Hub Area Purpose

The hub will be a room with pathways that connect to the other puzzles. There'll be landmarks or connecting objects that act as a barrier to the END. After completing all the puzzles at the end of the pathways, the player can access the END.

The hub comes immediately after the tutorial and it's not to be complicated as the other areas.

Research

Manifold Garden

Manifold garden was a big inspiration when designing the hub area for the game. In William Cher's level design GDC talk he explains how the level should have logical architecture. The world needs to have geometry that allows the player to understand where they should go. In one of his levels he talks about a tower being a center piece that breaks off into different areas. The tower acts as a landmark and by breaking off into different puzzles it helps the player orient themselves in the world.

The tower like structure centerpiece showcased in manifold garden (Taken from: Manifold Garden: Level Design in Impossible Geometry)

When planning my own hub area I wanted to take inspiration of having a center piece that acted as a landmark. From there the pathways would split off to different smaller puzzles. It reduces the complexity of the overall level and makes it easier to understand the different orientations the player faces. 

Planning

The player will make a small drop before being shown a giant door. The door will have two staircases that surround it and lead to another corridor. That corridor will have portals that split off into different puzzle areas. The trick  here will be making all the rooms open ended. Which is very different to the closed off rooms that player has had.

When planning out the design of the rooms I wanted the hub to very small and act as a landmark / point of interest to the player.

[Planning the flow of the hub area]

The landmark would be a giant door that would be visible to the player. Solving the individual puzzles would lead back to the hub area that would draw attention to the exit. Drawing out the hub area was difficult as the core idea was to create a tower that diverted into different areas.  So there had to be height and a sense of scale when creating the path ways.

Hub area + Big door planning 1

After climbing up the stairs the player will walk through a portal that will link to a staircase that travels upwards. It's meant to generate hype for the player as they continue this climb upwards in a new direction.

Hub area + Big door planning 2

Hub area + Big door planning 3

After climbing up the full set of stairs the player comes across two different paths. Each path leads to a different puzzle that the player can solve.

Hub area + Big door planning 4