2D Mega Man Level v2 Feedback

 What went right was that the play testers spent about 10 minutes playing through the level. The level flowed better than version 1 since there was tweaks made to make the enemies and critical pathways easier to follow. The play testers were able to beat the level without stressing too much and overall enjoyed the level. What went wrong was that I could've used different play testers so that I had a fresh set of players that have a different point of view and different skill levels. Also, the level was tweaked to be more player friendly, but it may have not the challenge that I was hoping for. For example, I was hoping that the level was going to be more diverse in challenge but I felt that the players were facing the same challenges or enemies repeatedly. What I can do to improve my level for next time is take into consideration what worked well and what didn't and install those aspects into my level. I can try to make the level more vertical so that the player doesn't feel that they're always in a linear level. The challenges were appropriate to the skillset of the player because they didn't breeze by the level but there wasn't any point in time where they were stuck or I needed to assist them. They did die in the level a few times but thanks to the checkpoints they were able to learn from their mistake and go at it again. The critical path needs to be worked on and isn't as obvious as hoped. The reason why is because players would be given two paths to follow, typically one that's ground level and one that's elevated, and they weren't sure which one to take. At times they would try to clear one enemy from one path way and then go back to visit the other pathway. I made some measures to make sure that the player couldn't go back once they went past a certain point of the path they chose. For example, if they went past where the two paths end, then there is a jump they need to make to continue on in the level. If they make this jump then they can't go bak since the new pathway is too low and the old pathway is too elevated for the players to make the jump back. There were circulation elements included in the level. There were corridors put into the level that made the player feel condensed into a smaller and long hallway. These were made so that the player could use their slide ability and face enemies head on. There were also rooms that made the player use their environment and surroundings to defeat enemies or avoid them. In both of these examples, the main goal was for the player to react to the enemies and use the other skills they had.