Design Process
I knew ahead of time when designing my level in the project, that the levels that would come before and after mine had widely different themes. One was set underground in a cave, and the other was in a lush green forest. So from the outset my job was to bridge the gap between these settings, and provide a smooth transition so the player wouldn’t have their immersion broken. Using the limited art assets I had to work with, I started by only using the cave ones. Only rocks and stone walls, and using the gray floor and cave background. Then as the level progressed I added in some forest assets, first taking away the stone roof and replacing it with clouds, then I started mixing in some grassy platforms along with the rock ones. Finally I changed the background to the forest and took away the stone walls, adding in trees instead. The floor stayed gray, giving the sense that you hadn’t entirely left the stony area just yet, but now the abundance of greenery made for a less abrupt transition once the player enters the gate at the end of the level and moves to the forest level.