{"id":66266,"date":"2026-05-06T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=66266"},"modified":"2026-05-06T18:12:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T09:12:29","slug":"infinity-nikki-level-designer-talks-about-philosophy-behind-large-scale-gameplay-and-map-expansions-in-version-2-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/column\/infinity-nikki-level-designer-talks-about-philosophy-behind-large-scale-gameplay-and-map-expansions-in-version-2-0\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe had to cater to the tastes of our largest player base.\u201d Infinity Nikki level designer talks about philosophy behind large-scale gameplay and map expansions in version 2.0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>At this year\u2019s Game Developers Conference (GDC),\u00a0Infold\u00a0Games held a series of talks about\u00a0the development of its\u00a0flagship titles.\u00a0This\u00a0includes\u00a0hit\u00a0open-world dress-up game\u00a0<strong>Infinity Nikki<\/strong>, which launched\u00a0as a free-to-play title in December 2024.\u00a0During GDC,\u00a0Infinity Nikki\u2019s\u00a0level\u00a0designer PR, who was the lead for the game\u2019s major version 2.0 update from November last year, talked at length about\u00a0the\u00a0extensive\u00a0trial-and-error\u00a0that went into expanding\u00a0the title\u2019s gameplay systems\u00a0without compromising balance, particularly when it comes to\u00a0world-bending\u00a0features like Nikki\u2019s\u00a0Gigantify\u00a0ability.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this article, we bring you the full lecture by&nbsp;PR, courtesy of&nbsp;Infold&nbsp;Games.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Infinity Nikki Version 2.0 PV | Terra&#039;s Call\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/H2Vj8J4wmi0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"version-2-0-came-with-sky-high-expectations-and-demands-from-players\"><strong>Version 2.0 came with sky-high expectations&nbsp;and demands from players<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When I was a primary school student, I started &#8220;working&#8221; for my dad. My job was to&nbsp;operate&nbsp;his&nbsp;game&nbsp;characters to level them up, and this was exactly where my life as a gamer officially began. During college, my favorite game was Minecraft.&nbsp;I loved building various production lines and fortifications in it, and I also loved going out to explore.&nbsp;It is exactly these years of gaming experience that prompted me to choose to become a game designer after graduating from college. What I am going to share with you is\u2014the long-term design and evolution of the core mechanics of Infinity Nikki, one year after its launch.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before that, I would like to introduce the&nbsp;game&nbsp;Infinity Nikki. It is a relaxing and healing open-world dress-up adventure game featuring &#8220;Nikki&#8221; as the protagonist. The core gameplay revolves around platform jumping and dressing up. Unlike the single-player games you might be more familiar with, Infinity Nikki is a free-to-play game released simultaneously worldwide on PC, mobile, and console platforms. This information is&nbsp;very important&nbsp;(laughs), as it will be a crucial element in my upcoming sharing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I wonder if you have ever tried&nbsp;the traditional Chinese dish Mapo Tofu.&nbsp;If not, you should&nbsp;give it a try; it goes perfectly with rice. A classic Mapo Tofu usually consists of tofu,&nbsp;garnishes (minced pork or beef)&nbsp;and&nbsp;seasonings (the core seasonings being Doubanjiang and Sichuan peppercorns). As it spread around the world, various improved flavors&nbsp;emerged. For example, some places replaced the seasonings with miso and sweet bean sauce, while others directly used pre-made Mapo Tofu sauce, all omitting the Sichuan peppercorn entirely. When developing version 2.0 of Infinity Nikki, I was like a chef, improving upon a classic dish of Mapo Tofu (which&nbsp;represents&nbsp;our version 1.0). We needed to create a sense of freshness to surprise our returning customers while&nbsp;satisfying their&nbsp;tastes, and&nbsp;simultaneously try to attract more new diners.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1122\" height=\"685\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1122px) 100vw, 1122px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260506-6626-001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66268\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260506-6626-001.jpg 1122w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260506-6626-001-380x232.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260506-6626-001-768x469.