Level Swap (Prototype)

In this cooperative level editor, do your best to build off of friends' ideas without the luxury of communication.

Description

Level Swap is a game that tests players creative ability by asking them to build interesting levels with limited time and resources, and using an in-progress level that they did not create. Each round, players are given a pool of objects to use freely as well as limited currency that can purchase objects outside of that pool. During these rounds, players must build as much as they can under the time limit, at which point it is passed to a friend who must repeat the same process on what has already been built. To aid in communication, players can also spend currency to attach signs in their level with brief notes to the next builder. By the end of a pre-determined number of rounds, players can play through each of their produced levels and upload them for others to play. If their level receives good ratings from other players, they will get extra currency to use in future builds, as well as on cosmetic items. Players will also be rewarded with currency for beating and rating online levels.

Inspired by Super Mario Maker's level editor, Level Head's sharing and reward system, and Ultimate Chicken Horse's "cooperative" editing

Building Loop

1. Receive a blank level or your friend's in-progress level
2. Check your object pool and currency
3. Using those resources, add to the current level with your own ideas
4. Once time is up, swap levels with a friend
5. Repeat

Playing Loop

1. Find a level online or receive a random one
2. Run and jump to avoid obstacles and reach the goal
3. Rate the level on its quality
4. Receive rewards for completing and rating the level
5. Repeat

Progression Loop

1. Build and play levels to receive rewards
2. Spend rewards on cosmetics for playing levels and upgrades for building levels
3. Repeat

The download linked on this page is a prototype designed to be used alongside Super Mario Maker 2. It function as a timer and object randomizer, while offloading the complicated programming to an editor that already exists and is well-known. It was able to successfully emulate the game loop, but one flaw was that it expected extensive knowledge of Mario Maker's controls and gave no time between items being selected and the timer starting. 

Despite this, as the playtesters began to figure the controls out, they were in fact inspired by the random selections and eachother's work to create new ideas, which answers the question posed by the prototype. If I were to change it, I would wait to start the timer until the player pressed a key, so they could take time to pin objects in the top row before being put under time pressure.

Since making a level editor is such a complicated task, I think if I were to take this idea further I would instead design it to work better with Mario Maker, and add support for other pre-existing level editors. That way, people could create with what they're most familiar with and passionate about, and the experience of the game wouldn't be dependent on the quality of or community around a level editor built by one college student.