One aspect that needed care and attention was the addition of checkpoints. Earlier levels were created in the manner of being a tutorial level that intended to teach players various mechanics in a minimally-threatening environment.
For this new level, such a restriction was not applied, so it is possible and expected for players to be able to die under normal circumstances. As a result, I just placed several checkpoints at what I believed to be fair locations while providing acceptable challenges as well as interesting setpieces.
There exists two main paths. At the start, the player faces a simple enemy and an early opportunity to pick up an item. Leaving the first room leads to a large yard with another simple enemy and another item, dynamite. Each turn after entering the yard, another enemy enters from the lower room, meaning the longer it takes the player to complete the objective the more enemies appear.
With the dynamite, the player has the choice of blowing up one of two doors that lead to completely different encounters. The upper path goes down into the sewers, fighting some mutant alligators and their king in a straightforward encounter. The bottom path also has some combat encounters, but also has an additional item and a more difficult boss encounter.
Two individual players tested my level. They both chose the lower path after getting dynamite, which leads through the upper levels of the prison. They faced few issues getting through many of the enemy and environment encounters, and generally enjoyed themselves. As a conclusion to the level, players are faced with a difficult set piece. A boss-tier enemy fires upon the player as they attempt to jump across a pit of fire. Falling into the pit equals instant death and boots the player to a previous checkpoint, which is located incredibly close. It was designed to be more ridiculous and entertaining over fair to give the ending a bit more oomph, but is not impossible by any means as directly killing the boss with ranged attacks leads to victory.
It is unfortunate that both players went the same direction, as I would have liked to see the other path in action. In the end, I believe this level is a lot of fun for whoever plays it, if not too short.
