Bubble Arcade

Get a jolt of arcade energy anytime, anywhere with Bubble Arcade. This Arkadium Original game seamlessly combines the strategy of Bubble Shooter with the excitement of Pachinko. The result is a powerhouse of fun that will have you creating the perfect combinations on your board to boost your score to the next level. The fun doesn't stop there; you can even create and submit your own levels to the game to be played by people worldwide.

Engine: Custom

Studio: Arkadium

Team: 4

Role: Level Designer

Duration: 1 month

Release: Arkadium.com

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Responsibilities

GAMEPLAY AND LEVEL DESIGN

Designing, implementing, prototyping, and balancing critical gameplay features and tools in collaboration with programers and artists using a proprietary game engine.

Level Design
Difficulty Progression
Abilities and Obsatcles
In-Game Level Editor

Level Design

OBJECTIVE

Conceptualize and prototype engaging core gameplay loops that appeal to casual players, focusing on accessibility and short play sessions. Create dynamic, challenging, and rewarding levels that ramp up in difficulty, ensuring smooth progression and player retention. Combine the gameplay styles of Pachinko and Bubble Shooters.

CHALLENGE 1

Combining luck and skill to make players feel like they have control over their results.

SOLUTION

During the Pachinko gameplay sections instead of locking players into one drop placement per ball color we allowed players to constantly change the location. Giving them the opportunity to pivot if their original position is producing unvavorable results prevents frustration and keeps players engaged. Instead of being forced to watch 20+ balls falling in the wrong spot they can adapt and increasing their chances of success.

CHALLENGE 2

Balancing difficulty with player attention spans to promote play sessions that are rewarding without becoming boring.

SOLUTION

Implementing a sawtooth difficulty curve allowed us to slowly introduce new mechanics and obstacles while still promoting palyer success. Players are encouraged by new obstacles and levels with speceific challenges in mind to use previous knowledge and mastery of old skills while overall difficulty increases. This ideal makes faliure even feel like a step forward as you're constanlty learning, improving, and aquiring new skills and tactics.

DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

Brief and sketch: Created concise level outlines and layouts, visualing placement of balls, abilities, and obstacles. This step helped establish a visual blueprint that could be translated to the game editor.
Initial pass: Created a rough pass of the levels using the game editor. Established the basic structure and layout of each level, providing a solid foundation for further development.
Iteration pass: Engaged in extensive playtesting and made necessary adjustments to the levels in real-time. Ensured that the gameplay experience was enjoyable and balanced.
Final pass: Added visual elements and final polish to the levels. This step involved incorporating art and effects to enhance aesthetics and immersion. Additionally, final tweaks to gameplay and design were added if needed.

Examples of nearly all of the levels I designed and implemented.