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Version 2.0 is the first version to update the open-world regions one year after Infinity Nikki&#8217;s launch, so players had\u00a0very high\u00a0demands and expectations for it. The diners wanted a brand-new flavor\u00a0\u2013\u00a0brand-new map abilities; a more distinctive tofu\u00a0\u2013\u00a0new styles of maps; rich garnishes\u00a0\u2013\u00a0more interesting map gameplay. I needed to lead my team to cook up this Mapo Tofu 2.0 within a year. At that time, we defined the map abilities as\u00a0Gigantify\u00a0and\u00a0Sticky Claw.\u00a0The map themes were Elderwood Forest and\u00a0Spira. However, our garnishes, which were the gameplay mechanics within the maps, had not been fully confirmed at that time. Due to time constraints, I will focus on sharing the &#8220;seasonings&#8221;, which is the map abilities part of Infinity Nikki, and detail the adjustments and improvements we made to each. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most important is a common issue\u2014ability\u00a0growth and goal establishment. The core ability in 1.0 was &#8220;Float,&#8221; along with regional abilities &#8220;Glide&#8221; and &#8220;Shrink.&#8221; To lower the barrier to entry for players, we gave them the fully realized abilities the moment they\u00a0acquired\u00a0them. The benefit of this is that the abilities are\u00a0relatively easy\u00a0to pick up, and players can have\u00a0a good\u00a0experience\u00a0right from the start. But the ensuing problem\u00a0was:\u00a0throughout the entire\u00a0game\u00a0progression, players had no pursuit of developing these abilities. Therefore, we\u00a0couldn&#8217;t\u00a0establish\u00a0a positive experience loop of: Exploring the\u00a0map,\u00a0\u00a0establishing\u00a0goals,\u00a0improving abilities,\u00a0exploring\u00a0better. Humans are goal-driven creatures. Just like a mouse in a maze is always chasing cheese, players also need us to constantly throw out various short-term goals during their gameplay.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Compared to version 1.0, we made a&nbsp;rather bold&nbsp;attempt for Infinity Nikki in 2.0. First, just like in version 1.0, we designed the fully realized abilities right from the start. After that, we broke down the fully realized abilities into&nbsp;several modules from an experiential&nbsp;dimension, and&nbsp;then differentiated some experiences from these modules. Thus, we derived the&nbsp;initial&nbsp;abilities and player progression goals.&nbsp;Players need to explore the map and collect&nbsp;Whimstars&nbsp;to upgrade their abilities&nbsp;in order to&nbsp;achieve a better exploration experience. I will explain exactly how we did this in detail later.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Going back to the Mapo Tofu, what do you think makes a good seasoning when it comes to cooking?&nbsp;Generally speaking, it&nbsp;needs to satisfy two points.&nbsp;First, catering to the diners&#8217; tastes. Different&nbsp;diners&nbsp;have different requirements for&nbsp;flavor. I come from Sichuan, China, the hometown of giant pandas, so I absolutely love the spicy and numbing &#8220;mala&#8221; flavor;&nbsp;As far as I know, friends&nbsp;from some regions prefer milder&nbsp;tastes;&nbsp;while those from other places might prefer sweetness. Everyone&#8217;s&nbsp;tastes are&nbsp;incredibly complex. Similarly, different players have drastically different demands for their gaming experience. Second, the seasoning itself must be of excellent quality. If the seasoning is not fresh and authentic enough, even&nbsp;if&nbsp;cooked according to the most perfect recipe, the final taste will not meet expectations.&nbsp;With this in mind, what&nbsp;we needed to do became very clear.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1122\" height=\"563\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1122px) 100vw, 1122px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260506-6626-002.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66269\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260506-6626-002.jpg 1122w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260506-6626-002-380x191.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260506-6626-002-768x385.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>First, we had to cater to the tastes of our largest customer base. After the launch of version 1.0, we received a massive amount of player feedback and actual game data, which helped us&nbsp;greatly in&nbsp;judging what kind of experience current Infinity Nikki players want. Second, we needed to ensure the seasoning itself was top-notch, meaning we had to guarantee the fundamental experience of the abilities was excellent. Tofu can have various flavors; it can be Mapo Tofu, or made into cold tossed tofu, braised tofu, red-cooked tofu, or even sweet tofu. Different customers have different preferences. Abilities can also offer different experiences.