short prawn
Concentration
I got an idea where you pick from a few different challenge types hosted by the “energy drink” company Red Bull. For example: racing, Flugtag, cliff diving, trampoline skydiving, or their fairly recent riding a bike on top of a moving train.
When the player enters Ship mode, they get a pair of wings as a visual effect “Red Bull gives you wings” 🤓 (not an ad). Along the path, there could be user coins or collectibles that act as “energy boosts.” Different sections could increase in speed or intensity whenever the player collects them.
Brainstorming
The prompt “planets” reminded me of the Cromulon episode from Rick and Morty, where giant planet-sized heads host “Planet Music,” basically a galaxy wide talent show.
The level could feature multiple giant skull heads chasing the player from behind while a “Get Schwifty” remix plays. During one section, the camera could stay fixed for around 15 seconds while the player moves clockwise through a Robot gameplay segment with freestyle orb timings that trigger different instrument samples (drum, synth, kalimba).
Occasionally, the camera could zoom out to make the gameplay look like it’s being shown on a TV screen, as if the player is part of a live entertainment show being watched across planets. Each section could transition into different planetary backgrounds and color palettes.
SCAMPER
Deadlocked, but the moving platform section from 1:25–1:32 is extended and increased from 2x speed to 3x speed because that gameplay looks really fun.
To change the decoration style, the level could be Halloween themed (pumpkins, ghosts) since the rotating gear objects already have a lot of design potential. I also liked the original red, blue, and purple color palette, along with the “I like this part :)” text transition into the Ship section with the spiky magma themed structures.
The teleport portals used in the original level could also be adapted for other gamemodes such as Wave or Ball.
Ramsey Method
Source: https://space-facts.com/stars/
This article explains how stars release energy in the form of heat and light. I think it could be fun to animate pulsing glow effects based on scientifically accurate stellar phenomena.
The article also mentions that the image of the Sun we see is actually around 8.5 minutes in the past because of the distance between the Earth and the Sun. A cool idea could be using camera triggers or replay effects to briefly recreate the player’s previous movements, almost like delayed light reaching the viewer.
Personally, brainstorming gave me the most interesting and potentially original ideas. However, realistically, the SCAMPER method would probably help the most when actually building a level because it’s easier to study gameplay mechanics, triggers, and effects that already work well in existing levels, then experiment by modifying them.
past igloo
naive crown