Offering Choices to the Player
|
Following up on last week in which we improved parts of the game based on the playtest feedback we received, we now have made several changes in order to once again make our game interesting, not only to us but also to the audience. What do I mean by this? What does interesting mean? To start off, let me give you some background. When we decided upon the concept of “Revenge of Teddy” we were currently unsure if our one and only programmer would or would not still partake in the course. The situation was very unclear at the time, so we made the decision to pick a game that was not very code heavy and make a stronger effort on graphics and the like. Because of this, we designed the game to be rather stale in gameplay but attempt to make up for it in atmosphere. However, in our current situation we are ahead in code but behind in graphics. It was here when I spoke to my programmer who shared his concerns and I agreed, the game in its current form was very boring. The powerup didn’t offer any interesting choices, the player didn’t feel powerful, the enemies were predictable and the list goes on. Aware that the changes made would lead to more work, we decided to take the bullet because in the end it would be worth it. So what did we do? First of all, the powerup, we scrapped it. At first it was a pickup dropped by chance after defeating enemies that would give the player two options: either retrieve some lost health or make a explosion that destroys every projectile, every enemy and every health pickup. What we wanted to achieve was that the player had to make a choice, get some health back, but still be in a tough situation or destroy everything but risk playing a bit further with no health pickups certain to save you. We thought that this powerup would ultimately always lead to one option over the other and that we couldn’t achieve a balanced game level where the player on multiple attempts would make mixed choices, instead always going for a certain one. The change was that we incorporated a different type of choice, it still spawns the same way by defeating enemies but now when defeated the powerup splits into four. Each of these fragments has their own power up and when one is picked up, the others disappear. Immediately the player has to pick and choose which one is the best choice at the current situation but because enemies are still active the “best one” might not be the safest one to retrieve. This emphasizes positioning together with risk versus reward. Next we have the four separate power ups. To start off we have Richochet, this projectile travels past the set destination(the projectile is fired towards the player) and when it hits a wall, it starts to bounce around, increasing the chance to hit enemies several times. Then we have Split, which when hitting an enemy causes it to split in two at opposite directions and travel forward again for some time before sizzling out. But, if it hits an enemy before that, the split happens again and with smart positioning can cause a chain reaction that could be devastating. Next up we have No-go Zones which is a field that hurts anything inside it and no projectiles can enter it. The idea is that the player lays this down in order to for some time create a space where they can take cover behind and damage enemies that travel through it. Finally we have Shield which is a reflective shield around Teddy(the players aim/reticle), with this we hope the player can blend defense with offense when faced with large amounts of projectiles and charging enemies. All in all we hope that with these changes we can make the player feel more powerful and instead of just using a simple projectile from beginning to end. We also found that the current enemy in the game had a stiff movement pattern. In the previous version it moved into position and started moving from side to side, which side it went to first was the variation between them. To make the game feel a bit more lively we altered the movement pattern so that he always moves upwards in an S shape. By making this change we hope to make the game less predictable. However this also means that we have to once again go back to level design and start over with how we best structure our levels(see blog post 1). Although I quite happy to do so because with more interesting mechanics at my disposal I can once again do some problem solving and figure out how to challenge the player in a safe environment before ramping the pace up and make them utilize everything they’ve learned.  |
