And She’s Back for Revenge
In our presentation, we plan on discussing
(1) How we changed our plans: Ultimately we decided on only doing an endless runner instead of a game with multiple levels, so we could focus more on the polish and gamefeel for 30 seconds of engaging gameplay and full rage mode.
(2) What we learned: We realized how important polish was and how it affects the player’s experience and ability to perceive what is happening in the game. We also learned that it is important to reward the player, but we must balance that with keeping the player engaged. If the player is rewarded too frequently or for too long, they are no longer engaged because they are no longer challenged.
(3) Major changes from the beginning: Powerups (cakes, icons, eating), fixed glitches, rage state is polished, enemy spawning algorithm
(4) Major changes from the final playtest: shooting in full rage tweaked, shortening rage mode to keep player engaged, new enemies, tweaking of enemy spawning algorithm, adding instructions to menu, changing text/labels.
(5) What we did do is in plaintext, what we didn’t do is in bold.
Expectations:
low-bar:
Procedural endless runner mode with a recorded highscore.
1 enemy type (w/art)
Finalized Player art
Rage Meter
Background Art
3 Power-ups (w/art)
expected:
6 short levels
multiple enemies (w/art)
5+ Power-ups (w/art)
high-bar:
levels with intros, outros (single screen)
boss fights (w/art and AI)
character hulking out into more cthulu-like form
7+ Power-ups (w/art)
(6) Reflection on what we did and what we would change:
We accomplished more of the art and polish than we anticipated. Some of the things we didn’t “accomplish” from the list of things we wanted to get done were things we decided were of low priority. The main goal of this project was to create a game that produced at least 30 seconds or so of engaging gameplay, which could be accomplished by creating an endless runner, without levels or bosses. In addition, we realized it would be unnecessary and also confusing to the player to create more than a few power-ups, so we only made three power-ups other than the main shooting functionality. If we were to change anything, we would have approached the project as an endless runner from the beginning and spend more time thinking about player feedback and response. Without the playtesting, and the polish and mechanics we decided was necessary after the feedback, our game would never have been as good as it is now.
You can view our presentation at: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oI8ARRHTTrYd7RSCRCCbxWOV2Z4LqIES-QXOxqwpHTo/edit?usp=sharing
You can view the trailer for our game at:
(alternate link on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4CzCjKlre8&feature=youtu.be )
You can play our game on kongregate here! http://www.kongregate.com/games/MatthewGuzdial/angry-cuttlefish
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