Apogee Armada Act I

Note: This is a huge picture, so I recommend to view its entirety in a new tab or new window.

Two years ago when I first started posting my art, I put up a few pieces of level design I did that were supposed to be make up an entire stage level (or act, as I designed this under the mentality of a Sonic level). This arrangement places them together into the cohesive single act they form (excluding the chunk at the end that starts Act II-speaking of which, I do intend to post that as well as the Act III I also drew up). As I intend to remove the original singular parts, the descriptions for what's going on in and what makes up each page of the level (previously known as "parts) will be reposted here. Warning though-it's a doozy.

Page 1:

The first of a series of drawings that I've been meaning to upload for some time now. Before I was drawing and coloring concept art of level design for platformers, I was a year prior drawing some concept art maps of level design, influenced by level maps of Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

This is the first part of the first act of a map of level design I drew, with it's trope based on an aerial airship (yet another piece of art influenced by the Genesis Sonic games-Flying Battery in particular. Also note the use of "acts."). I say first part because this map because this act (out of three for this "zone") alone covers 3 and 1/3 pages(!) This one in particular starts out at the bottom of the ship. Will expand this description further on what's going on here.

Try to ignore the faded unrelated drawings that can be seen, as I had some drawings I drew on the back. Needless to say, I corrected this with future pages.

Page 2:


Page 3:

This is the third part of the first act of a map of level design I drew, with it's trope based on an aerial airship. This section continues the focus on platforming on the clouds. The platforms are all over the place here, and so are the enemy robots too. Most of the "lines" in the clouds are supposed to represent the platforms the player walks on, while some of them are "walls" that the player can go through. The (mostly) symmetrical boxes formed by wavy lines connected together by round orbs are supposed to represent electric lines that periodically go on and off. Yeah, this level's supposed to be a tough one. The section in the middle of the picture, between the completely cloudy skies is supposed to be another airship passing by the player.

Oh and that short line at the right of the "loop" at the right of the picture is not a drawing flub, as you'll see in Part IV...

Page 4:

This is the fourth/final part of the first act as well as the first part of a second act of a map of level design I drew, with it's trope based on an aerial airship.

Act I wraps up with a end-of act miniboss. The marked lines represent the camera boundaries of your boss. Here the boss (entering from above) is one of the villain's top mooks who controls an airship equipped with orbs that shoot beams at your player (the lines drawn to them are supposed to mark where their firing angle). Here the player is supposed to run out of the steep pit and use the floating platforms to attack the boss from beneath-but watch out for the exhaust (which can shoot fire every now and then) which is also located under there! After 8 hits, the boss is defeated and you can go complete the level at the marked flagpole (which is supposed to be a combination of the checkpoint flagpole of the Mario games and the rotating goalpost of the Sonic games).

If you're wondering what that mech below the boss is, it's supposed to be an "alternate" boss act that awaits the player who travels through that aforementioned "hidden" line at the third part of the first act. After this boss is defeated, you're able to complete the act and see a "transition cutscene" to an alternative act (here marked "Act A") you've found and unlocked. It's essentially the same as the "secret" exits/flagpoles in the Mario games. But be weary-this boss is considerably harder to beat than the standard one. Instead of a marked slope pit, you've got a floating platform hovering over a bottomless pit. There's only one method this boss can attack you compared to the two/three in the standard boss (as well as two hitboxes compared to one), but it makes up for it by having a /very/ accurate laser that fires more frequently than the weapons in the standard boss. If you're hit, it's likely you'll be knocked off to your doom in the bottomless pit below. The boss was originally supposed to have missiles shoot from the wings as well, but I assumed the boss would be /too/ hard as a result. :I

Act II switches from a completely cloudy atmosphere to a rainy/thunderstorm atmosphere, and starts the player's infiltration of another ship. You normally start at the top of this ship this time, but if you stay on the second cloud between the cloud platform space of the first act and the ship of the second (which starts falling down to a bottomless pit due to the weight of the character's player) and jump off (and strike the door) at the right moment, you can enter another path within the ship!

See Act II here: yeow95.deviantart.com/art/Apog…
See Act III here: yeow95.deviantart.com/art/Apog…