Adrasteia was completed in 1 month. Our team spanned 12 members, and I was originally assigned to production before being moved to Level Design / Narrative. I was in charge of Level 5, the level right before the ending. I wanted to focus more on the puzzle and platforming aspects of our game, so I started a blockout using a mechanic that was already coded into the game: Color Block Switches.

At an earlier level, the player was introduced to these cubes that had sigils on them. These cubes could activate buttons with the same sigil. I wanted to expand on that idea since the cubes could also be used as step stools. As such, I went into the blockout creating 2 rooms: one to teach the player they can stand on cubes in a safe environment, and another to test the player on those skills. The overall challenge that I wanted to go for is a puzzle where the player has to get the colored cubes to their corresponding color switches but still have enough blocks to cross the giant acid pit in the middle.

At first, I added walls so the player is forced to criss-cross the acid pit to reach the button, but I realized how easy it was to break the puzzle that way. I designed it so that 2 cubes are required to cross the pit in the middle, but you only need 1 cube to cross the walls. For me to keep with that idea of crisscrossing the pit using the cubes, I would have to extend the wall, which would impact clarity and would make the room feel cluttered. With that, I just removed the walls entirely and tried to design something different. However, this worked to my advantage in the end.

The overall goal of the game was to go through the dungeon while escaping from a monster. As such, the puzzles had to be designed in a way that was readable and fast to solve. The puzzle was easier to solve without the walls, but it was also faster to solve, which was important when taking into account that the player had a time limit. Once I finished the puzzle, I got to work on decorating the rooms. I colored the acid neon green and added a bubble sound effect. To make the room feel weathered and decrepit, I stuck certain models clipped through the acid floor to give the illusion that the model had been dissolved by the acid. I also added a few statues, door arcs, and a sort of morgue area with whisper sounds added as the player heads to the exit.

Overall, the level was finished in time and was used as the final level in the build. If I were to do it differently, I would make the room bigger since the player was still able to cross the gap with some good jumping positioning, and I would expand the 3rd area with 1 more puzzle room.