Tag: Level Design

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🧠 DevLog #8 – From Test Rooms to Real Levels

This week wasn’t flashy — but it was real. A lot of time went into refining the stuff that holds the game together: prefabs, logic, interactions, and that ever-growing list of “I’ll fix this later” tasks.

I’m happy to report that “later” was this week.

🧱 Prefab Polish Pass

You never really finish prefab work, you just hit a point where the fiddly stuff stops slowing you down. That’s where I am now.

Walls, gates, switches, triggers — they all got a round of attention. It was part bug fix, part optimization, and part me getting tired of seeing things slightly off-center.

These tiny improvements may never be noticed by players, but I’ll know they’re there — and they’re the difference between “meh” and “smooth.”

🎯 Level Template Locked In

This was a big milestone: the template for every level is now in place.

I finally have a clean, flexible structure to build on — something that works across puzzle types and robot layouts. It’s not just code anymore; it’s a pipeline.

I can now snap in elements and know what to expect. That means building future levels won’t feel like surgery. More like LEGO.

🧩 First Playable Level

Until now, everything I made was tiny and temporary — bite-sized test rooms for mechanics and edge cases.

This week I built something that finally feels like a level — with real puzzle flow, a beginning, middle, and end. It’s short, but it works. And playing through it made the whole project feel 10x more alive.

It’s the first time I’ve been able to say, “Yeah, someone else could play this and actually get it.”

🧠 The Grind Behind the Scenes

There’s still a lot of behind-the-scenes work going on (some of it not very exciting), but moments like this — when the game starts feeling like a game — are everything.

It’s the difference between building pieces and building purpose.

🔜 Next Up

  • Finish robot #3 artwork
  • Build 2–3 more “real” levels
  • Revisit the movement logic for edge-case polish
  • UI polish prep
  • Decide when to send out the first playtest build (getting close!)

That’s all for now. Thanks for following the journey — one prefab at a time.

– Chris
Imagine Beyond Games

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🧠 DevLog #4 – The Camera Saga

Welcome back!

This past week was all about the camera — and not in a cinematic, dramatic, “look at this beautiful shot” kind of way.
More like “why is the robot vanishing off-screen while the camera stares into the void” kind of way.

🎥 The Camera… Situation

What started as a small fix turned into a full-blown side quest.

  • The camera wasn’t moving
  • Then it moved too late
  • Then it moved weirdly
  • Then it shook for no reason at all
  • And then it just… stopped responding altogether

I tested it.
I tweaked it.
I fixed it.
Then I broke it again.
Then I fixed it better.

I think the camera and I have finally reached a mutual understanding: it follows the robot, and I stop threatening to delete it from the project.

✅ What’s Working Now

  • Smooth camera follow behavior
  • Snappy framing on movement
  • No weird jitter or lag
  • And most importantly: the robot is back in view like it’s supposed to be

It’s not fancy, but it works — and right now, that’s enough.

🔄 What’s Next

Now that the camera isn’t fighting me every step of the way, I’m heading back to the level loader.
There’s still a lot to add — support for multiple robots, switches, gates, and all the logic to tie it together — but having a stable view makes it way easier to debug and design.

Next up:

  • Expand layout options
  • Improve internal wall handling
  • Start placing real game elements in levels
  • Try not to break the camera again in the process

🙃 Final Thought

Some weeks you build features. Some weeks you fix features you thought were already built. This was definitely the second kind.

The camera’s back on track. The robot’s visible again. Time to get back to building puzzles.

– Chris

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🧠 DevLog #3 – Breaking It Down to Build It Right

Hey folks, and welcome back!

This week was all about the level loader. I’ve got big plans for it, and if I want to keep this game flexible and future-proof, it has to be rock solid. So instead of layering on complexity, I decided to tear it all the way down — and rebuild it in the simplest terms possible.

🧱 The Plan: From Corners to Chaos

I started with the basics:

4 corners

4 straight walls

Then extended versions of those walls

Then L-shaped rooms

And eventually… rooms with walls inside of them

Everything had to click together like a digital Lego set — and after some trial and error (and more grid counting than I care to admit), it’s finally shaping up the way I imagined.

Perfection? Not yet. But directional perfection? Absolutely.

🚪What About Robots, Gates, Switches?

Once I had the room structure working, I was excited to start adding gameplay elements — placing in the robot, a gate, maybe even a working switch…

That’s when I noticed something odd.

The camera wasn’t moving.

No tracking. No shake. No flash. Just a stoic, silent observer in the wrong corner of the map.

Turns out, somewhere along the way, the camera logic gave up and walked off the job. So that’s my next mission: convince the camera to follow the robot again without staging a full-scale rebellion.

🎯 What’s Next

Fix camera tracking (or start a new religion around the corner of the map)

Finish phase one of the level loader

Begin placing interactive elements again (and make sure they still behave!)

Maybe — just maybe — get a proper test level loaded and playable

🙃 Final Thought

Some weeks are about cool features. Others are about foundational work that no one will ever see — but everyone will feel. This was the second kind.

Here’s to a week of structure, setbacks, and slow but steady progress. The robot’s not the only one learning how to navigate a maze.

– Chris

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