The Knight Who Need No Steed

Final Level - "Caves"

Role:

Level & Enemy Designer

Platform:

Windows PC

Duration:

1 week

Engine:

Unity

Team Size:

Overview

The Knight Who Need No Steed is a short game made for the GMTK 2025 Game Jam. Incorporating the theme, LOOP, you play as a knight who must glide through valleys and caves, looping through each level in order to gain enough speed to destory the evil wizard at the end.

What I did:

Designed and grey boxed the layout and routes for the final level
Designed enemy encounter progression to escalate in difficulty throughout the level
Used lighting to build atmosphere as well as to guide player through the caves and tunnels
Placed environmental cover points throughout the level

Designing the "Gauntlet"

Opening Shot

At the start of the level I wanted to make it clear that there were multiple ways to navigate the play space.

To achieve this I opened the level with a two-path layout that was visible as soon as the player launched into the air.

It created an immediate choice that cascaded into more branching paths as they progressed through the level.

Using cover prevents orange lasers from targeting the player

Creating Multiple Routes

I wanted there to be multiple routes that the player can take throughout the level.

Routes differentiated by:

Enemy density and type
Size of playable space
Overall difficulty to navigate

Doing so helped create a sense of risk/reward where the viability of paths would depend on the current speed of the player and ensure that each path flows from one to the next.

I was inspired by the trench run scene from Star Wars when creating the final section

The player is launched high into the air and is immediately shown 2 paths to take

Using Cover

Throughout the level the player encounters lasers and magic missiles that are difficult to dodge in open spaces.

To avoid players repeatedly dying from this I:

Used rocks and archways as cover to give players opportunities to weave through incoming attacks
Positioned cover low to the ground to reward players with speed as they descend
Used obstacles to block enemy lines of sight and create safe spaces for the player

Footage of top and bottom paths

Making Things Difficult

Going into the final section I knew players would have to loop through at least twice so I had to make it difficult while going slow and fast. To balance this I added:

Lots of laser towers to shoot at players who went too slow
A lot of rocks to use as cover as well as acts as obstacles to dodge while going fast

Final Level Gameplay

Play Now!

Joel Nyonga

Gameplay & Level Designer