I'm working on a game that will have lots of (more than 100) levels. The player has to finish a level before she can play the next one, but also can play levels again that are already finished.
Now I'm looking for ways on how to present an overview of the levels to the player. A simple list (with a small graphic showing the level) is of course a possibility, but I wonder what other, perhaps less boring, ways there are.
I can share my experience from a mobile game that had 10 worlds with 10 levels each so 100 levels in total. We displayed each world as a map with a winding road on it. Each level had a badge with its number and the badge resembled in a way the signs on US highways. All the maps were then put into a single slide controller so that the user can easily snap between maps. Levels that were not played and locked were tinted darkly. Unlocked but not played levels had a light shade of green and completed levels had a dark shade of the same green. Testing the user experience yielded positive result as all users even small kids found it easy to navigate and choose the appropriate level.
Put your levels into logical groups. Then have the player select the group, and on the next screen select the level from that group.
Grouping can be either by theme or by difficulty. Here is a mockup:
First screen:
When the user clicks on a tile:
When it makes sense in the context of your game, you could also use a map of the game world to represent the overworld where the player selects the region they want to play in and then show them a regional map where the player picks the level.
