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RtDL3: Spiny´s Underground Greenhouse

Mechanics
Main mechanic: Spin Jump on Spinies
Secondary mechanic: Vines

Theme
Mario travels to Spiny´s Underground Greenhouse, an enormous cave where Munchers are created. Here they grow before being planted in other areas of Dinosaur Land. Spinys take care of the Munchers, fiercely protecting them against any intruders. In this dangerous location, Mario´s normal jump will be of no help, but there must be some way to advance...

Challenges

1. Standard Challenge: Stationary Spiny over Munchers. Mario must spin jump on top to cross the gap.
2. SC expansion 1: 2 Stationary Spinies. Mario must bounce from the first to the second.
3. SC expansion+evolution: 3 stationary Spinies at different heights and distances. The player must take care of the distance between the Spinies as well.
4. Standard Challenge 2: Spike introduction. A Spiny approaches from the ceiling. Mario Must make it fall, jump on it, grab it and throw it into a small overture filled with spikes and coins to hit a Question Block, which will pop 1-Up #1.
5. SC evolution: 1 Stationary Spiny with spikes overhead. Player must learn to bounce low.
6. SC expansion+evolution: 4 stationary Spinies at different heights and distances, with some overhead hazard (spikes?) preventing Mario from bouncing at maximum height every time. Player must alternate high and low bouncing (High-Low(spikes)-Low(spikes)-High).
7.  Standard Challenge 3-Reward by fun: Vine introduction. Small, closed room with 2 moving vines. Mario must climb them and jump from one to another to collect all coins.
8. SC evolution: Vine and a Stationary Spiny. Mario must jump, grab the vine, then Spin Jump on the Spiny and bounce high.
9. SC evolution + expansion: Moving Spiny, spikes, static Vine, moving Spiny. Mario must spin jump on the Spiny and bounce 2 or 3 times low, then high enough to catch the vine, then wait for the right moment to spin jump from the vine to the second moving spiny and bounce high.
10. SC evolution: Moving Spiny, moving Vine, spikes, moving Vine, moving Spiny, spikes. Mario must jump on a moving Spiny, then bounce high to a moving Vine, avoid some spikes while on the moving vine, jump to another moving vine, then wait and jump low to a moving Spiny, bounce low 2 or 3 times and bounce high to exit.
11. Reward by fun: Triumphant run. Mario gets a star and runs through a corridor filled with Munchers, Spinies and maybe Mega Spinies.

Level cadence

1.  Introduction screen with Mushroom in Question Block, Spiny in a higher ledge walking towards the player. The Spiny will fall giving the player enough time to jump over it and the edge at once.
2. C1: Set it so a high bounce is required to continue.
3. C2: To get to the 2nd Spiny no high bounce is necessary, so player learns to adapt his jump. The exit requires a high bounce.
4. C3: First Spiny at max distance, 2nd is above at short horizontal distance, third is below at max distance. If Mario misses he will fall down to where a pipe will give Mushrooms, so he can try as many times as needed never risking death. There´s a hidden block that will allow the player to take the topmost path bouncing on Spinies to a pipe.
1. Secret room #1: Vines moving in circles with lots of coins and a QBlock at the top with 1-Up #2. Exit takes the player to the beginning of 5 (C4).
5. C4: In the flat part past where the Spiny fell place a QBlock with Mushroom. The second QBlock activated by the Spiny will give 1-UP #2.
6. C5: Flat, no falling down.
7. C6: 1st Spiny at max distance, 2nd and 3rd below at distance 1,  4th at max distance above. Again, if Mario falls he will find a Mushroom pipe. The challenge ends in a pipe. There´s an alternate path that requires a change of direction on the 4th Spiny. This will take the player upwards to a secret pipe. To enter, the player must break some Yellow Blocks as Super Mario.
1. Secret room #2: Spiny Petting Zoo. Name a Spiny and get 1-Up #3. The exit Pipe takes player to 8 (C7).
8. C7
9. C8: Spiny at flat height. Mushroom pipe at the bottom.
10. C9: The part under the vine allows the player to fall down to a Mushroom pipe. Maybe find a way to connect this pipe and the previous one with a minipuzzle, or to move the pipe to the new location or something...
11. C10: The parts under the vine allow Mario to fall. There´s a one way door so he can backtrack to the previous mushroom pipe, but he´ll have to redo C9 to get back.
12. C11: Add sound effects, maybe a conveyor belt to make the player run even faster?

