the base layout to a new map, it’s time to start deleting tiles and adding cliffs. We did a few sketches to brainstorm ideas for the layout of the tile and decided to have it be a series of spires and islands connected by bridges over gaps in the terrain. I start out the process of creating the level tile by deleting large chunks of the floor to create islands of land and begin filling in the cliffs after the base islands are blocked in as seen below. 

This is just the right side of the tile but it shows how the basic layout of the tile is coming together. From here ideas start to pop up on how to add cliff overhangs and tree clumps to seal off the level and provide visual interest. After messing with the other side of the tile for a bit it starts to look like this. 

Now it’s time to spend a few hours bringing the rest of the level to the same place, considering where enemy spawns will be and trying to provide an interesting choice of paths for the player to take while placing down rock and tree formations. 

After finishing the basic level I left it alone for a few days and came back with fresh eyes to make some adjustments and add in the bridges Tay created. Below is the near final level tile with a few up close screenshots from the player perspective.

Any areas that seem empty have been purposefully left like that to accommodate future plans for randomly generated “landmarks” to appear that will dictate enemy spawns and increase the amount of random generation in each playthrough. An example of this would be a Prism watchtower placed on the raised cliff platform in the lower section of the map. Each time the level generates using this tile there’s a chance that the watchtower would spawn there with Prism Laser Turrets guarding it with a wide view of the area around it, making it tough for the player to pass unscathed.

Now that the level tile is about done it’s ready to be added to the list of level tiles used to generate a map. Below is a shot of it in a WIP generated level including the tile above.

In a future blog post I’ll detail some of the interesting stuff we’ll be doing to increase random generation in levels. Keep checking back here to hear some work-in-progress music for the game sometime in the next couple of weeks!

-Kiefen