&nbsp;We found that&nbsp;the majority of&nbsp;players prefer a simple and exhilarating gameplay experience.&nbsp;This is&nbsp;determined&nbsp;by the game positioning of Infinity Nikki. We are a free-to-play game released across all platforms. Many players play the game on their mobile phones during fragmented time. In this context, overly complex, slow-paced operations that are unsuited for mobile devices will degrade the experience. Starting&nbsp;from&nbsp;&#8220;simple and exhilarating,&#8221; we first&nbsp;established&nbsp;our design anchors.&nbsp;The ultimate experience of&nbsp;Gigantify&nbsp;is &#8220;to allow players to run freely in a massive&nbsp;primeval forest, fearless of any dangers and obstacles.&#8221; The ultimate experience of Sticky Claw is &#8220;to let players nimbly weave through the multi-layered Snail Town like Spider-Man.&#8221; With clear experiential goals, the next step was to select suitable, high-quality seasonings.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"implementing-gigantify-was-a-disaster-at-first\"><strong>Implementing&nbsp;Gigantify&nbsp;was a disaster at first<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s&nbsp;introduce&nbsp;Gigantify&nbsp;first. As the name suggests, upon activating the ability, Nikki becomes&nbsp;three times her normal size, gains faster movement speed, and&nbsp;acquires&nbsp;a roaring ability. At that time, this ability had three very prominent issues, which I will explain one by one below. The first issue was weak visual representation. In a 3D platformer game, the position of the main camera affects the player&#8217;s judgment of spatial positioning. When we are in a 2D space, no matter how we pull the camera, it&nbsp;won&#8217;t&nbsp;affect our judgment of spatial distance, but in a&nbsp;3D space,&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;different. When we zoom the camera in and out, our&nbsp;perception&nbsp;of object positions changes due to perspective.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the&nbsp;initial&nbsp;design, our designers wanted to reduce the learning curve for players in this regard, insisting on keeping the final camera effects consistent between normal and Giant Nikki.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second issue arose with the control feel. When we were thinking about how to strengthen the feeling of &#8220;Gigantify,&#8221; the initially considered plan was to &#8220;create a clumsy feeling similar to an elephant or a bear after enlarging.&#8221; Doing this indeed made Giant Nikki look very lively, but this only worked smoothly&nbsp;in&nbsp;a&nbsp;completely flat white-box level. What happened when Nikki entered the rugged, obstacle-filled open world? A disaster struck. As you can see, the open world is covered with various obstacles.&nbsp;Being a platformer game, players&nbsp;naturally want to overcome these obstacles by jumping, but Giant Nikki&#8217;s heavy jumping animation turned this into a torment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The third point is the implementation issue of gameplay derived from the ability. In the&nbsp;initial&nbsp;design, the&nbsp;Gigantify&nbsp;gameplay&nbsp;mainly revolved&nbsp;around two experiences: &#8220;wading through water&#8221; and &#8220;roaring to stun giant beasts.&#8221;&nbsp;Let&#8217;s&nbsp;talk about wading first. In the original concept, normal Nikki is 1.6 meters tall, and Giant Nikki is 6 meters tall. This allowed her to cross waters less than 4 meters deep (normal Nikki&#8217;s wading depth is 1 meter).&nbsp;So&nbsp;we could create lots of gameplay scenarios requiring players to&nbsp;Gigantify&nbsp;to cross waters. This sounded very promising! However, when we truly started building the open world, a problem&nbsp;emerged\u2014Infinity Nikki&nbsp;is a game with a realistic art style.&nbsp;When compared to Minecraft for example,&nbsp;I believe&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;easy for everyone to notice that under a normal game camera perspective, in an environment like&nbsp;Infinity Nikki,&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;almost impossible for us to distinguish the depth of the water. This leads to two kinds of player decisions.&nbsp;First,&nbsp;they&nbsp;will default&nbsp;to&nbsp;assuming all waters are dangerous and avoid them completely. Second,&nbsp;they&nbsp;will walk into the water without clues and accidentally drown. Regardless of which decision the player makes, it is not what we want.