Further notes

• Use Mega Spiny for tutorials?
• Place somewhere earlier in the level some Yellow Blocks to be smashed as Super Mario? This can be used to start 2 (C1).
• Keep an eye out for difficulty, maybe make the last challenges longer and requiring more jumps.
• Post MiiVerse comment with the Story
• Post MiiVerse comment on the Petting Zoo with instructions.
• For the Mushroom pipe shared between 9 (C8) and 10 (C9) we can make the pipe spawn the Mushrooms into a tight corridor and block the exit with a Yellow Block on the side of 10 (C9). Normally, the Mushrooms will hit the Yellow Block and go back to the side of 9 (C8), but when in 10 (C9) the player can hit the Yellow Block from below so the Mushrooms exit the corridor from his side. The corridor must be blocked so only Mushrooms can go out and small Mario can´t go in. Another option is to block it from side 10 (C9) with a Yellow Block and leave a P-Switch. When activated the path is cleared, but if the player doesn´t take the coin the Yellow Block will respawn and the Mushroom supply will be cut.

Basic Mechanics Overhaul

The current speeds are too big for the game, we are getting jump distances of over 150 units at zero starting height, so all the Movement variables have to be greatly diminished.

Also, having so much air time (more than 2 seconds) easily attainable complicates a lot the level design, as:

• Boost jumping with highspeed will make the player skip big parts of the level.
• Not Boost jumping at highspeed will make have to go through a lot of stuff avoidable by jumping.
• Level design becomes very complicate as we have to deal with really high values.

To solve these problems some decissions have to be taken:

• Refocus the game from tricks to platforming: Tricks are a nice gimmick, but they force too many sacrifices in level design.
• Choose a standard distance and balance all movement magnitudes around it.
• Give the player more movement options, specially in the x-axis. This way more obstacles can be successfully included.

Turbo charge
We will include an energy charge button. When pressing it, the player´s speed will decrease until it reaches a minimum while accumulating energy. When releasing the button, the accumulated energy will be used to unleash a turbo. A minimum threshold is necessary, so players must charge for some time before the turbo is ready. If the player doesn´t charge enough energy for a turbo, this energy is lost as the player accelerates back to max speed, so consecutive short activations of the brake can add up to a turbo. Also, after releasing a turbo it can easily be cancelled by a single tap of the charge button

This system will allow the player to wait when some obstacles appear and choose for the right moment to unleash the turbo to pass them. The maxTurbo speed will be a bit greater than the speed the player had before braking, so if the player unleashes the turbo the exact moment it charges the overall will be slightly better than not using a turbo. This also allows for a high level tactic.

if (Input.GetKey("")){
  charge = [charge + chargeSp, 0, maxCharge];
} else{
if (charge > chargeThreshold){
  unleashTurbo(charge);
  charge = 0;
}else{
 charge = (charge-ChargeDec, 0, charge);
}

}


Speed Level system overhaul
The Speed Level system will change slightly: now using the trick button successfully in any situation will add points the level gauge. Examples:

• Boost Jumping
• Grabbing a speed line
• Disarming a trap

However, filling up the bar won´t give a free turbo. Instead, these points will also be added to the new turbo gauge. Once it´s filled to the top the player can do an instant turbo by taping the charge button.


