Game Design - Level Progression Bars

Level progression bars are a great game system to place your players into your games universe and show them exactly where they are on their journey.

There are typically 2 types of level progression bars to consider.

In Game Level or Stage Progress

In game progress bars are displayed during gameplay and indicate where the player is on any given level. These are usually programmed by percentage of distance or divided by total amount of items collected depending on your game type.

These are typically placed at the top of the game play screen and “fill up” visually or display your players icon moving across a static bar, sometimes both. Whilst the progress bars are often hard to see or concentrate on, as your players eye is concrentrated below on the gameplay, these really come into their own in multiplayer / .io games where you can keep an eye on who is leading / winning the level.

Overall Game Position & Progression

Overall game progress bars have replaced what used to be the traditional game maps and work in exactly the same way by showing the players overall game status.

There are many different variations in style but all achieve a similar result and are a cheap and effective technique for your entire game design. By splitting your game into levels in this way, your endless game becomes a level based game and gives you the opportunity to insert boss levels, bonus screens and of course a logical place to add your monetisation ( video ads, interstitials etc ).