Level Changes
First, there was one room in particular that has received
criticism as being awkward and difficult by play testers. It is room 6 in the
first level of the game. This map begins with the player falling from the room
above it into a center area surrounded with enemies. Originally the map was
designed with a turret on each top corner that players had to ride a platform
to and kill in order to advance to the next area. However, this was very
confusing, because there wasn't a clear link from the turrets to the doors, so
players had trouble navigating the room.
To fix this, I initially put buttons in
place of the turrets. This gave players a clear location for where they should
be going and trying to get to. However, the number of enemies in the area was
still too high, so I reduced the total number of enemies in the room, and added
an enemy spawner, so that there is a steady stream of enemies in the room,
providing a more consistent challenge. The current version of this map area is
shown below.
Art Changes
This change is a work in progress and is not in the current
beta build for this game. In the feedback, I often see that players are unsure
of what button, switch, or level activates what. I have decided to add a new
art function that will visually link a switch and an activator.
In the game Portal, there are very similar puzzle elements
that use a similar mechanic. In this game, they solved the same problem by
adding a line connecting the two.
Below is a screenshot of one such room, which contains a
confusing switch activator system.
I have included below a sketch of how a line connection
system in the game could look, as it is currently planned to be implemented.
The second version makes it much more clear what the player
needs to do in order to proceed.
Character Changes
The last change that I plan on implementing, deals with
complaints about the characters themselves. In general, players felt that the
two playable characters were too similar, and that Mike (blue) was clearly superior
to Tom (Red).
The main complaint I got with Tom, was that his shield
didn’t feel responsive enough. In order to use it, your character must be
still, and there is a delay associated with the player attack that can
sometimes keep players from deploying the shield when they want.
I have decided to make the following changes to Tom,
although they have not yet been implemented:
- Remove delay in deploying the shield after firing.
- Allow the player to shift the direction they are facing while blocking
- Allow the player to block while in the air, but not while accelerating upward (jumping)
I am also considering allowing the player to move while
blocking at half speed, and possibly to fire at a slower rate while block and
stationary. These changes will be considered after the above changes are
implemented and more feedback is gathered.
In addition, I want to make gameplay as Mike feel more
unique. So, I have decided to change the way that mike attacks his enemies.
First, I am going to change the condition on when Mike
attacks. Currently, players can hold the attack button down to attack at full
speed. However, this will be changed, so that players can still hold the attack
button to attack a specific speed, but also have the option of tapping the
attack button to attack even faster. This will give Mike the more agile, attack
focused gameplay in contrast to Tom’s more defensive focused gameplay.
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