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having finished with the water issue,&nbsp;let&#8217;s&nbsp;talk about the giant beasts. The second major core gameplay of&nbsp;Gigantify&nbsp;is:&nbsp;Gigantify, roar to stun giant beasts, and use them as stepping platforms to reach high places and obtain rewards. In the original design, this part of the gameplay was meant to fill the vast land areas in the map&nbsp;above. The gameplay&nbsp;roughly revolved&nbsp;around &#8220;Shrink and stealth, then&nbsp;Gigantify&nbsp;and roar to attract the beast,&nbsp;shrink and stealth&nbsp;again,&nbsp;approach the beast,&nbsp;Gigantify&nbsp;and roar to stun it, and finally use the beast as a platform to reach high places for rewards.&#8221; But in&nbsp;subsequent&nbsp;development and testing, we found that the &#8220;low margin of error&#8221; and &#8220;overwhelming sense of oppression&nbsp;and&nbsp;crisis-ridden experience&#8221; brought by this gameplay ran completely counter to the relaxing and healing vibe our diners (players) were&nbsp;seeking. \u2014We sprinkled too much Sichuan pepper powder! The diners&nbsp;didn&#8217;t&nbsp;like overly spicy Mapo Tofu; they wanted a little more sweetness and a little less numbness.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To address the three&nbsp;major issues&nbsp;of&nbsp;Gigantify, we quickly made the following adjustments: First, adjusting the screen-to-body ratio. Because during actual gameplay in the open world, we do not strictly&nbsp;validate&nbsp;players&#8217; operating skills; it can even be said to be quite lenient.&nbsp;Therefore, keeping the camera effects consistent with normal Nikki became less important, and we decisively abandoned it.&nbsp;Second, removing&nbsp;the sluggishness&nbsp;in turning and jumping, and abandoning the pursuit of absolute realism. A realistic first impression might indeed amaze players, but considering we want&nbsp;Gigantify&nbsp;to be an ability players use for a long time, relaxed controls are far more&nbsp;appropriate.&nbsp;We gave&nbsp;Giant Nikki the same jumping feel as normal Nikki, along with stronger obstacle-crossing abilities. Finally, resolving the application environment of the ability. Starting with the issue of the small water area, this matter relates to our main dish: the map. We cannot make a piece of tofu&nbsp;possess&nbsp;the traits of being &#8220;structurally stable, highly absorbent of flavor, and silky smooth&#8221; all at the same time. We also currently cannot make the map design simultaneously satisfy the three points of &#8220;aesthetic pursuit,&nbsp;world consistency, and&nbsp;platforming&nbsp;functionality.&#8221; During the production of the 1.0 version open world, the design team and the art team&nbsp;frequently&nbsp;discussed this impossible triangle. When creating the 2.0 version open world, we had to face this problem again and try to find a solution. The art team&nbsp;couldn&#8217;t&nbsp;suddenly turn the entire Elderwood Forest into a water area, nor could they create water bodies with sharp, rigid edges. When the impossible triangle cannot be satisfied, we must make some trade-offs.&nbsp;Regarding&nbsp;the trade-offs of ingredient characteristics, the key lies in grasping the cooking secret of this dish. For Mapo Tofu, the cooking secret is &#8220;seasoning&#8221;\u2014letting the sauce fully coat and infuse into the tofu, combining with its silky texture to bring joy to the&nbsp;taste&nbsp;buds. Therefore, the tofu we&nbsp;ultimately selected&nbsp;for Mapo Tofu always centered around being &#8220;highly absorbent of flavor.&#8221;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1123\" height=\"631\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1123px) 100vw, 1123px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260506-6626-003.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66270\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260506-6626-003.jpg 1123w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260506-6626-003-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260506-6626-003-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>So, what is the most important thing&nbsp;for Infinity&nbsp;Nikki? Is it&nbsp;constant&nbsp;challenge and growth? I&nbsp;don&#8217;t&nbsp;think&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;entirely that; after all, we are a game with a relaxing and healing tone. Is it beautiful scenery? I&nbsp;don&#8217;t&nbsp;think&nbsp;that&#8217;s&nbsp;quite it either. We are a &#8220;game,&#8221; and one of the players&#8217; expectations for us must surely be that it is &#8220;fun to play,&#8221; rather than just a travel simulator. As the head chef, for version 2.0 of Infinity Nikki, I believe its cooking secret is &#8220;immersion.