Considering Level Size

Sept 27, 2017 --Day 120

Just a quick speculation about the size of the game level.
I will be talking about the levels from my 'Alien Maze Demo 1' from Scirra Arcade as reference.

First, I found out over 9 Scirra members, almost none ever complete all the levels.
I found out that some of the levels might be too long or tedious.
Especially the level 4 & level 6(final level).



The last level is way too big with 4~5 segments of small puzzle zones put together, which includes a rather tight timing-based 'lazer hazards' to walk through...
I can imagine the frustration when players had to go through all the puzzles...



Although I like the idea of having a level players can spend at least 3~5 mins of gameplay.
But in the structure of ,considering 8~9 levels in a run, it might be QUITE tiring so.

I don't consider making "micro" levels that are solvable within 10-30 secs. It feels cheap.


level 4 (the maze) plays like 2 to 4 minutes.
This level should be somewhere on a custom level.

The best lengths will be something like level 2 (for the earlier levels) & level 3 (for the later levels).
level 2 plays about 0:50 to 1:20 (for a smooth run)
level 3 plays about 1:30 to 2:30 (smooth run)