I’ve gotten to the last level of Rayman 2 (PC version). I just spent the better part of an hour trying, unsuccessfully, to get through the fourth stage (where you’re riding a flying shell through a maze of twisty little passages). I think this level has inspired me to make a 3D platformer of my own! Here’s a few little rules I’m going to follow:
[ul]
[li]Obstacles which do 3% damage have no business sending the player back to the beginning of the level/stage/section.
[/li][li]If I do feel utterly compelled to create obstacles which send the player back to the beginning of the level, these will not be the only obstacles in the entire level.
[/li][li]If I somehow take a blow to the head and start making a level in which send-the-player-back-to-start obstacles are the only ones, there will either be at least one checkpoint between each of these obstaclse, and/or it will not require so much precision that being three inches off in any direction will cause a collision with this kind of obstacle, beyond one-fifth of the way into the level.
[/li][li]I will not create any obstacles so densely packed that, in a third-person perspective, I collide with one because one which I had already passed was blocking my way.
[/li][li]If there are to be any vehicles of which the control scheme differs significantly from normal gameplay, there will at least be a “slow down” control, if not actual brakes.
[/li][li]Furthermore, these vehicles will … the controls … for chrissakes, the controls of the Flying Shell are deliberately awkward. They made the freaking thing so that every time you turned, you ROTATED as well. Yeah, you can correct this, but if you screw up by half an inch, you never freaking have time to do it before you crash into a wall. And I thought getting 100% was a headache. ARGH.
[/li][/ul]