Levels going up, levels going down

What happened

I couldn't sleep again. Instead of tossing and turning, I sat down and worked on something that has been on my mind for a long time: height in our world. Call Me Human is a 2D game, but it shouldn't feel flat. When you walk through Veyl, I want it to feel like a real place with depth, with hills you climb, edges where you stop and look down, and hollows you have to find your way into.

What's done

Hills as high as you like. In the Terra Engine, the tool we build our world with, I paint an area and it rises by one level. Paint over it again and it goes higher still. There's no fixed limit on how tall a hill can get.

Plenty of ways up. Every rise can have a way up, and there's a whole set to choose from: stairs, a ramp, a path, a rope, vines and a ladder. Between two edges at the same height you can stretch a bridge and walk right across a gorge. The ramp, path, ladder and bridge now each have their own look.

The world keeps going up top. The top of a hill is just regular ground. Plants grow there and paths can continue, the same as down below. And the rock face underneath matches the ground on top.

What's next

So going up works. Now I want to go down as well, and that's what I'm planning right now. The idea: I draw an edge as a free line across the landscape, straight or wavy, even all the way across the map, and then pick which side sits lower. If it's just one level, you simply hop down. From two levels on it becomes a cliff, and the only way down is a proper route like a rope, a ladder or a path.

The same goes for pits right in the middle of the landscape: one level down, then another, and a rope leads to the bottom.

For now these are just my sketches, not the finished game. But I'm already looking forward to the moment you stand at one of those edges, look down and wonder how to get there.

See you soon,