categoryGames   authorCollin van Ginkel Hessel Bonenkamp Martijn Reuvers   monthSeptember 2009 May 2009 March 2009 December 2009 January 2009 April 2008 March 2007 January 2006

The anatomy of a Toki Tori level

Hi there! Let’s take a look at the process we go through when designing a Toki Tori level. To illustrate this wonderful process we’ll use Forest Falls hard 6 as an example. You probably know all the levels by heart, but here is a screenshot from the Toki Tori editor to refresh your mind:


Step 1: The Hook

The way we start when designing a Toki Tori level is to come up with a hook for the level. The hook can be a specific theme, a new way of combining items or a specific puzzle element. Actually, it can be anything as long as it makes the level stand out from the rest of the levels.

The upgrade Toki Tori got when moving to the Wii opened up some new possibilities. One interesting new possibility was the removal of the two enemies per level limit. Before, on the Game Boy Color, the Toki Tori levels had a max of two enemies. The Wii packs a lot more horsepower than the Game Boy Color, so there was no more need to limit the number of enemies!

This new feature was the inspiration for a level that revolved around building a stack of frozen porcupines. Because, you know, who wouldn’t want to create a stack of frozen porcupines?

Placing four porcupines next to a gap that’s exactly four ice cubes would be way too obvious, so we need to distract the player from the obvious solution (a common practice in Toki Tori levels). So giving the player infinite Freeze-O-Matic shots and spreading the porcupines throughout the level might nudge the player into freezing the porcupines on the spot without getting stuck.

Step 2: The Setup

So when the basic idea has been fleshed out, we start roughing in a level using only a handful of tiles and focus on the collision data and game objects. The level’s layout changes a lot in this stage; pieces of level get moved, scrapped and added constantly.

The image below shows such a first draft. As you can see, the basic features are already in place. The location to stack the four porcupines stuck in the lower right corner, the zigzag structure and the four porcupines.


It turned out that the above incarnation of the level was way too hard so it needed to be tweaked. And then tweaked again. And then tweaked some more. And then, finally, tweaked just a little bit more until the level became playable.

Step 3: Makeup

We spend absolutely no time on making the level look pretty until it works as intended. The reason for this is that making a level look pretty takes a significant amount of time. That time would be wasted with every change we would make to make the level play better, so we don’t start making it look pretty before it works (almost) perfectly. Which is now!

To make the levels more interesting, we place decoration tiles such as flowers, a collapsed bridge and even a couple of waterfalls. Fortunately much of the work is done automagically: bits of grass and pebbles get scattered on the grassy floors and some tiles (like the earth and ladders) get some random variations.

When all the tiles are in place, we move onto the back- and foreground. You might have noticed that each level has a, slightly, unique background, changing each level’s the atmosphere subtly. We create each background by placing planes with hand-painted textures as if they were cardboard cutouts in a shoebox diorama. Each plane can be freely moved, scaled, rotated and colored, allowing virtually endless possibilities.

In the case of Forest Falls hard 6, we placed some foliage in between the waterfalls, let some light beams fall into the background and added dark edges around the level. Which, looking at it from an angle, would look like this:

 
Step 4: Reality

Wouldn’t it be nice if everything went as you had planned it? No matter how careful you are, every now and then you get slapped in the face by reality. You playtested your level carefully but then, suddenly, a colleague discovers an alternative route that completely breaks your level! Or, sometimes a bug gets fixed and breaks your level completely!

The latter happened with Forest Falls hard 6. Very late in the development process somebody discovered that the porcupine’s movement speeds weren’t the same for the left and right direction. In other words: a porcupine walking to the left was slightly faster than a porcupine walking to the right. Fixing the speeds was easy, but it did break the timing for the carefully placed porcupines.

These things happen, and, while they might be time consuming to fix, in the end we’re happy someone found out and we could get them fixed. Still, even after all this time full-proofing our levels, people still surprise us with creative and sometimes alternative solutions.

You can see one of the two known solutions here; can you find the other solution?
 



Comments Very interesting post about the game. So there's another solution to that level? Took me a while to come up with ONE solution (that ended up like the youtube video, and now you tell me there's another one?

Sooo, how long before a sequel to Toki Tori is up on Wiiware?
I'm very curious about the other solution of this level. It is very hard to look at it with neutral eyes, because you know "the" solution. Could you give us a hint about this alternative one ?

greetings,
Bart


Wow! I must have found the 2nd solution entirely by chance! It didn't even think about doing it as shown on that video. It just didn't occur to me. What I did was freeze the porcupines from the other side of the gap on the wooden bridge -that is from the right side (I cleared the gap using the warp item). It wasn't easy.
Loved this post. It's amazing to see how much work you put into a level so that we get this wonderful experience.
Hy,
I am stuck in the 3rd word at level 10 . Impossible to win ?
Can somebody help me ?
Thanks .
you guys who design this game problably was high on somenthing because some level is just insane i think 4 one hour and when i'm ready for give up i find tori way out very hard game a+ job well done guys
Level 10 has a solution Nicolas. You need to control the direction the top slug goes by little sucks of the vacuum. It will turn and follow you! Jump down each level getting it to change direction until you get to the egg on the far left, half-way down, at the bottom of a ladder. Get the egg and quickly place a platform to stop the slug falling all the way down the left side of the puzzle. Turn and make one more platform then jump down the next gap. Turn to the left and put in a third platform over the first of two gaps then wait for it to drop down to your level, make it change direction again and run up the ladder to avoid it. It should now fall down and get trapped. Get the other eggs on the right, build the last platform and finish by sucking up the last slug to get the last egg. It helps to squeeze two fingers together to make the puzzle pause and go small so you can plan your moves. You need to practice a bit first.
hey can someone helo me get thru world 3 level two?
In world 2 level 6 what's thé solution?
Can somebody help me with world 3- difficault level 6?
May I get a hint for world 4 level 8? Thanks.
I am now onto the Bubble Barrage and can't seem to get past Level One!!!
I have worked out how to replenish the air tank but can't get beyond the platform.
Any suggestions, hints please would be helpful.
Hi guys!!
I need your help!!
I can't go trough the 2nd level of the bubble barrage.. Are 3weeks I'm thinking on it but I can't do it..can anybody help me??
Please!!!
Thank you very much!
Anyone looking for held should try on Youtube with for example: Toki Tori forrest falls level 10 iPhone

We neer help how can we reach THE egg in level4 of ghost?
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