As a leveldesigner I always like a few things. The first of all, get a quick result. A good motivation to work further comes always when you have great result. Like for instance, with the W3 World Editor, you design levels like Bob Ross. Every brush stroke is something meaningfull. Which follow ups my next point: Making a scene believable . Every tree, every pad, every house, in which way they are placed, rotated and scaled tells something to the player. Is it believable if a pad is just straight withouth any variations, or props on the side of the road? No offcourse not, I always have the main focus of creating a world which is believable and charming. The player must be attracted to the level, feel connected, a world in which I want to walk around.
A world which exists already before you played it.
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The core gameplay idea is the player, that moves automatically, and jumps by pressing a button. If the player reaches a wall, it bounces and change direction. Some other platform elements asides of jumping are offcourse ladders. So how to fix this with one button? Well, Richard van Tol had the solution already working in his tech-demo. Just pressing the button while standing at a ladder. While climbing the ladder and pressing again, you will change direction. It is all that easy. After a little practice of playing with just one button, it feels like second nature again. Why using so many buttons anyway?