Comments on: P3 : Spaceboy Avenges Mars Attack

By: idontknow

idontknow — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 06:33:37 +0000

Also, the final game might have 3 levels:
1. Running towards a spaceship on Earth while Martians destroy it and try to stop him!
2. Running towards the core of Mars to destroy it.
3. Running back trying to escape before Mars is destroyed.

By: idontknow

idontknow — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 06:30:39 +0000

Updating after our discussion outside the class:
The game is going to be a side-scroller, with the player having the ability to collect power-ups which allow him to run faster, jump higher and stomp harder. While in this mode, the energy gets drained. The “Magic-Moment” of the game is the stomping down hard! So while in Power-Mode, the user can keep the Power-button pressed to stomp down harder.

The prototype will demonstrate this stomping down and the 2 modes with some interaction with Martians!

By: Blair MacIntyre

Blair MacIntyre — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 10:28:38 +0000

I think it fits as “game feel” since you are directly interacting with the avatar, but I do agree it’s fuzzy. Assuming you are constantly able to control the character’s up/down/gravity/stomp, it sounds fine. Sounds like you are moving toward a B.T.R/Jetpack Joyride where you save up “power” to be able to pound down when you need to.

By: idontknow

idontknow — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 03:14:17 +0000

Played all the games you are referring to above. The “Wow” moment in this case will be jumping with a high speed and then increasing the gravity to stomp down hard! The impact is the wow moment. So maybe, break big rocks to collect the “space-rocks” or to break containers with oxygen.

As for the movement withing the scrolling screen, I am more in favor of a bit trip runner type game or even tiny wings i guess is the same type, combined with a few more distractions for the player. I wonder if it fits Swink’s definition of Real-time because the player is always running and we just interrupt its movement with jumps etc. But allowing to move within the screen, i think, allows players a bit more freedom in what they want to do.

Another game i was thinking of was like a Room-based puzzle solver where you had to use different gravities to reach a certain height (certain platforms only allow certain max jump heights) and hit the exit on the floor with a certain force to move through. But then it did not sound that fun.

By: Blair MacIntyre

Blair MacIntyre — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 02:04:19 +0000

Overall, it sounds like it might be fun; a more complex version of Jetpack Joyride or Temple Run (and if you haven’t played one, play one!). The question will, of course, all be in the mechanics and how they interact. I feel like I have a bit of an idea of what you are thinking (including the extra details you sent in email); but, without those details I wouldn’t have a good sense here.

Even with those details, please think through how the mechanic will feel more and how you want the movement to work. It sounds like this is a side-scroller on rails, with you able to move around a bit in the fix-speed moving window? Are you going to allow the screen to move up/down, or just be fixed? But, that’s not that critical; what I want more of is a sense of how the tradeoffs will be for things like deciding if/when to stomp, what the skills are involved in it.

In some ways, I’m also reminded of Tiny Wings, where the swoop is similar to your stomp. TW doesn’t have any control except the swoop, of course. So, how does this compare?