When I set about creating my final project, "Lonnie the Loris", I wanted it to be a crystallisation of what made the PlayStation 1/2 mascot platformers of the late 1990s-2000s so fun, albeit with improved controls now that modern controllers and keyboards have more directional control parameters. This revelation came to me after playing the most recent instalment in one beloved franchise of this era, and made me realise that I couldn’t just rely on clunky controls and awkward camera angles to add difficulty to my game.

I needed to push the boundaries of fair level design and balance it accordingly with fun factor so that the end product is a game demo that is fun to play casually, but has added challenge for completionists to return to a level and break all the drums in said level to receive a jewel as a reward. My observations of playing the latest instalment was that it relied too heavily on repletion of existing content and increasing the requirement for a “perfect” ending (i.e. complete a level without dying once, break all 150+ boxes in a level and collect >80% of fruit in the level) while actively working against a player trying to do that, including hiding boxes in hard-to-see locations obscured by camera angles and place boxes in locations that cannot be returned to due to gaps that become impassable after the first attempt; these actions become all the more egregious when one considers how the game’s new mechanics do not work 100% of the time.

I do not want my game to be that arbitrarily punishing, and instead want it to cater to both the casual player who just wants to finish a level as well as the completionist player, all while paying tribute to the slapstick humour, wit and charm of the pioneering mascots that carved out the niche in the games market in the first place.