Platformer level~

So the first assignment for Game Design II is to design an introductory platformer level! 

So that is my rough papermap

and that is my illustrator drawing.

• Where is it? What time of year is it? What time of day is it?
• It's located near a small village located in the hills. I imagine it is summer or spring, as everything is still green. The time of day is night time~
• What is the conflict? What is the twist?
• You're the sherriffdetective of the small town near the hills, and you have to collect the coins to follow the path that the grand thief used to escape and catch him.
• Who else lives here?
• People live here, and also animals like bunnies and wolves. 
• What does their architecture look like?
• cute little village houses.
• What happened in the environment prior to the player getting there?
• It's a quiet night, a night where no one would expect to be robbed. 
• How did the player arrive to the environment? What brought them there?
• The small town life was one you always wanted, quiet, calm. I guess that's what also attracted the thief. 

2D Side Scroller Analysis

The game I think has an excellent introductory level is Cave Story(2004). The game does an excellent job of introducing the theme, mechanics, and feeling of the game within it's first levels.
Before the level begins, there is a bit of an expository cutscene that hints at what the plot of the game is.
After the cutscene is over the player begins play in a small room, and is given no explanation on how to play the game or what the objective is. In the first room the play can see a health refilling machine, save station, a platform to jump on above water, and a door. There are no enemies in this first map, so the player has enough time to play around with all the buttons and see what everything does.

When the player goes through the first door, they transition into a now explorable level. The right side of the map is closed off by blocks, so the player is forced to move to the left. Once they move  to the left, they now encounter spikes and bats.  Both of these hurt the player, but the player learns through trial and error that they can jump to avoid getting hurt. Halfway through the map, the player can regain health through a health station, and continue going down through the level. The player is then introduced water and another monster that does more damage than the bat. At the end of the level, the player finds another door and is able to go inside.

In the next room, the player sees a sleeping NPC and a treasure chest. The player goes to the chest and achieves a gun. Playing around with the buttons in this room with no enemies, the player can figure out how to shoot the gun and defend themselves.
Since there are no other doors, the player backtracks through the previous level. The player can now kill the enemies that hurt them previously. To the top and the right of the level, the player can now shoot down blocks and kill enemies to continue onto the rest of the game.
Once the player gets through the first introductory level, they see a cutscene that completes the story that was previewed in the exposition.