Hello Playstation puzzlers!
I’m Blair Lachlan Scott, a writer and producer at Coin Crew Games. We are excited to share with you how our design approach has evolved to bring you exciting new experiences with our first DLC, Escape Academy: Escape from Anti-Escape Island.
evolution of design
After completing the base game, we revisited the process of setting some goals for how we wanted to evolve as a studio for our first DLC. It had to be bigger, better and unexpected. After introspection across the team, he defined three core principles to surpass the previous product.
avoid repetition
After players experienced 12 school-themed levels, the last thing we wanted was for the DLC to feel like a reworked Escape Academy. We wanted to see how far we could push our world by keeping players off campus and keeping the world connected to our academic backgrounds. Threading the needle between these two goals, he arrived at one theme: summer vacation.
Taking the Escapists on vacation unlocked a whole new set of environments and opened doors to dramatic new room buildings. A juicy dichotomy between ‘tropical island locations’ and ‘mysterious science facilities’ was introduced by players landing on ‘escape prevention islands’. Combining these elements, both in art design and level concept, has resulted in some of the most exciting and wacky rooms ever.
deepen the story
In Escape Academy, we were very careful not to let the narrative get in the way of the puzzle. We designed the story to be engaging at different levels of depth without losing the context of the elements within the level. What we found upon release was that players were craving a story that was more intertwined with gameplay and puzzles.
This reaction led us to build the DLC around a contained, linear story arc, with the level premise and story more integrally linked. Our room is always playable from start to finish without any narrative context to keep the game relatable, but the more intimate connection between level design and narrative allows for more obvious stakes and I hope it brings a deeper investment in the story, characters and world. .
increase difficulty
prior to Escape Academy directors Wyatt Bushnell and Mike Salyh designed a real-world escape room and arcade cabinet. A key part of the development process there was rigorous playtesting, which carried over into the development of Escape Academy. While this process has been very important in streamlining gameplay details and improving the user experience, one key element has become apparent to him.As people progressed throughout the game, they got very good So. As a result, some players want a more challenging experience, being able to tackle higher difficulty levels without feeling the ramp-up we were expecting.
There are many levers to pull when adjusting the difficulty of a puzzle game. We had to be tactical in choosing which games to give our players a satisfying experience.
complicated: How many steps does it take to complete the puzzle itself? There’s a fine line between satisfying complexity and having a puzzle or puzzle sequence lose its thread.
amount: Another “easy” lever in theory, but requires some finesse. Our designers are very intentional about how puzzles are ordered and bring people into the environment. Inserting too many puzzles into a level can lead to confusion.
Insensitive: How hard is it to figure out what to do with a given puzzle? This is the hardest to pinpoint as it requires addressing huge differences in thought processes across the player base. For some, certain puzzles click right away, but for others, they might be the hardest in the game.
So… which lever did you decide to pull?
All of them!
Escape From Anti-Escape Island’s levels are filled with intricate puzzles and intricate room flows, a natural step in the evolution of game design. Consistent playtesting helped balance the DLC. Our hope is that it will be a challenging, satisfying, and surprising experience for players.
more coming
We’ve also noticed that Coin Crew Games are trying to define how things can be pushed further as they set their sights on their next major update. Can’t wait to play Escape From Anti-Escape Island, We look forward to inspiring you with all-new puzzles.
Escape Academy: Escape from Anti-Escape Island launches on PS4 and PS5 on November 10, 2022.
