Dev log 6 of 9

Reflecting on Playtest 1

Quick brainstorm reflecting on playtest 1. Began implementing a new solution that may require more coding.

The following are the notes I took while playtesting:

  • Attack level 1 and 2 are too similar and attack 3 is obviously more powerful
  • Limit Player attacks
  • What UI do I need?
    • Health
    • Attack charge
    • Indicating when player is hit
  • Fix player death
  • Dynamic UI elements
  • Remaining mechanics
  • Audio system and all sound asset

Based on feedback and my own playing of the game, I decided the game was too complicated and there were too many controls to balance. I realized I could come to the root of the issue by taking note of the things the player has to keep track of while playing.

  • Moving, dodging, positioning
  • Hitting things away from yourself
  • Hitting things into other obstacles
  • Collecting fragments (fuel for attack)
  • When to hold and release attacks

I realized that something needed to be limited in some way. I had a few ideas...

I knew I didn't want to limit the timing of charging and releasing the attack as that should be an integral part of the gameplay. I also didn't want to limit hitting things into other things or in other words triggering chain events.

  1. Limit collecing fragments: If I removed the need to collect fragments, that would be one less thing for the player to focus on. I could do this either by giving the player infinite attack or by making fragments autocollect.

    I figured that infinite attack would make the game too easy, but a cool down or autocollection would work.

  2. Limit movement: If the player movement was automated in some way it would mean one less thing for the player to focus on. I needed a creative way to limit movement, so I came up with a few ideas.

    Space Foosball: Up and down arrows move an array of drones, and space is used to attack.

    Rotate a space station or control an orbital drone: use left and right to rotate, up and down to switch weapons, and space to attack

    And finally a ricochet based movement where the player would sling shot around planets with gravity effects