Let's Make a Level for Duke Nukem 3D, Part 15

^source

You'll see below that I halved the number of vents in the toxic waste corridor. It was gobbling down too many walls and sectors we might need later on, and was taking a toll on the framerate in that area.

Now we're going to go back to a familiar junction to add the area you need the night vision goggles to traverse. Backtracking is a huge part of metroidvanias, so naturally I'm not going to simply have everything you need to use in the same area where you use it.

I decided I wanted some more vertical platforming shafts. So rather than custom build a new one, I copied and pasted the one we already have. To differentiate it, I totally retextured it, completely re-ordered the platforms for a different challenge, and added cool animated electrical arcs at the top:

You can't tell, but they look rad as hell in motion. I might even do a little more to set it apart. I don't like to just copy shit, besides which there needs to be lots of visual differentiation between areas to help players orient themselves.

There's also a one-way teleporter at the bottom of the slime pit in the jumping puzzle room now (where you get the jetpack) so if you fall, there's a way to start over.

The slime takes a bit of health from you for your mistake, but it's more balanced than just having the player fall to their death, given how many times they are likely to fall there.

Unfortunately I'm having some difficulty figuring out which sprites (besides enemies) react to night vision. So this will be an unusually short article. I should have it sorted by tomorrow.

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^{Stay Cozy!}