Stage Discussion #1: "Vanilla"

I've been wanting to do this in some form for a while. Be warned; this "series" is an entirely self-indulgent deep-dive into the ideas that went into each stage. I will include a video with each post of my girlfriend and I playing a match on the stage of the topic, as well as the remix version.

This is the first blog in the series, but "Vanilla" wasn't the first stage in the game, which is surprising considering how obvious it is to make a level of solid destructible terrain in a game that's all about destructible terrain. Actually, the stage came somewhat late in development as the game lacked a few critical features to make it work. One of those features is the temporary platform that each player starts a match on (and respawns on). It's exactly like the platforms seen in the Smash Bros. series-- they bring you back in a safe location, and disappear when you either jump off or wait too long. Before these, every stage needed an indestructible platform for each player to start the game and respawn on because I decided that respawning in a falling state would be unacceptable, and poor game design. So, when there had to be these permanent, indestructible platforms in every stage, I had to figure out ways to keep players from just camping there, as they tended to be elevated, advantageous positions. But once I had those temporary platforms, and then the pinkish respawning terrain, there was nothing really stopping me from making a level that's essentially a huge brick.

Playtesting (many versions) of the stage showed that players would rarely come close to puncturing the bottom layer and exposing a hazardous hole, and so I filled in the stage with some layers of glass blocks. Regardless of the terrain type, most of the terrain damage tends to happen near the centre of the stage from where bombs collide mid-air and explode together. This was causing a trend of V-shaped formations that was 1) Already represented in "Blast Valley" and 2) More frustrating than fun without an upper level like Blast Valley. For this reason, I put long glass columns under each player's starting zone. This encourages more interesting and varied destruction patterns, and it gives players an easy opportunity to sabotage their opponent by blasting their opponent's starting zone into a dangerous pit.

Like just about every stage, Vanilla has a few respawn blocks in a few very specific locations. The idea is that even if the stage is completely destroyed, these blocks of terrain will grant players a chance to get back up to the top. Without them, a player in a pit may (rightfully) feel like they are hopeless at gaining an offensive and simply self-destruct just to respawn at the top again. Of course, this would not be very fun.

Summary: "Vanilla" is meant to be the plain, simple stage, analogous to Smash Bros.' "Final Destination". It allows more unique terrain destruction than any other stage in the game, and also contains every power-up in the game.

REMIX: I'm pretty sure Vanilla was the first stage to have a remix variant. Originally, remix stages were going to be identical to the originals except that every dirt, stone, and glass tile would be replaced with a "random" tile that decides which of the three it will be (randomly) when the scene loads. That's quite evident in Vanilla more than anywhere else. Soon after, I would give some remix stages different power-ups or even more significant layout changes. In the Vanilla remix, you also get to deal with two Shock Blocks floating around for the match as they will almost always wind up claiming a cat life before the pit is opened up and they can fall away safely into the void.

Thanks for stopping by, and please leave a comment if you have played Cataclysm as I'd love to hear about your experiences. <3