A short explanation of what Evoland is:
Evoland is like taking a trip through some of the greatest adventure/ action fantasy rpg games our history has seen wrapped in an ever-evolving game where you experience evolving game mechanics and game-, graphic- and audio design. Much like it's inspirations the game is filled with adventuring, exploring, hidden secrets, fighting your way through dungeons and monsters and all the things you would expect from games falling in these genres. It goes from 1 dimensional 1 button movement all the way up to free 2 dimensional movement, it goes from a basic swing your sword in a forward motion to a full active time based fighting system, monochromatic pixelated colors become full vivid 3d color schemes, audio goes from non-existant to scores for each seperate area, your tiny square map becomes a whole overworld filled with it's own unique areas, the game evolves in so many ways it will allways surprise you something new we have come to appreciate in so many games we nowadays have come to know and love.
Level Design Example:
The level: "Edel Vale"
For the example of the use of good level design I have chosen the first sub-area in the game, called Edel Vale (as the game does not really have levels, it does however have areas within the overworld which I find can be seen as levels in atleast some sense of the word). This level works as a good example because, with it being the first level, the use of mechanics and need for good level design will be especially strong here. And on behalf of it being the first level the player will encounter this one has a lot of things happening in it, because even though the game evolves all the time, firstly there has to be a basis to evolve upon, which also has to be explained, so I feel this level has just that extra bit of explaining and designing to do.
Video examples of the level:
This is an example video of the first time a player enters the "Edel Vale" area, when starting his/ her adventure. This video showcases the area up to the 11:21 minute mark, where the player explores into the overworld/ other area, so this video is relevant up to that point.
For extra reference, this is one of the moments where the player returns to the "Edel Vale" area to obtain some items that were unobtainable upon his first time of reaching this place, it showcases how the level design incorporates replayability of an area.
Explanation of why this is good level design:
The explanation for how this level incorporates good level design will be given using the then principles of good level design which can be read by clicking on the above link for further reference. From these I will state the principles that apply to this game and give an example/ explanation on why these principles apply to the level.
Is fun to navigate:
As can clearly be seen in the video, the level makes use of baths, bridges, signs and a string of treasures to guide the player through the level's main path and to the exit of it, but along the line there are several points of hidden areas, points where the road splits and the use of "big" open areas to allow the player to freely explore other paths and places. It also incorporates visible paths to next areas which are unreachable, giving the player some hint as to having to explore further until they find some way to clear the obstacle and venture further on the previously blocked path, and also making it a puzzle for the player to figure out how to travel.
Does not rely on words to tell a story:
The game doesn't even start of with a story in the first place, which usually ends up with the player thinking up some sort of story in their head purely using the given environment. Even when the game does introduce this later on the story is more one from the bigger point of view, setting a grander/ end goal for the player, it doesn't however specify what the player himself has to do on a smaller scale, how to get there, why he really is doing this etc. This is up to the player to decide, for example the first level can be cleared by not killing any but two enemies (which were guarding a gate), the player can chose himself if he wishes to be an adventures that slays all who oppose him or if he decides to only fight when absolutely neccessary.
Tells the player what to do, but not how to do it:
This one isn't incorparated completely, but definetly up to some extent. For example when the player first sees a treasure chest behind a piece of grass bloking his way to it, he knows he wants/ has to get to that treasure chest in some way, but doesn't know how to do this, even when finding the sword it does not explicitly state that it can cut grass, it's something the player has to figure out on his own. There is however only one way of getting past this puzzle and that is using the sword to cut the grass, there is no freedom/ alternative to this, but even though it lacks in that part of this point iI do still feel that this atleast somewhat counts for it. (also for another example see the rocks which can only be navigated through with free movement, the nearby sign only tells the player that he has to be agile to get through, but doesn't specifically tell him/her what that means, figuring that you have to unlock free movement so u can walk through them in a non-grid-movement fashion is left for the player to figure out.)
Constantly teaches the player something new:
As this is one of the main mechanics of the game itself i feel this is the strongest point of this game. With nearly every chest the player find he unlocks a new game mechanice or improves/ updates one of his previously gained ones; Movement goes from 1 to 2 to 4 buttons, the player gains a sword, etc. All of these are perfect examples of this point and they are continuously spread throughout the entire level.
Empowers the player:
The game empowers the player in certain ways, for example once the player obtains his sword he can actually destroy parts of the environment that were previously blocking his path, and killing enemies can unlock newer parts to explore to, looking at the second video you can see the player altering the environment even more by using bombs to blow up rock he could not previously venture through. This is a way of showing the player that his adventuring has payed off by allowing him to do things he was previously unable to and allowing him to have an impact on the level on ways previously impossible.
Is efficient:
With all the secret areas, changing mechanics and objectives/ obstacles that can only be cleared using powers gained at later moments the game allows backtracking to pretty much any point in the game at later moments to explore the area in a completely different way, this can especially seen by comparing the two video's with each other, one of the treasure chests the player opens in the second video was one that was only about 5 tiles away from the player when he first started the game.
Is driven by the game’s mechanics:
Together with the point of "Constantly teaching the player something new" I feel like this is the other strongest points this game encompasses. The game is all about introducing it's mechanics to the players and in fact a major part of the game play is actually acquiring, learning and applying the mechanincs, which should come clearly throughout almost every moment of the video.
Conclusion:
Level design-wise it's a great game in my opinion and it furfills a lot of the ten principles. But mostly this game is just a great experience to go through and it really shows you how much games have grown these past years, and if you're a fan of the old (and new) game series like The Legend of Zelda, Final fantasy, Dragon Quest and such I would definetly recommend picking this game and giving it a try sometime.
