The original title of this post was "modular level construction," but that's not nearly as fun. :)
I'm currently adding all the necessary story beats to the game. This means having all the story locations in the game, even if they're just roughed in. The next round of playtesters should be able to play through the story, and we can see if any changes are necessary.
The game has several large 'story planets' that play like traditional platformers, albeit on a radial world. The character movement - running, jumping, riding moving platforms, etc. - was done a few months ago. All the main characters are in, and the beginnings of a working dialog system.
But how does one build structures on a radial planet? Would the people there compensate for the strange curvature of the world? Or would they build straight up and down and hope for the best? Trying to imagine how such a planet might look, I did a quick digital painting and built a level on it. The platforms are those dark red rectangles.
The big problem with this is that it's inflexible. I could move the individual trees around, but moving the platforms too much from the art made the whole thing look terrible. And the house was stuck where it was.
I tried simplifying the items I put in the game. In this image, things like the garden and the tea table are represented symbolically. And while it was easier to move the pieces around, it didn't convey the scale I was hoping for. If I couldn't figure out how to make a rough draft, how could I jump straight to the final version?
Then, while working on an unrelated system, I had a brainwave. Most systems I prototype start as cubes and cylinders - primitive geometry that's easy to manipulate in Unity and other 3D programs. Why not prototype the locations using cubes as well?
I made this house today. It's not perfect, but it does start to communicate the feeling I want the player to have as they approach and explore the house. And the nice thing is, the floors already work like floors because the platform system was already in place.
One more quick note, for people who care about aesthetics like I do. As I created the cubes, I assigned each one a colorful material. I have a small number of these that I use like paint pots - it's quick and it keeps the color palette consistent.
Building the rest of the locations should go pretty quickly now. Woo!