Standard distances
The standard unit will be 1 unit.
The standard jumping distances will be:

Speed Level	Normal Jump	Boost Jump
0	X<1	1<X<2
1	1<X<2	2<X<3
2	1<X<2	3<X<4
3	2<X<3	3<X<4

The standard jumping heights will be:

Speed Level	Normal Jump	Boost Jump
0	X<1	1<X<2
1	X<1	1<X<2
2	X<1	2<X<3
3	X<1	2<X<3

When Boost Jumping the player will also get a small temporary boost in xSpeed:
if (turboBoostJumpOn){
 if (currentSpeed + boosJumptTurboIncr < currentSpeed + boostJumpTurbo)
  currentSpeed += boostJumpTurboIncr;
 else{
  currentSpeed = currentSpeed + boostJumpTurbo;
  turboBoostJumpOn = false;
 }
}else{
 if (currentSpeed - boostJumpTurboDec > maxSpeed[currentSpeedLevel]){
  currentSpeed -= boostJumpTurboDec;
 }else currentSpeed = maxSpeed[currentSpeedLevel]; 
}

boostJumpTurboIncr > boostJumpTurboDec, so it accelerates faster than it deccelerates.

This must be taking into account when adjusting the values of the movement parameters.

 y = y0+v0*t-0.5*g*t^2
t = (-v0+/-sqrt(v0^2-4*y0*(-0.5*g))/(2*-0.5*g)
D = t*xSp

Ramp Height = y0
Ramp Length = 2*Ramp Height
Standard ramp:
 RH = 0.5
 RL = 1

A realistic system with gravity doesn´t seem to be able to allow the jumps we want to make, so we´ll use a different system instead inspired by SMW. ump divided in 3 phases with constant speeds:

• Rising: ySp>0.
• Hanging: ySp=0 (3-4 frames? Maybe 6-8 in 60fps?).
• Falling: ySp<0.

In SMW the speed is the same when both in the Rising or Falling stage, but we can test the effect we get by making the Rising part slower and the falling part faster.

This way we can manually control the speed height and better adjust the horizontal speed.

Redefining Skill Themes

The defined skill matrix doesn´t match nicely with the actions the player can do, so a redefinition of it is necessary, as well as a reevaluation of the player´s actions.

Actions:

• Move Towards
• Move Away
• Attack (Spin against enemies)
• Use (Spin against contraption)
• Disarm (Spin against trap)
• Change Pace (Turbo)
• Avoid (Manual Jump)
• Trick

Entities
Entities in the game fall in 2 groups:

• Obstacles: non-desirable entities.
• PowerUps: desirable entities.

Obstacles
Obstacles can be structured in 4 groups:

1. Enemy: Moving obstacles that can be saved with a spin attack or by not colliding.
2. Traps: Stationary obstacles that can be saved with a spin attack or by not colliding.
3. Berserk: Moving/intermitent obstacle that can only be saved by not colliding.
4. Rock: Stationary obstacle that can only be saved by not colliding.

Obstacles	Attack	Avoid
Moving	Enemy	Berserk
Stationary	Traps	Rock

PowerUps
PowerUps are always desired and the player will always try to move towards them when possible. They can be structured in 2 groups:

1. Simple: These are stationary and don´t require any additional action by the player.
2. Switch: These are stationary and require the player to activate them with a spin attack,
3. Prize: Moving/intermiten powerUps that don´t require to be activated.
4. Capture: Moving powerUps that require to be activated.

	Activate	Seek
Moving	Capture	Prize
Stationary	Switch	Simple

Main actions

The 2 main actions the player can perform are:

• Move: Move away, move towards, change pace, avoid
• Fight: Attack, use, disarm

Both actions have to be considered in all elements.

Skill Theme Axis Definition

	Moving	Stationary
Obstacle	Berserk/Enemy	Rock/Trap
PowerUp	Capture/Prize	Simple/Switch

• Navigate: Move towards/away from the target.
• Confront: Move towards/away from the target and activate.

The final matrix is:

Movement\Pace	Precission	Speed
Towards	Capture Target	Boost
Away	Avoid Trajectory	React

Pace

• Precission: The player must think before acting and get the solution before entering the event. These are complex events with some duration.
• Speed: The player must react instantly, getting the solution only to the current part of the event. These are simple, short events  that come in series.

Movement

• Towards: The player must move towards the element.
• Away: The player must escape from the element.

