Level design breakdown
I thought I might post this as I couldn't find a lot of content like this when I was looking around at the start of my project, like how the hell does one design a level anyway? The process I've figured out so far was:
Layout mockup in Affinity (2nd image)
I ended up being very thankful for putting a few days into this as I've tried to skip this step before and I wasted SO MUCH TIME just looking at my own half-finished level. This way I was able to quickly prototype and discard bad ideas. It helps that I have pretty good phantasia, so I was imagining the playable level as I went here. Seems obvious in hindsight, but in the past I naively assumed I could skip this step.
Attempt to make the level I designed using Probuilder (3rd image)
At this point I realised that I didn't want to introduce more game elements than I needed to, so I de-scoped the falling lava (red dots in the mock). I also realised I could make it way more interesting by introducing some semi-destroyed architecture, so I added leaning buildings for you to traverse time to time, and fallen pillars to roll along.
Side note; I took this screenshot at the end by turning the final assets off, so it's missing some stuff that was later replaced.
Fill it in with assets to make it look like an actual level (1st image)
This step also included a lot of revision to move stuff around to fit the assets properly, like rocks I couldn't quite fit into corners meant I had to move the path around a bit. It didn't end up being too bad, and often was a nice push to re-think parts of the level. I also realised that my bridge in the mock could just be a fallen pillar, which worked out nicely and I could skip trying to make a collapsable bridge.
Showcase (4th-6th images)
This is what it looks like in the game with the background and fog turned on. I'm pretty happy with it but the lava needs another revision I think, it's a bit flat. It's worth noting that players won't see most of these angles, from the ground you don't see any missing geometry.
Overall I'm pretty happy with the process though!
This is for my game Knights of Lunacy, you can sign up for the beta here.