Stage Discussion #2: "Axolotl"

Considering I didn't have much in the way of an overall vision when I designed Axolotl, it's maybe a little surprising that it has stuck around. As one of the oldest stages included in the released version of Cataclysm, it's gone through plenty of changes, but it's always vaguely resembled the face of the adorable smiling amphibians that earned it its name.

I think I started with the idea of putting the players' spawn points right next to each other with a wall in the middle to keep them from immediately having a melee rush available from the start. Instead, there's a ghost bomb crate (and I'm pretty sure it's always been that way) tucked away in a little tunnel beneath the spawn points. Both players going for the crate often results in a repelling clash of melee attacks and/or both players blowing up from the player who collects and prematurely releases the ghost bomb while still in its blast radius. Once that risk is realized, players may instead opt to make a quick wall-jump up their side of the stage for the crate waiting for them at the top. 

For most of its pre-release existence, this stage had indestructible stalactite-looking things hanging from the ceiling, taking the part of the axolotl's "eyes". I pictured players using the wall-cling ability to try to camp up there, tossing bombs down while the other player would have the ghost bomb crate available to chase them down and take their place. In practice, this scenario didn't happen too often and when it did, it wasn't very fun. While the ghost bomb's role of giving lower players a way of chasing higher players down remained, the focus of the stage changed: Those square formations on the stage's sides turned out to be well-suited to exciting chases with sticky bombs.  

I doubt anybody else would notice, but Axolotl is a little weird in that it's the only stage in the game where the players start so close to the bottom. It's been long enough that I don't remember for sure, but I don't think I had much of a reason to do this beyond adding a bit of variety. The decision quickly highlighted the challenge for me to balance two of my somewhat opposing goals for the stage (most stages, really): Allowing the real possibility for players to accidentally fall into pits created during play, while also always ensuring there was some means of getting back up to high ground as it is almost always advantageous to be above your opponent. In every other stage, if you die, you at least have the relief of respawning somewhere up high (or occasionally in a mid-level). In Axolotl, you're going straight to the bottom, so you'll be grateful for the carefully-placed respawn blocks that will always give you a viable path. It was very important to me for every stage to have something like this to prevent players from being trapped in unwinnable positions*, and I always tested this by removing all of the (permanently) destructible terrain to make sure you could still get around. If you press the "k" key, you can test this for yourself.

REMIX: Up until a recent update, the remix version of Axolotl was, admittedly, a bit lacking in unique characteristics. The destructible tiles are randomized, as usual for remix stages, and the "eyes" were replaced with chunks of deadly shock blocks, and I mixed up the crate spawns a bit. The addition of the vertically-oriented portals, however, add a significant wrinkle to the way matches on this stage play out. The tight spaces where each portal is positioned makes them rather dangerous to interact with early on, but as the top area is opened up, it becomes a nice quick way to get back near the top. Amusingly, I initially over-looked the potential for the ghost crate to fall endlessly through the two portals until the high velocity caused the collision to fail and ejecting the crate outside of the stage. While it's still possible for this to happen, it's much less likely now. The video attached was actually recorded before I fixed this (as well as the positions of the spawn points-- you may notice that one of them is just a little out of place).

Thanks again for stopping by here. I truly don't expect a single person to read my ramblings, but these are fun for me and give me an excuse to post about the game. If you've found the game through this post, let me know, and please tell me what you think of the game. Until next time!

*There is an unwinnable situation that can (very rarely) happen in the Five Stories stage. I'll talk about that and why I allowed it in another blog post.