Downtime

This Monday we had a play testing where we got very much and good feedback. But one thing we have been discussing in the group is the downtime in our game – the time where there isn’t much to do in the game. For example when you have killed a boss and have to run all the way back to the beginning and you probably have killed all the enemies on your way to the boss already. Or if you die and have to run back to where you died, and the same thing there, you have probably already killed all the enemies. This downtime is something we want to get rid of. We have discussed doing this in three ways.

1. Teleportation. When you have defeated a boss we have discussed to put some sort of portal back to the beginning. This might be needed since the level  is built like it is, there are one boss at each end of the map so you have to go back all the way from one boss to get to the next and then back to the beginning again to get to the last and final boss. The plus is that the downtime will be drastically reduced, the negative is that if you haven’t found all the hidden rooms or all the textiles, you have a second chance if you run all the way back. This of course is something the players will have to decide themselves if they want to teleport or run, if we implement it.

2. Destructibles. One thing that might make it more fun to run all the way back is if there are stuff you can shoot and destroy. To fit our theme in the game we have discussed having some eggs along the path that the player can destroy just for fun. And if we add achievements to the game (if we feel like it and have the time, it’s not something we have planned to implement) that could be a fun one, to find and destroy them all.

3. Checkpoints. As it is now, when you die you start from the beginning again forcing you to run all the way back to where you died, with nothing to do (if you had killed all the enemies the first time). So our solution to this is adding checkpoints in the hidden rooms, so if you die you start from the last checkpoint you passed.

The only one of these that we have decided so far to implement in the game are the destructibles, the eggs. We’ll see if the rest is going to be implemented as well if we have time.