Aargon Level Editing

A few Basic Ideas

The simplest method to design a level is simply to place some laser beams and pieces out on the board and then fill in some corresponding coins. The disadvantage to this method is that one often ends up with very difficult levels, very easy levels, or often with levels that have several alternate solutions. The levels lack an a-ha! moment and aren't generally pleasing to the eye or that fun to solve.

A good level design should begin with a concept that can be discovered by the player as he or she tries to solve the level. For instance, you might want to show something as simple as the fact that the combination of two refractors is equivalent to a single mirror.

To make the level fun, what you might try is to create a situation where it appears that a mirror is needed somewhere, but find some way such that the level can only be solved if the two-refractor combination is used instead.

Another good thing to do is not lay out so many coins that a level appears intimidating. If there are many many coins on the level or an immediate perceived complexity then players will be turned off. A great level is one where it appears as though it should be trivial and only once the player tries to solve it (at that point they're hooked) do they notice that it's not really as trivial as it seemed on the surface.

After making the initial design, you will want to look for alternate solutions to your level. This may be one of the most difficult aspects of level design because it is not easy to 'forget' the intended solution and play the level as though you had never seen it before. Getting a friend to test the level can be very helpful. I eventually became pretty good at forgetting my own levels on purpose so that I could test them effectively. In more than a few cases this led to much frustration and doubt about whether I saved the level correctly.

Dirty Tricks

One of the key things I try to do if I want to make a really tricky level is trick the player psychologically when designing a level. Imagine a level where the prism should REALLY be used to hit a blue coin by reflecting the blue beam instead of splitting the colors up from the white beam. And that instead the white beam should be split up by using splitters and color filters. But to the player it appears that they should split up the beam into several colors using the prism whereas in reality it's impossible to solve the level that way.

Aargon is a game of optimization as well as puzzle solving. That is... in most Aargon levels you have exactly the number of pieces you need to solve the level in the most efficient way. That was always a rule for us when designing levels. We tried to use the least number of pieces possible. When designing a level try not to add unnecessary turns or paths to your design. If you do that, then in most cases you'll find that there's another simpler solution to your level.

Another thing that makes levels difficult to solve is the double use of certain pieces. A level that uses the same refractor or same mirror for 2 beams is almost always a little trickier.

Since many Aargon levels require that a player use the prism right away it's often a good trick to leave prism use to later in the level. That is.. if you can make a level where the right thing to do is to refract or reflect the white beam a few times BEFORE using the prism players will have a harder time.

Turning things on an angle is often a good device. Some of the simplest levels can be made very tricky by requiring that the prism start at a 45 degree angle. The level bumblebee is a good example of this. One prism is at a 45 degree angle. Another good example is the level "white" where it's a very simple prism combination to the make the color white, but the level gives many people (including myself) a hard time when they first see it by simply rotating everything 45 degrees.

One of the meanest things you an do to a player is make the laser sources rotateable. It adds many possible combinations to the level. If a level design seems good but a little too easy, make the source rotate and the difficulty should increase.

Another important aspect of design is to try and place the coins in such a way as they don't give away the solution. Long rows of coins can give away the path of beams. Corners can give away the path too. Try placing green coins in such a way as to make it difficult to tell if the green beam is traveling along the diagonal squares or not.

Conversely coins can be used to trick the player. Laying them out to make a corner or a long line can lead the player down false paths where they're convinced the beam MUST travel along a certain route where in fact that's exactly wrong.

Final Note

Many of the piece designs in Aargon came about from the difficulty of actually designing levels. Sometimes I would have what seemed like a perfect level but it was ruined by the fact that the player could send the beam right instead of left. And so the one-way piece was born.

Often you'll find you can fix levels by adding a TNT/Explosive Piece or by adding black coins or one-ways. Walls and color filters can be effective too.

Well now you know all my dirty tricks. So go ahead and design some nastier levels, or use this behind the scenes info to help you solve some of the ones giving you a hard time.