As the level design process grinded to a writer’s block type halt. I've decided to take a fresh look at my game elements to see what can be improved. The results are: Triggered portals. They are functionally similar to regular portals, but they also have a cover that enables/disables them, triggered according to their color as usual. A covered portal does not react with passing guys at all. And an uncovered portal reacts like a regular portal. A closed green portal can be seen in the picture below.
You may have also noticed that retractable blocks have been graphically changed a bit. This is also in response to some tester feedback (mainly saying the old graphics were too unclear). While the entire sprite scheme will change eventually, it’s still better to have clearer temporary graphics for testing purposes.
Some tweaks to the existing movement engine had to be made to enable portals that were opened when a guy was already on them to function properly, as this situation could not happen with any other block type until now. (Retractable blocks would only alert passing guys to changes in their state when they were above or below them to avoid guys getting "trapped" by retractables opened on them.
These tweaks open the door for other possible block types that may use this interaction type. Which may or may not be used as the creative process and level design continues.
One more element idea remains to be implemented if the current elements are not sufficient to complete my 60+10 level goal. So I'm now confident that the level goal will eventually be reached. As long as work and life distractions stay out of my way long enough.
