Level designs and ideas.

Here i gathered a bunch of game screens with similar environments to get a overall feel of the color pallette and to reference the various themes and styles of each world. 

Here is where i blocked out some platforms and surroundings. This one here is for the Forest level and you can see multiple ideas that we can use to really bring out a forest/ruined temple type environment. The only problem i think is that this concept has more of a jungle feel to it, i felt it was much easier to gain character and bolder silhouettes from doing a more jungle scene but i'm not completely sure that is what we are aiming for. 

Another blocked out scene of how some of the ice level could look. I wanted the start of the level to seem like antarctic plains, with snowy hills to populate the background. This level will feature slippy floors what means harder gameplay and puzzle elements like sliding blocks to advance. 

The main idea of these concepts is to get a feel of the depth and the types of platforms in each environment, but also I thought it would be a nice idea to have each level go through two different area types - 

World 1 : Forest - Ruined temple.  

World 2 : Snowy Plains - Ice Cavern

World 3 : Lava Mountains - Volcano

While the gameplay is nothing new, we are hoping to bring out new and exciting mechanics through the each individual levels.
We have gone through several ideas on how the levels will work. One of the thought processes were having each level divided into sections, first half of the level would be platforming while the second half will contain a puzzle or two before you can advance. This is something to consider a little later on in development as one of our main concerns is whether switching to the mechanic will break the speed and the flow of the retro style platformer we're aiming for. We want the Mechanic to be controllable by either keyboard controls or even possibly the mouse, as this is the change the gameplay up a little during play to either complete puzzles or to change the environment so you can proceed.

Each level has a game changing mechanic to advance difficulty throughout.

The first forest level shall contain various points where there is winds, either blowing from below to reach further jumps and to give the player more of a challenge.

The second Ice level will contain Ice floors. This is will be to challenge the player and for other puzzle elements. Slippy platforms will make it harder to control the character or even moveable blocks on the icy floor to use for different puzzles.

The third Fire level will contain more environmental hazards of any other level. Meteors falling from the sky and volcanic magma rolling across the floor. On this level the platforms shall move too, something that wouldn't previously be in any other levels and also keeping puzzles to a minimum as we want this level to solely rely on platforming. While all generic platforms have you running and jumping to the left we wanted another idea to be to switch to vertical style platforming half way through the level.

Our last and final level is going to be a mixture of all 3 previous levels. By using platforms and mechanics from the other levels to increase the difficulty; Forest winds, Icy platforms and fire hazards. The level will be based off technology and glitches, and being inside the game. Another idea for this level was to be 'chased' by the game breaking glitch or 'binary' so the level cannot be done slow. This will hopefully add speed and difficulty to the final level.