Death Road to McGamkedonald’s is a game developed as part of a team entry for Ludum Dare 41. Death Road to McGamkedonald’s is a combination of a top-down racer and a pong game. As the player races their hippogriff, every acceleration fuel is depleted and the only way to refuel is by feeding the hippogriff. As the player navigates the dungeon, they have to collect ingredients which they will cook in a pong-like mini-game to be able to feed their hippogriff to keep racing.

Diagram used to communicate level design and intent to team.

As the level designer for Death Road to McGamkedonald’s, I was looking for our first level to be a platform that permitted the player to understand and explore the game’s mechanics in the simplest way possible, rather than offering any immediate challenges through the level. I went with a very simplistic path, a circular trajectory, where the player wouldn’t encounter any deviations from the core racing mechanics as long as they stayed on the brick tiles. A second type of surface was also created for this level, the purple sand tile, from which a shortcut to the finish line is offered, but the player’s speed is reduced by 2/3 when traversing it, creating a mechanical trade-off and thus strategic possibilities for a decision-making process.

A higher quantity of pick-up items were placed in the sand tiles to balance out the reduction in speed that happens, but also to create the choice of exchanging speed/time for resource items. The starting point and end point of the game were placed adjacent to each other to be able to immediately present the game’s goals to the player in the starting frame. Doing this I provide a clear context as to what has to be done to win the game and further the effort of permitting the player’s cognitive resources to focus on exploring the game’s mechanics instead of also trying to anticipate the goal of the level.

Death Road to McGamkedonald’s game level is composed of six pixel art tiles. Four of these tiles help depict the ancient dungeon atmosphere we were going for. The other two tiles help us create the pools of sand located inside this dungeon.

Boulder on sand.

Purple sand tile.

Brick floor tile.

Finish line on brick floor.

Obelisk on brick floor.

Obelisk on room edge.