Level/Asset Design

After Marty's presentation on concept and design, I've gone back and started approaching my designing a little differently.

I decided to do a little more research and try to locate some more inspiration for how to design the levels and assets. Specifically: How do I make these levels not be just a Point A to Point B, but something the user can experience? Also: How will the assets add to this?

Many videos have been viewed, and old platformers dusted off.

Specifically, videos/gameplay of:

Castlevania: SOTN
Little Big Planet
Metroid
Super Metroid
Yoshi's Story
Donkey Kong
Mega Man
Etc...

Since a good amount of these were 2D and did not utilize any type of tracks system, they were mainly for level layout. However, I did find some things to keep in mind when incorporating aspects into a 3D platformer. One of the main aspects was: make it easy/forgiving to judge distances for jumping areas.

I've got some good ideas in mind now, but we'll see if those ideas still work after hearing EA's presentation.