Trolltorial
How to make a great troll level.
One rule above all the others: a good troll makes the player laugh, not rage. Everything below is in service of that.
Start with the Troll Guide
The definitive community document on troll level design is defender1031's Troll Guide. If you read one thing, read this:
Read defender1031's Troll GuideWhat makes a good troll level
There are two kinds of criteria. Craft is how good it is. Gates are dealbreakers. Fail one and it's not ready, no matter how strong the rest is. Use this to judge your own level before you release it, and to give feedback when you playtest someone else's.
Craft
1. Humor over Torment
Did the trolls make you laugh, or did they just feel mean and tedious?
2. Navigation & Clarity
Was it clear where to go? And the instant you died, did you understand why? A fair troll is one the player "gets" the moment it springs.
3. Fair & Consistent
Did deaths feel earned? Do contraptions fire the same way every time, with no pixel perfect by accident setups, no hidden-block "gotchas," no lazy enemy spam? Jank that kills you at random isn't a troll, it's a bug.
4. Pacing
Did it overstay its welcome, or keep sections tight? Are waits and downtime placed with intent, like a long wait right before a checkpoint, not stranded in the middle of a section? And remember: more checkpoints are always appreciated.
Gates Pass / fail. Any fail = not ready
- No softlocks. There's always a way to die or move forward. The player should never have to reach for the "Start Over" button.
- No cheese or skips. No unintended way to bypass a troll or smuggle an item past where it's meant to be taken. If a tester finds one, the troll didn't fire.
Tips that tend to hold up
- Keep sections to roughly 6 to 10 trolls. Long enough to build a rhythm, short enough that a death doesn't cost the player ten minutes. A guideline, not a law. Break it on purpose, not by accident.
- Put your long waits right before a checkpoint. Re-doing a slow elevator or a long auto-scroll over and over is torment, not comedy. Bank the wait where the player only pays it once.
- Telegraph, then subvert. The best trolls set up an expectation and then break it. A trap with zero setup just feels random.
- Watch someone play it blind. You can't be surprised by your own troll, and you can't find the cheese you didn't think of. A fresh player tells you what the rubric can't.