The game starts in the morning, with soft golden lighting...
Slippery Speedway is in the afternoon, so the light is neutral...
The bridge level has warmer, darker lighting for evening...
And Slinky Circuit takes place at night with a glow-in-the-dark slinky set piece!
This is a sketch I made for level 2. The top section is the lower part of it, the bottom section is the higher part, and in the middle is the whole level. The actual layout has changed a little from this sketch during development, specifically in placement of the higher level's platforms and boost rings. The moving platform also became a yo-yo instead of a rectangular block.
This is the first draft of my part of the tutorial level. Originally players were meant to have a wide entrance that narrowed, and the platforms were very far apart. Having speed boosts was planned, but aren't implemented at the time this screenshot was taken.
In the finished version, the platforms were moved closer together to make them easier to reach. The wide road entrance was removed because we decided it was unnecessary. Boost ramps were also added at this point.
I also created the structure for the room our levels all take place in. I left the edges of each wall sticking out because the player would never see it, and there is no ceiling for the same reason. This picture is from before any artwork was added to make the room look nice, except for the floor. I chose to make the floor too large because I wanted to make sure the wooden board texture was large enough to make the player feel small.