This is how I like to design dungeons.
Step 1 Gimmick and theme: What is the gimmick of the dungeon? For this one it is fire that can be permanently higher, water, and a grass thing can be higher so you can climb it. The theme usually goes with the gimmick, so you can think of the gimmick and the theme should come with or the other way around. This dungeon also has a item that you get in the dungeon that allows the player to turn the grass, water, and fire on.
One big tip I learned from To The Top gimmicks is this: Two ways the dungeon can be, like: Water high and low, fire on and off, a barrier that goes on and off, the temperature changing to change the way the water is, like water, ice, and frozen ice you can't move through, and my personal favorite use of this idea, cloud, sand, cave, and grass. So yeah, this idea of two ways the dungeon can be can go a long way.
Step 2 layout: Knowing the size and the way the dungeon flows. Why not design the screens first? Bad idea. This is because what if the layout is garbage and you want to change it, yelp, bye bye screen you spent a ton of time on. And here's me doing the layout first:
Made layout for the water area.
Made layout for the grass area, also added the way the fire, grass, or water being up or down will look which is on the right of the photo.
Made the layout for the fire area, notice that I didn't do any nice graphics yet.
Designed the water area.
Step 3 Designing the screens and adding detail: As you can see after I made the layout for the fire area I then designed the screens.
Step 4 finishing touches: Now to add all that fancy detail, playtest and change that one thing, and it is done!
I hope this helps for any new comers wanting to design dungeons. Because I love dungeon design and I would love if you know how to design them too!
Edited by TheRock, 26 February 2021 - 05:06 PM.