&#8221; Immersion means&nbsp;that&nbsp;we need to create a world that players can believe in and lose themselves in. To achieve such a goal, we need this world to satisfy three points: Believable, meaning it must be realistic enough and its lore self-consistent; Comfortable, it should have harmonious visuals and a fluid traversal experience; Attractive, the map needs to have enough fantasy elements and rich gameplay so players feel a strong desire to explore it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alright, back to our&nbsp;problem itself. To solve this problem, we needed to handle two things: One, players have difficulty distinguishing river depths. Under the premise of not breaking immersion, which means&nbsp;maintaining&nbsp;a certain degree of realism, we decided to not require players to distinguish river depths. We set all rivers to be under 4 meters deep, guaranteeing that Giant Nikki can definitively pass through. Two, the water area was too small. Obviously, it was too late to change the entire forest into a water map, but&nbsp;modifying&nbsp;a certain local area into a water zone was still worth trying. So, we started thinking about where to begin.&nbsp;At the same time, we were also facing the issue of map landscapes being too similar.&nbsp;Therefore, we selected the area of the&nbsp;Mothershroom&nbsp;Woods to create a fantastical low-gravity zone. Normal-sized Nikki, as well as&nbsp;relatively light&nbsp;objects and local&nbsp;Shroomlings, will all be affected by mysterious forces within the area. They will be encapsulated by bubbles and constantly float upwards, preventing free movement. However, when Nikki&nbsp;Gigantifies, her weight increases, allowing her to land steadily and walk across the map. Finally, we adjusted the giant beast gameplay from &#8220;Nikki needs to constantly dodge the giant beasts&#8221; to &#8220;Nikki can make the giant beasts friendly using her cleaning ability,&#8221; making this gameplay simpler and more in line with the vibe of our game. Furthermore, we added more&nbsp;interactive gameplay elements for Giant Nikki.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After the above work, we achieved a fully realized&nbsp;Gigantify&nbsp;ability with&nbsp;a good&nbsp;experience. Next, we could&nbsp;proceed&nbsp;with our module breakdown work! We broke down&nbsp;Gigantify&nbsp;into four dimensions: &#8220;duration,&#8221; &#8220;movement speed,&#8221; &#8220;destructive power,&#8221; and &#8220;flexibility.&#8221; By differentiating experiences from these, we obtained several progression goals: The&nbsp;Gigantified&nbsp;state&nbsp;requires&nbsp;consuming energy, and the energy recovery speed can be upgraded. Slightly reduce the movement speed after&nbsp;enlarging, but&nbsp;add a dash state that can provide a faster speed. Make it so&nbsp;Gigantify&nbsp;cannot break rocks initially, requiring progression to strengthen this ability. When players use roaring to engage with giant beasts, a shorter skill&nbsp;aftercast&nbsp;animation can provide higher flexibility.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1120\" height=\"630\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1120px) 100vw, 1120px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260506-6626-004.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66271\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260506-6626-004.jpg 1120w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260506-6626-004-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/20260506-6626-004-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"sticky-claw-caused-a-several-month-clash-between-the-level-designers-and-environment-artists\"><strong>Sticky Claw&nbsp;caused a several month clash between the level designers and environment artists<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Having finished discussing the&nbsp;Gigantify&nbsp;issues,&nbsp;let&#8217;s&nbsp;talk about&nbsp;the Sticky&nbsp;Claw. Nikki can shoot the Sticky Claw at objects made of&nbsp;the yellow material&nbsp;&#8220;Sticky Amber.&#8221; This anchor point will pull Nikki towards it, much like Spider-Man. As a&nbsp;relatively common&nbsp;type of ability, its problems were simpler,&nbsp;mainly focusing&nbsp;on two points. The first issue stemmed from mobile&nbsp;controls.&nbsp;In a&nbsp;primitive version of the Sticky Claw, the player needed to&nbsp;activate the crosshair,&nbsp;aim at the Sticky Amber in the scene&nbsp;and&nbsp;shoot the Sticky Claw. The fun of the gameplay lay in aiming and finding the right timing to shoot. This experience was fine on a PC, but when it&nbsp;came&nbsp;to mobile, if&nbsp;you&#8217;ve&nbsp;ever played shooter games on a mobile device, you can&nbsp;probably imagine&nbsp;how disastrous it was.