Broforce Level Design Tips

"Brom is strong! If I die, I have to go before him, and he will ask me, 'What is the riddle of steel?' If I don't know it, he will cast me out of Brolhalla and laugh at me."
~Bronan the Brobarian

First we must learn about the elements of awful levels.

The building is made of steel, so you have few options.

The floors are flat, so enemies will see you before you see them.

The walls are flat, so you might as well climb them with ease. But atop this horrifying metal monolith is a keystone of terrible level design:

This structure exists to narrow player options in the most artificial way possible. It is gross.
Stop making these. If you encounter this atrocious obstacle, then here are a few ways of overcoming it with a select few bros:

Stop making levels with steel. The Brofessional will completely break the design, since indestructible walls is not what Broforce is about.

"Some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ are always trying to ice skate uphill."
~Brade

Some map makers think it is cool to make a cave level where players would not think to go above it, but players can and they will. And when they do, they will witness how little you know of the Map Extents Camera.

If you don't want players to go above the ceiling of your level, then go to the Meta tab and use the Map Extents Camera.

Problem solved.
These radio tower checkpoints must be handled with care. The Horizontal Checkpoint destroys everything to the left of it when the map reloads. The Vertical Checkpoint destroys everything below it on reload. They might make the difficulty and reload times more forgiving, so make sure to use them right, or you'll have an impasse.
An impasse is a point where no progress can be made. This frequently occurs with the destructible terrain and the spam of Broddock's cluster bombs, but it should not happen too easily.
If your level is meant to be impasse prone then don't put any cages in it. Respawning just to die is frustrating. Correctly use Super Checkpoints and Empty Cages for support.

These cages will have bros if a teammate is dead. So it prevents accumulation of lives for individuals.

An impasse can occur vertically as well, but you can fix this problem with perfect ladder composition. Ladders are indestructible, as are ziplines and checkpoints, so use these components to ensure the level is possible even if everything else is destroyed.

Try making it look natural though, so don't put too much of these close together, and make it look like they serve a purpose within the level itself, not just to help the player get up.
This is wrong, elevators should not clip through the ground or ceiling.

This is correct. Notice the pit on the ground below the elevator.

Now stop making these mistakes.

"I ain't got time to bleed."
~One of Brodator's victims

This is how to ensure the framerate is stable and load times are reasonable.

Do not make your level bigger than it needs to be. The best levels are dense, but concise.

It will probably take you longer to load that level than to complete it.

Most platformers use walls as area denial, but in Broforce you can destroy and climb terrain so it actually functions as area allowance. Negative space is the best form of area denial in Broforce, since players must find a way to get over a pit and less terrain also helps lower loading times. Do not use a lot of infinite enemy spawners, like the Alien Spawner doodad. Too much enemies results in a lousy challenge and framerate. Use triggers to make enemy spawning more manageable. An excess of physics objects like the chains in the ParallaxDecoration will also reduce the framerate.

"You know what the difference is between you and me? I make this look good."
~Bro in Black

It's functional, but it's drab.

Now it's functional and beautiful. It is important to set up terrain with rules and tiers. Then apply the nature of that setup to the terrain composition.

• Earth is the typical primary organic terrain, so it should be placed mostly everywhere as the foundation.
  
• Stone is the primary artificial terrain, so it is typically thin and angular to form buildings
  
• CaveRock is the secondary organic terrain so it is randomly placed below Earth as it is more durable.
  
• Bunker is the secondary artificial terrain, so it is placed on the edges of underground areas.
  
• Background terrain sets up the zoning, determining which area is in a building, underground, or a bathroom. It also hides unwanted parallax elements.
  
• All other forms of terrain serve specific purposes, like Bridges, Barrels, Roofs, Sand, Wood.

After Terrain is placed, then doodads should be added for enemies and extra flair.
IndoorDoodads, OutdoorDoodads, Scaffolding, Mooks and the like.

Finally Background Doodads should be placed from front to back, so it is easier to obscure unwanted elements of the background doodads (The flat end of a parallax should never be seen):

• 1. Tree
  
• 2. TreeBackground
  
• 3. CaveParallax1
  
• 4. CaveParallax2
  
• 5. ParallaxDecoration[3]
  
• 6. ParallaxDecoration[0]
  
• 7. TreeFoliageBackground
  
• 8. CaveParallax3
  
• 9. ParallaxDecoration[1]
  
• 10. Parallax 1
  
• 11. Parallax 2
  
• 12. Paralllax 3
  
• 13. ParallaxDecoration[2]

You don't need to use all of them, but try to place them in that order.

"Woah!"
~Mr. Anderbro

Make sure your level is fun and fair.

Setting up the routes in a level can be complicated with all the destructibility, but it is important to not make levels completely linear. It is better to use checkpoints frequently and at points of convergence and divergence.

If checkpoints are not frequent, retreading the now barren path will be a chore.

Branching paths here with the divergence checkpoint on the bottom and convergence checkpoint on top, as well as a checkpoint on each path.
Placing cages is just as important as placing checkpoints, but it is fun to place some cages in hard to reach areas, or areas off the main path like a reward for being observant or overcoming an optional challenge. For fairness, it is polite to start a level such that the bros cannot be harmed if they have not pressed any inputs. If the level begins with mooks seeing and shooting the player then it is a rough start, it is annoying, and the mission will constantly reload if the player is inactive. The objects in Broforce are dynamic, so how they interact with each other is more valuable than how they act alone. Damaging scaffolding will destroy a 3x2 block of terrain above it. BackgroundScaffolding will collapse when the terrain below it is destroyed. Pipes can cause chain reactions of explosions. Large Boulders will destroy thin terrain and crush enemies. Propane tanks can be used to kill enemies and launch players. And much more...

Rube Goldberg x Michael Bay

Now start making good campaigns.