Devlog Update: The Secrets of Slumberland

[p][/p][h3]The Secrets of Slumberland 🤫[/h3][p]One of the most fun things to work on when I’m doing level design, is hiding secrets in the game. I thought I would take some time to talk about how I approach designing them, as well as the bigger picture systems in place to help ensure they’re a fun aspect of the game.[/p][p]Don’t worry too much about spoilers here, I’m not sharing anything that you wouldn’t have already encountered in the demo portion of the game.
 [/p][p]The Internal Logic of Secrets 🔎[/p][p]One thing I try to be cognizant of is the “hit every wall” problem that can arise in games with secret rooms hidden behind walls. In my opinion, a good secret is found because the player notices something, or can just feel that there’s a secret there. So my goal is to help players understand that the secrets aren’t just random breakable walls and that there is an underlying logic to them, or at the very least there are hints. So the best way I can help the player find secrets is to give them the right clues and to craft the secrets in a sensible way and help them understand that they should be “keeping an eye out” for secrets rather than just assuming they could be anywhere. If a player is just using the yo-yo on every wall to test it, then that’s a failure on my part (and besides, secrets should have varying methods of being hidden).[/p][p]So with that general philosophy explained, here are some of the ways I try to help create a consistent internal logic for the secrets:[/p]

• [p]Universal Hints: This is something that isn’t actually implemented yet, so it’s not in the demo, but there will be a subtle visual indicator somewhere nearby every secret. You won’t know what it is the first time you see it, but after enough exposure, the hope is you’ll learn to understand it indicates that there’s a secret nearby. Once you know that, you’ll then need to have a keen eye to spot these indicators, and then also from there deduce a) where exactly is this secret and how does it function, and b) is this even something I can get yet or does it perhaps require a toy I don’t yet have.[/p]
• [p]Geographic Hints: These are, I think, the more important and subtle clues that players will (often perhaps subconsciously) notice and think “is there a secret here?” This can be a conspicuous shape of the terrain that begs questions, or can be subtle hints from the tiling system that imply the existence, or lack thereof, of tiles on the other side of what appears to be a solid wall.[/p]
• [p]Unique Hints: These kinds of hints will be dependent on the context. These are generally bespoke things that are designed to draw your attention or show you something in a relatively “innocent” way so as not to be too obvious.[/p]
• [p]Map Hints: Because the world is built up of screen-sized chunks, sometimes there are conspicuous “holes” in the map, and those will often contain secret rooms. This is something I’ve always loved since playing the original The Legend of Zelda which used this hint technique, and then was later also used by The Binding of Isaac.[/p]

[p]I want to show off the geographic hints and unique hints by showing how I designed what is arguably the first secret in the game. Technically, it’s more like the fourth or fifth secret you encounter, but this is what players will likely think is the first secret and it’s one that I’m going out of my way to help players find (I would say probably more than half of players that I watch play are able to spot it, which is a good range I think).[/p][p][/p][p]The wall on the right here can be walked through to find a secret room. The first clue is that some of the tiles have stones in them. Why are there stones there and not in the tiles above them? I don’t expect players to already innately understand how the tiling rules in this domain work, but it should feel off. Specifically what’s happening is that there are no tiles to the right where the blue arrows are, which causes the tiling rules to use the tile with stones on it. Above where you see the red arrow, there are tiles to the right, so the standard filler tile is used. This is one of the ways in which I’ll try to give geographic hints.[/p][p]The next hint you’ll get when you pluck these candy out of the ground:[/p][p][/p][p]When Nemo plucks this, the candy will scatter about, and some of it will wind up behind the wall. Most players will either a) see what has happened and realize something is funky, or b) just instinctually chase the candy into the wall. This is an example of a unique hint where I’ve specifically designed the room to give you the hint when you pluck this grass.[/p][p]Fun side-note: I’ve watched many players chase candy into the wall, and then immediately come right back out and not even notice that they walked into the wall a bit. It’s subtler than you’d think for plenty of players.[/p][p]The candy going behind the wall is the thing that is supposed to make the secret very clear, but the hope is that players will internalize some of the subtler details about this secret encounter so they start to learn this logic of the world’s secrets.[/p][p]And just on the other side of the wall of this same room, we actually have a very similar secret, but this time it’s a bit tricker.[/p][p][/p][p]Do you see it? Most players that find that first secret seem to notice this and will attempt to walk through the wall. But you can’t actually get this secret yet. I wanted this wall to stand out as suspicious, so hopefully it’s in the back of the players mind. In the screen above, we later learn how the Yo-Yo can break some blocks, perhaps that could also be useful down here… 🤔[/p][p]As you explore more of the map, you might also notice that this chunk to the left forms a suspicious hole in the map. That is one of the more subtle hints that will hopefully remind you to come back to this later on in your adventure.
 [/p][p]Gotta Catch ‘Em All [/p][p]One standard feature of metroidvania games is completion percentage. This is just a way to let the player know “yup, you found every secret in the game.” Maybe it’s tied to map exploration percentage, or item collection percentage, or some combination of both, but either way, plenty of players will feel compelled to find everything. And since you want the secrets sufficiently hidden so that they feel rewarding to find, you risk making the chase for 100% feeling annoying or even impossible.[/p][p]So with that in mind, there is a Little Buddy in the game called B.O.B. It’s a little robot that will alert you to any nearby secrets you haven’t already found. You won’t be able to get it until fairly late in the game, and you’ll need to go out of your way to do so, but if you do, you’ll have a Little Buddy that helps you hunt down secrets that you missed earlier.[/p][p][/p][p]B.O.B. represents kind of the final big hint the game offers. He will essentially mimic the universal hints that you’ll learn to spot in the game, but without risking being so subtle as to be missed.
 [/p][p]Where to Put Secrets 📌[/p][p]Another major aspect of the secrets to touch on is simply how to decide where they go. There are cases where I have a very specific item I want a player to find at a particular time and place. Oddly enough, these tend to be both the easiest to find secrets (the room mentioned above, finding your first Little Buddy, etc.), as well as the most difficult to find (secrets left behind for speed running and/or subsequent runs that are intended to be as difficult to find as possible). But in most cases, I’m simply designing a room/platforming challenge, and I'll realize a fun way to incorporate a secret into what I’ve built. Often in these cases, I’ll just create an empty secret room with the intention of later deciding what kind of reward will be in there. These tend to just be single chunk, dead-end rooms rather than elaborate shortcuts. I’ll typically populate them with a collectible like a Blue Moon, a Lucky Coin Shard, a Music Track, etc.
 [/p][p]A Miserable Pile of Secrets 🍷[/p][p]Ultimately I want the world of Slumberland to feel filled to the brim with secrets, but they also need to be sufficiently engaging and hinted at to different degrees so that players feel like they can always come back to an area later on and find plenty more secrets within. I’m pretty happy with the amount and quality of secrets in there now, but I will probably keep adding and refining these right up until the game ships.[/p][p][/p][p]Okay, that's it for now on this topic, but if you’d like to hear more about this or any specific topics, leave a comment below, or find me in the Discord server! Thanks for reading!

-Dave[/p]