Skill Themes

Movement\Pace	Precission	Speed
Towards	Capture Target	Boost
Away	Avoid Trajectory	React

Capture Target
Player must foresee and intersect the PowerUps´trajectory. Prize and Capture fall here. It can combine nicely with React elements.
Elements:

• Moving boost: Boost pads changing lanes, so the player must follow the sequence to intercept it.
• Flying Boost: Flying Boost in a periodic path, the player must try to capture it. 

Avoid Trajectory
Player must foresee and avoid the Obstacle´s trajectory. Berserk and Enemy are used in this group. It can combine nicely with Boost elements.
Elements:

• Flying mine: Series of mines flying describing a path, so the player must understand this path and avoid it (snake).
• Patrolling mine: Mine moving in a periodic fashion, so the player must understand it and look for the best place to pass.
• Intermitent gates: Player must understand the period and choose the correct one to pass.

Boost
Player must move towards and use a series of PowerUps in a fast way, reacting by instinct. Simple and Switch make this group. Combines with Avoid Trajectory elements.
Elements:

• Ramp: Series of displaced ramps in an irregular fashion.
• Boostway: Lanes with turbo boosts describing an irregular path.

React
Player must react to Obstacles on his way. Rock and Trap are used in this skill. The player can avoid them or use them, but he must decide fast. Combines with Capture Target.
Elements:

• Red floor: Slowing floor describing an irregular path.
• Bouncers: Bouncers laid out in an erratic way.

Level analalysis: SMW Yoshi´s Island 4

T1 Training Wheels challenge:
Single sinking platform: H(N, 1), W(1, 2)
Mario falls from above, jump with delta height  = 0, width = 2 to exit.

S1 Standard challenge:
Single sinking platform. H(1,1), W(1,3)

V1 Evolution challenge:
2 sinking platforms: H(0, 0, 0), W(2, 3, 1), I(0, 0, 0A)
This is an evolution because it adds something new (an intercept) rather than just modifying the existing characteristics of the challenge.

E1V1 Expansion challenge:
2 sinking platforms: H(N,0,2), W(3, 3, 1), I(0, A, 0)

Reward by fun/Crossover challenge

E2V1 Expansion challenge:
2 Sinking platforms: H(-3, 0, 3), W(2, 3, 1), I(0, A, A)

E3V1 Expansion challenge:
3 Sinking platforms: H(-3, 0, 0, 3), W(2, 3, 3, 2), I(A, A, A, 0)

M1V1 Mutation Challenge:
Sinking platforms: H(-3, 0, 3), W(2, 3, 1), I(A, 0, B)
This is a mutation because it modifies an already existing component (an intercept). I t really doesn´t add anything new to the challenge it mutates, it just changes it slightly. The skills used are the same as before.

Cadence:
T1-S1-V1-E1V1-E2V1-E3V1-M1V1.
Basically, the level presents the challenge, then evolves it by adding an intercept, and then lays out a series of different expansions which make the meat of the level, ending with a mutation.

Track Design: Trickster

Skill Theme: Boost (Towards/Speed)
Complementary Theme: Avoid Trajectory (Away/Precission)

Main mechanic: Ramp
This mechanic requires 2 things from the player: positioning and activation. Positioning is rather intuitive, so the training wheels challenge will focus on activation.

Complementary mechanic: Trap Ramp
Trap ramps appear, marked with a "forbidden" symbol. When taken player´s speed will decrease,  boost jumps won´t be available and the landing lane will become a red floor.

Complementary mechanic: Mines
These are an evolution of the Trap Ramp mechanic: instead of positioning the hazardous elements in the ramp itself, mines can be located just before the ramp. In long ramps, groups of  mines can be located at different parts in the ramp´s length.

Challenges

Training wheels challenge:
All the starting zone will be divided in separated lanes that don´t allow z-movement. The player will watch 2 opponents on different lanes. One of them just advances normally while the other performs repeated spins. After a while they will come to a ramp, the first one will jump normally while the second one will perform a spin and then make a boost jump. Then the player will come to a ramp so he can try to boost jump himself. After this first jump, all lanes will come together so Z-Movement becomes possible.

Standard challenge:
The standard challenge makes the player move towards a ramp and activate it. The ramp will be displaced only one lane up or down from the player´s initial position and it will be very wide.

