When you start the level, you follow a route like this:
Which ends with the player facing this direction:
The player is now looking at a chasm with floating springs, not knowing where to go - the player has to stop and look around. This is a Sonic game, you want to keep the flow going!
Here's an example of something you can do:
I've raised the garden and moved two of the ring circles to it, and the third ring circle was turned into a "path" (I forgot to move the bomb, you should do that yourself if you follow this advice). Like this, the player can't be distracted by a part of the level they haven't reached yet, and their attention is completely on the trail of rings. They'll follow this trail, and
naturally be orientated to the direction they have to go. Maybe the player will stop and grab the rings on the little garden, but they'll have the path of rings in their minds so even if they see the chasm with floating springs, they'll know that's not where they're supposed to go.
The BASH was also moved to the side - the way it is right now, it's possible for the player character to block the view of the BASH, so the player might take damage they couldn't avoid and feel the level is being unfair. But moving the BASH makes it much easier to see and the player can react to it. Maybe I moved it a little too far and you want to keep it closer so it's a bigger threat, I don't know. You're the one making the map so those details should be left to you. But it's important that the player can
see these hazards so they can respond in time.
(of course I've also changed the texture - the cyan fence textures are to be used for FOFs, not for regular walls and floors!)
There are two other places where the lack of proper direction is noticeable:
Where am I supposed to go? The level carried me this way, I'm just moving forward. But in front of me there's only a wall and a pit!
What do I do!?
Here, the player is supposed to jump off the right side to some rooftops. But there's nothing communicating this!
The
easy solution would be to add a line of rings in the air. The player would follow those rings and jump, and those rings would take them to the rooftop of the other building. But maybe that's too easy. What if instead of a big wall, the buildings had tunnels, and those tunnels would take the player to the way forward? Something like this:
The player can keep moving, instead of having to notice the rings, and then having to stop and line up the jump. Again, flow!
Lastly, there's this segment:
Here, you're supposed to go from platform to platform and eventually reach a checkpoint hidden behind a barrier of bumpers. However... it's too easy to just do this:
...and miss the checkpoint completely. How can you fix this? Maybe extra buildings to block the sight of the road, maybe rings in the air to guide the player on what the next platform is supposed to be, maybe all the platforms need to be moved so that it's more obvious what the way forward is. I'll leave it to you to discover the solution.
