Cut The Rope 3

General information

Platforms:	Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Vision
Genres:	Casual, Puzzle
Copyright holder:	ZeptoLab

Introduction

Cut the rope 3 is a sequel in the well-known Cut the Rope IP from ZeptoLab, I worked on it while employed at Paladin Studios. The game features over two hundred levels in which it's your primary objective to reunite Nibble Nom with Om Nom. Nibble Nom's position can be manipulated by interacting with various mechanics in the levels, such as cutting physic based ropes, lowering water levels and attracting objects with a magnet.

My main focus during the project was the level design, I did this allong with Jos Tellegen (senior designer) and Jesse Brolsma (design intern). Other involved members in the level design process were Coen Neessen (Game Director) and Shahab Djafarpour (lead designer) who would review the levels and gave excellent feedback. Additionally, various other colleagues participated in weekly playtesting sessions to help further refine the game.

Furthermore, I have made various other contributions to the project, including designing and prototyping mechanics, programming tools, integrating haptic feedback, and implementing several UX enhancements.

Design process

The design of the levels was separated into 5 phases. This was done this way so that issues could be caught early on in the design process and it would minimise time loss.

• Phase 0: The initial idea of the level, this was centred around finding the player experience. This could be a sketch on paper or a rough interactable in Unity.


• Phase 1: Here the level starts to take shape, the designer builds the level in Unity and it’s required to have 3 stars that you can collect on your way to Om Nom.


• Phase 2: The level gets refined, an environment is assigned to the level and the designer ensures that the platform shape fits that environment. An example would be that platforms in the Shipwreck environment need to look like planks. Furthermore, the level needs to be consistent, Nibble Nom shouldn’t get stuck on colliders on some playthroughs.


• Phase 3: Art assets are added to the level. Assets such as plants, crystals and hieroglyphs that can’t be interacted with.


• Phase 4: Unused gameobjects are removed from the level scene, to increase the performance of the game.