Expansion challenge:
Floors which reduce speed will appear, thus increasing the penalty of the standard challenge.
The number of ramps will have more z-distance between them, so the player has to navigate the whole width to keep on getting on them.
Reduce the width of the ramps.
Series of ramps will appear allowing little time for the player between each one, so the Skill Theme becomes present.

Evolution challenge:
V1: Trap Ramps. The skills in play are the same, but the player must first consider which ramp to take.
V2: Trap Ramps are replaced by moving mines. The mines can be located anywhere relatively to the ramp: just before, in the ramp itself if it´s long enough...so it changes the challenge in an important way: the player must plan a bit more in advance if mines are before the ramp and, most of all, he still has to maneuver after entering the ramp and before boosting from it.
V3: Combine Ramps, Trap Ramps and Mines. Mines will only appear before the ramp moving in opposite direction to the mines, so there´s only one correct place to enter at any time. It´s not more difficult than V1 or V2 as the space to enter will be the same, but it will look more complicated. Difficulty can really be made harder if we force the smallest gap to be of 2 lanes in V1 and V2 and use a smallest gap of 1 in V3.

Mutation challenge:

Variying length ramps will appear, so the player must wait to reach the border before attempting the boost jump. This breaks the rythm and makes the player stay alert...so hazards can appear while the player climbs the ramp.


Crossover challenge:
Moving mines without ramps. It can be used to both break the monotony of the repeated series of ramps and to introduce mines in a forgiving way.

Cadence Prototype

1. T1: Training Wheels Challenge, 1 lane width ramp, no Zmovement allowed.
2. S1: Standard Challenge: Ramps that take the whole width. 2 consecutive instances.
3. X1...XnS1: Expansion challenge: All lanes but 2 will have ramps. From now on, all lanes without a ramp will have a Red Floor. Steadily change the number and width of ramps and add Red Floor to all ramps so it can only be avoided by boost jumping.
4. M1S1: Mutation challenge: longer ramps star appearing. Start with a ramp of L=2 or 3 and width=all.
5. X1...XnM1: Expansion challenge: modify ramps like in the standard expansions.
6. V1S1: Evolution challenge: A ramp that takes all lanes will appear, with 1 moving Trap Ramp. Repeat.
7. X1...XnV1: Expansion challenge: Reduce the number of safe ramps. Repeat while reducing the number of safe ramps until there´s only one left.
8. C1: Crossover challenge: Mines taking all lanes with a hole of width = 2 or 3. First instance: stationary, next instances will have the mines move up/down.
9. V2V1: Evolution challenge: Mines. Start with positioning mines before Ramps.
10. X1...XnV2: Expansion challenge: Moving mines. Change their position to only in the middle of the ramp, then combine, tweaking ramp length to get more options and instances.
11. V3V2: Ramps, Trap Ramps and Mines. Only 1 instance as a final challenge.

Cadence formula:

The cadence will have to follow the Hishotenketsu structure (Intro-Development-Crysis-Resolution).

T1-S1-X1...XnS1-M1S1-X1...XnM1-V1S1-X1...XnV1-C1-V2V1-X1...XnV2-V3V2

These challenges may be too much to include in one single lap and don´t overlay well with the Hishotenketsu structure. What´s more, it could become too repetitive to have to go through all this 3 times, so we will reorganize the cadence with Lap Variations.

Lap cadence
To break up successfully the cadence into 3 laps and make the game engaging while keeping an eye on repetition, we must give a different purpose to each lap:

1. Lap1: Introduction: The simplest lap, it will comprise basically of the training wheels challenge, the standard challenge, some expansions, a mutation, one instance of the first evolution and a final expansion of the mutation. The idea is to keep it simple around the standard challenge, while laying the basis from where the more complex evolutions will grow in the next laps.
2. Lap2: Conflict: The first evolution briefly presented in Lap1 will take focus on this lap alternating expansions of it and of the standard challenge mutation. A crossover challenge will appear before a single instance of the next evolution.
3. Lap3: Resolution: The 2nd evolution will take focus now, alternating with the standard challenge and the first evolution while gaining weigh. the disruptive element (the 2nd evolution) will have to share time with the standard challenge and 1st evolution derivations, so it won´t be as present as the 1st evolution was in Lap 2. This will be like saying "this is all there is to this track", so that this lap provides closure.