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second issue arose&nbsp;from scene&nbsp;production. Based on the&nbsp;aforementioned aim-and-shoot&nbsp;gameplay, the scene required&nbsp;a large number of&nbsp;&#8220;easily identifiable&#8221; Sticky Amber targets\u2014the solution at the time was to paint Sticky Amber on the edges of the platforms in the red box below, supplemented by some simple interactive&nbsp;objects, such as the Sticky Amber box directly above. The Level Designers wanted these &#8220;targets&#8221; to be as&nbsp;numerous&nbsp;and conspicuous as possible, but the Environment Artists had their own aesthetic pursuits. They&nbsp;wouldn&#8217;t&nbsp;allow these strange things to appear in massive quantities in the world of Infinity Nikki. Thus, both sides engaged in a tug-of-war that lasted for months.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally,&nbsp;we reached a&nbsp;Sticky Amber density that both sides could barely accept,&nbsp;but with such a &#8220;target&#8221; density, one&nbsp;could&nbsp;easily imagine that the player&#8217;s gaming experience&nbsp;wouldn&#8217;t&nbsp;be&nbsp;very good. This part was&nbsp;relatively simple&nbsp;to fix as well. The specific adjustment was&nbsp;that&nbsp;we removed the aim-and-shoot mechanic and changed the Sticky Claw to a point-to-point interaction. Namely, when there is a graspable Sticky Amber nearby, an interactive UI will appear on it. Simply using the Sticky Claw ability while facing the UI will trigger the launch. Such a modification allowed players to directly skip the middle two steps of operation, significantly improving convenience.&nbsp;In addition, to provide a better traversal experience, we added a massive number of mid-air Sticky Claw points in the scene, allowing players to weave through Snail Town to their hearts&#8217; content.&nbsp;The Sticky Claw is a purer ability, so its progression dimensions are&nbsp;somewhat fewer.&nbsp;So&nbsp;we outlined three modules: &#8220;Launch Distance,&#8221; &#8220;Strength,&#8221; and &#8220;Flexibility.&#8221; Afterwards,&nbsp;similar to&nbsp;Gigantify, we differentiated some experiences and finally derived a batch of progression goals.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Version 2.0 officially launched at the end of November 2025.&nbsp;All of&nbsp;these adjusted contents received relatively good player feedback.&nbsp;It seems we&nbsp;did&nbsp;a pretty good&nbsp;job with this improved Mapo Tofu. That concludes my sharing&nbsp;regarding&nbsp;ability evolution.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next is just a little bit of my personal reflection on the work itself.&nbsp;In my view, identifying problems and finding solutions to them isn&#8217;t&nbsp;actually that&nbsp;difficult.&nbsp;In game development,&nbsp;what&#8217;s&nbsp;more difficult is making brave decisions under unknown circumstances and firmly pushing them forward. The smooth implementation of all the adjustments mentioned above would be impossible without the&nbsp;hard work&nbsp;of all the members of the version 2.0 development team. I officially became the lead for version 2.0 in November 2024. Counting from when I started, its actual development time was about one year. The limited time and&nbsp;the uncertainty&nbsp;brought by the unknown made every decision we made during the development process thrilling and nerve-wracking. Therefore, I want&nbsp;to specially&nbsp;thank all the members of our 2.0 R&amp;D team&nbsp;for their trust and effort.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/infinitynikki.infoldgames.com\/en\/home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Infinity&nbsp;Nikki<\/a>&nbsp;is available as a free-to-play title for PC (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/3164330\/Infinity_Nikki\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>\/<a href=\"https:\/\/store.epicgames.com\/en-US\/p\/infinity-nikki-71fc64\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Epic Games Store<\/a>),&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.playstation.com\/en-us\/games\/infinity-nikki\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">PS5<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/infinity-nikki\/id6502622570\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">iOS<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.infoldgames.infinitynikkien\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Android<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/you-cant-touch-peoples-hearts-by-just-piling-together-visual-information-infinity-nikki-art-director-explains-how-outfits-are-designed-to-express-narrative-and-sym\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cYou can\u2019t touch people\u2019s hearts by just piling together visual information.\u201d Infinity Nikki art director explains how outfits are designed to express narrative and symbolism in each detail<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Level design lecture by Infinity Nikki developer PR, held at Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-column","category-game-development"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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