Alpha Milestone – A Fresh Start, A Finished Level

After stepping away from this project for longer than expected, I'm officially back on track—and not just limping along, but actually crossing a major milestone. As of this week, I’ve completed a full, playable level for my thesis project. It’s been redesigned from the ground up since the break, and more importantly, it’s one I’m actually proud of. The alpha is ready for submission.

When I last left off, the project was stuck in a bit of an identity crisis. I had ideas scattered across different puzzle approaches, visual styles, and conflicting scopes. Coming back to it with fresh eyes gave me the clarity to cut back, simplify, and focus hard on the experience I wanted players to have—particularly around the research question: “Do environmental diegetic tutorials foster stronger retention, autonomous problem-solving, and curiosity-driven exploration than directive tutorials in 3D platformer puzzle environments?”

The level now takes players through three distinct puzzle challenges. Each one is intentionally built around this core question, allowing me to collect meaningful data on player behavior, confidence, and discovery. The biggest shift? The design is no longer just functional—it feels cohesive. The environmental storytelling, atmosphere, and mechanics are all pulling in the same direction.

Some wins from the last stretch:

• Rebuilt the level layout from scratch — this time with natural progression, visual hierarchy, and a clear flow between areas.
• Designed a hidden shortcut path for observant players in the third puzzle to test for exploratory behavior—a perfect fit for the environmental tutorial test group.
• Finalized the central bloom and “mushroom gate” concept as a symbolic payoff at the end of the level.
• Created a full list of reusable scenery assets with stylized constraints to keep scope manageable and consistent.
• Overhauled interaction logic and UI elements, including tooltips that disable themselves after first interaction (and yes—past-me had already planned for this, so future-me was pleasantly surprised).

Challenges still come up. The blocker mushroom’s behavior, setting up flexible tutorial toggles, and making sure player movement boundaries felt clear but organic all took longer than expected. But they’re in. They’re working. And they’re mine.

This post marks the alpha milestone. Next up is refining the experience, bug hunting, and preparing for proper user testing. I’m excited again. And this time, I know where I’m going.

This time for real.