In this case we have 3 mechanics: Ramps, Trap Ramps and Mines, so we can present each one in every lap. However, by doing this we may loose some coherence between all laps, so a better method would be to make a double division of the level so mechanics can cross over from one lap to the others:

Challenge	Lap	Mechanic	Intro	Development	Crysis	Resolution
Intro	1	Ramp	TW1 S1	X1...XnS1 M1S1 X1...XnM1	V1S1	XfM1
Conflict	2	Trap Ramp	X1...X2V1	Xn...XmS1/V1 M2V1 X1...XnM1/M2	C1 V2V1	XfM2
Resolution	3	Mine	X1...X2V2	Xn...XmS1/V1/V2 M3V2 X1...XnM1/M2	V3V2 X1V3V2	XfM1

The complexity peak will be in Lap3: Crysis VS Resolution. After that, the expansion of the first mutation will be repeated to relax the complexity and present the end of the race. Focus here will be set on the player himself, who will have to use his last resources for this final part of the race.

So, the general lap cadence will be:
[(T+S)/(X2S)]+[XnS+MS+XmM]+[V+(0/C/X)]+[XM]
We have simplified the lap cadence while at the same time arriving at a nice structure for each lap.

The track will be adapted in every lap, maintaining the same basic structure so the player knows what to expect to some point.

The AI will also have to follow this narrative, though this will be discussed more deeply when the time comes.

Trick System Overhaul

With the current trick focused gameplay system some problems may arise: Performing chains of tricks require the player to be a lot of time in the air. During this time they aren´t doing anything besides inputting tricks. They are isolated from the world as they can´t change trajectory or interact with anything in the world. Thus, jumps must become shorter and tricks must be performed faster. Performing tricks can be a repetitive action, so this can´t be repeated too much or it will become old and tedious fast. To solve this issues, the track design must get the spotlight and propose interesting interactions to the player at a continuous pace. So the gameplay focus will shift from tricks to platforming.
The adjustments that need to be made to achieve this are:

• Reduce air time: So the player stays more time on the ground dealing with obstacles.
• Reduce speed: So more complex obstacles can be used.

Reducing air time 
To reduce air time we can do 2 things:

• Augment gravity: The player will fall faster. Jumps will become wilder.
• Reduce jump speed: Less height achieved when jumping. Less spectacular, but will help with keeping the track visible so incoming challenges can be detected in time.

Gravity manipulation is straight forward. However, jump speed manipulation must be done in separate cases:

• Normal Jump: This jump is achieved by going off a ramp and not performing a Boost Jump. The jump height is related to the horizontal speed, so this relation must be tweaked and tested. This jump is usually a consequence of the player failing to do a boost jump, so the ability to do tricks with it should be little.
• Boost Jump: In this case the vertical speed depends mostly on the speed level. We can try making it a fixed value independent of the horizontal speed. The player must be rewarded for doing this, so more tricks should be available during a Boost Jump.

Reducing speed
This will allow for the player to have more time watching incoming obstacles, as well as reduce jump height in normal jumps (and somewhat in boost jumps).


Trick System Overhaul
As a result of these modifications, the trick system must be altered to fit the reduced air time in the following ways:

• Faster tricks: So the player can perform or chain tricks with the reduced air time.
• Reduced, simplified system: Instead of requiring L1->L1->L2/L3 and allowing cancels (L2->L1 or L3->L2) the trick system will be more straightforward: L1->L2->L3->L3->L3...Tricks upgrade one level until the max level is reached. Also, there´s no posibbility of moving down the level ladder.
• Change trick relative speed: spL3>spL2>spL1. This way introducing higher level tricks in normal jumps won´t need to rise the air time that much. Also, the higher level the trick is, the harder it will be to keep the chain going as inputs will be required more frequently.