There are lots of duties the stage select has to perform other than picking the next stage. It really serves as the preparation station for the next battle, as the player can choose various loadouts after unlocking certain rewards. The intent was to limit the amount of jumping through menus, as that would mean more time away from the action, and doing it in a visually pleasing way. Goals of the screen:
- Allow the player to choose their next stage
- Show the available rewards for completing each stage and their times
- Show the best time and level of completion for each stage
- Toggle tutorial on/off
- Allow for player 2 to join/drop at any time
- Toggle armor/weapon type for each player
- Toggle “Standard” and “Retro Remix” modes
- Return to Title screen
A Tale of Iteration
Along the way, the requirements changed many times as player testing informed design decisions around upgrades/rewards, level times, and pretty much everything about Bot Gaiden. These tests would also tell us a lot about the Stage Select screen itself — what was easily recognizable and what wasn’t. In the end, some of the more drastic changes were the result of needing a tighter correlation between each boss and their corresponding rewards. Here’s a taste of how we got there:
