Basic definitions
Composite game
A composite game is one in which a player can use the mechanics and abilities of one genre
to solve the problems of another genre, making it a composite of two videogame genres.
Declension
Now, when we talk about a level or section of a level in a composite game that emphasizes one genre
more than another, we’re talking about that level’s declension. (I.e., that level or section declines or “leans”
toward one genre, but never abandons either genre.)
D-Distance
The danger distance or D-Distance is the amount of lateral distance that Mario has to cover in a single jump event. D-Distance measures the size of deadly obstacle Mario is trying to avoid, whether it’s a bottomless pit or some kind of damage floor (or, in some cases, a fall that forces the player to tediously climb back up).
Delta Height
Starting height - target height > 0 Descending jump, easy
Starting height - target height < 0 Climbing jump, hard
Target width
Width of the landing platform. Wider = easier.
Starting width
Width of the starting platform before making a jump. Doesn´t affect much difficulty usually.
Soft sizes
- Good objects/platforms/... have a hitbox greater than their sprite.
- Bad objects/hazards/... have smaller hitboxes than their sprite.
An intercept is an enemy timed and placed so that it interferes with a jump that Mario needs to
make. It is not the cause of the jump event, but rather an obstacle that modifies the jump event.
Penalty
Penalty for failing a challenge. It can take 3 values:
- 0: If the penalty for failing a jump that the player has to try that jump over again, and Mario doesn’t lose a life or take any damage, the penalty rating is a zero.
- 1: Jumps whose penalty is guaranteed damage but not necessarily death are rated one.
- 2: Instant death pits are rated two.
- Getting Mario to the right momentum: Preservation of momentum
- Standing at/jumping from the right place: Periodic enemies
- Jumping at the right time: Moving targets
- Avoiding the sudden appearance of enemies: Intercepts
Challenges
A challenge is the essential unit of content in a level: a cluster of actions that must be undertaken
in one attempt, although that attempt can take a long time if the player chooses to stall, in many instances. The most reliable indicator of the space between challenges is a safe platform. The types of challenges are:
- Punctuating challenge
- Standard challenge
- Expansion challenge
- Evolution challenge
- Mutation challenge
- Evolution challenge
- Training wheels challenge
- Crossover challenge
- Expansion by contraction challenge
- Reward by fun challenge
A kind of small mini-challenge that sometimes breaks up two challenges in a cadence. The punctuating challenge is a kind of punctuation mark in the sentence of a cadence. It is sometimes used to cleanse the palate, so to speak. Rather than having the end of every challenge be a safe platform that starts the subsequent evolution, expansion or mutation, sometimes the designers will throw a simple punctuating challenge at the player to refresh and refocus him or her. The key identifier of a punctuating challenge is that it is never developed. Although a punctuating challenge may be reiterated, it will never really evolve or expand, or else it would simply be a second standard challenge.
Standard challenge
The standard challenge is the first and most basic form of the challenges that get developed in the course of a level. The standard challenge is, in a sense, defined by its relation to later challenges. It’s not always the case that the first challenge in a level is the standard challenge. Sometimes the first challenge in a level doesn’t actually evolve, expand or mutate. Sometimes that first challenge is just there to accomplish something else, identifiable only on a case-by-case basis. Nevertheless, a standard challenge is usually simple, and no subsequent challenge in the cadence will be simpler qualitatively (excepting punctuating challenges, which are intentionally not developed), although some may be quantitatively easier to compensate for qualitative decay.
Expansion challenge
An expansion challenge is a standard challenge with one or more of the event variables increased numerically. An expansion challenge doesn’t change from the standard challenge qualitatively (or at least not by much), but it does change quantitatively. That is, the player is using the same skills in an expansion challenge as they would in a standard challenge, but the difficulty is greater because some aspect of the standard challenge has been increased. The variables that can be increased in an expansion challenge are:
- D-Distance
- Delta Height
- Intercepts
- Penalty
Evolution challenge
In contrast to an expansion, an evolution is a qualitative change that uses all the same skills as the standard challenge but in a more qualitatively complex situation.
Mutation challenge
A mutation challenge is an iteration of any challenge that neither increases the complexity by evolution
nor expands the quantitative aspects of the challenge that is being mutated. Rather, a mutation challenge simply reiterates a challenge in a slightly different way that is more or less equally challenging. It’s not more complex, it’s just different. Mutation challenges are important because not every single challenge can get more difficult or complex, or else many levels would become terribly tiresome. Part of establishing a good sense of pacing in level design lies in knowing when to give the player a break or an easy challenge to restore their morale and give their concentration a rest.
Training wheels challenge
A training-wheels challenge is designed to allow players to use new skills in a low-risk, easy-to-understand
environment. In order to make acquisition of these skills easy and not frustrating, the designers do two things:
- Break what would be a standard challenge in any other level into its smallest component parts, teaching players how to execute each individual part of the challenge before putting them together (whereas an evolution would either throw them into a strange new element, added to the old, or combine two already-deadly challenges).
- Use one or more methods to reduce the penalty of the challenge down to 0.
A crossover challenge is a challenge that features a brief shift from one declension to another. They
are generally brief, featuring five or fewer events, and rarely more than one or two sequential challenges.
They are put in place to break the monotony of doing the same declension of challenge over and over (i.e.
moving target jump after moving target jump). They are usually built out of the complement skill theme (but not always).
Expansion by contraction challenge
This is just an expansion challenge that operates by narrowing the amount of safe space in a challenge. Most expansions are literal expansions of some numerical element; in these cases, they’re just reductions in the size of safe space or beneficial features like platforms.
Reward by fun challenge
The primary criterion for a reward by fun is the availability of non-death failure. Usually this means that Mario has to do something strange to get a reward. He can lose that reward, but it’s almost impossible for him to come to real harm—the only penalty is not succeeding.
Cadences
A cadence is the progression of challenges, explained by their relation to the standard challenge.
Almost everything in a level relates back to the standard challenge clearly, although the punctuating challenge
is often a minor exception to this.
Skill themes
Just as jump events add up into challenges, challenges add up into skill themes. A skill theme is a
series of levels which develop a consistent set of player skills through the use of fundamentally similar
but ever-evolving challenges. Skill themes in a composite game are the material embodiment of composite
design. A designer can take advantage of the various elements of the contributing composites to get specific
effects in any given level. There are basically four skill themes in the game, and they lay out well on a matrix:
| Skill theme | Timing | Speed |
| Platformer | Moving targets | Preservation of momentum |
| Action | Periodic enemies | Intercepts |
Each skill theme has a complementary theme which is usually used for crossover challenges:
| Skill theme | Complementary challenge |
| Moving targets | Periodic enemies |
| Preservation of momentum | Intercepts |
| Platformer | Action |
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