U-F-OMG! has now been live for a good eight hours (admittedly, those were between half twelve last night and now.) I wouldn't say I'm totally happy with it, but it's not bad.
This post is a run down of the changes and fixes I've made since my last post, so here we go.
Play Incentive
I added a goal to the game, to abduct sixty humans. Once this has been done the player recieves a win scene and can then continue on, safe in the knowledge that their race has been saved from the terrible virus.
More Gameplay
I added a new enemy type, a tank with surface to air missiles which home in on the player and can be shot down in flight, adding a bit of extra gameplay.
Wrap Around Mechanic
All of the game actors that move now successfully wrap around the scene.
Throw Humans Towards Ship
Whilst not entirely eliminated, the bug that caused humans to be flung in a strange directions has been reduced. Waiting on bug reports to see if the problem still exists.
Minor Changes
Aggro Humans now always simulate, meaning they'll chase you wherever you go!
Failing no longer increments your fail level.
Player is now able to return to main menu from the fail screen.
Tutorial has been made to look slightly more interesting.
All backgrounds have been spruced up.
Actor speeds have been tweaked to make the gameplay more intense.
Balance has been generally improved, with a slow curve of difficulty.
Play stats are no longer added to overall totals when a level is failed.
Fixed spelling errors.
Added a reference to the blog.
Somehow that doesn't look like anywhere near as much work as I actually have done, but I'm glad to say I think this project is pretty much finished (Having said that, I've uploaded three new versions with fixes since this morning)
Monday 10 December 2012
Thursday 6 December 2012
The Action Plan
The deadline? Monday the 10th of December.
The task? A finished Game Document, a sweet blog, and a working prototype.
I've just finished my first, bare bones draft of the GDD, but finishing that shouldn't be too much hassle. However, I'm starting to wish the emphasis had been on it earlier, because as I worked through it I got a great view of the things that needed improvement in my game. Here's the subsequent list of the changes and fixes that I want to implement over the next few days, in time for the deadline;
The Incentive to Play
What I want, is a really good reason for the player to continue playing. Now, to a certain extent, that's already being done by the score system and the recording of the players stats. But I want something a little more addictive. My idea at present is a big tube filled with slime that represents how many humans have been abducted, with the goal being to fill it entirely, which will mean the player has won the game. Also, possibly, an upgrade system? It may well be too late in the game for that, but we shall see.
More Gameplay Mechanics
Another thing? A thing to do? My present thoughts, an enemy that fires a homing rocket that needs to be shot down by the player. I have an idea for the behavior in my head, the thing that might take up my time is building the art assets, so that's something to think about.
Wrap Around
It seems very important that the player not be able to shepard all of the humans into one corner and harvest them, hence I'm working on a 'wrap-around screen' behavior which should eliminate that possibility.
Throw Humans Towards Ship
It seems to me that, despite getting used to it over time, it can be quite jarring to have to try and catch the humans when they're being abducted, so I'm working on a fix for this that throws the human directly at the players position rather than into the air.
Bug Fixes
Failing increments the level - At present, due to the way the level progression system works, upon failing a level the 'level' attribute is still incremented, meaning the game becomes progressively harder no matter wether the player is successfully completing levels or not. This is an easy fix.
Check Evasion Behavior - There seem to be some bugs with the evasion behavior that cause the humans to sit still when they spawn with the ship within their detect radius. This is difficult to test but I will attempt to work out the problem.
Always Simulate Aggro Humans - At present the humans who are supposed to head towards the player and fire at them do not 'simulate' when off screen, and hence only begin to head towards the player when they come on screen. This is a very simple fix.
So that's the action plan, with any luck I'll post an update the sunday before the deadline.
Wish me luck,
Jack
The task? A finished Game Document, a sweet blog, and a working prototype.
I've just finished my first, bare bones draft of the GDD, but finishing that shouldn't be too much hassle. However, I'm starting to wish the emphasis had been on it earlier, because as I worked through it I got a great view of the things that needed improvement in my game. Here's the subsequent list of the changes and fixes that I want to implement over the next few days, in time for the deadline;
The Incentive to Play
What I want, is a really good reason for the player to continue playing. Now, to a certain extent, that's already being done by the score system and the recording of the players stats. But I want something a little more addictive. My idea at present is a big tube filled with slime that represents how many humans have been abducted, with the goal being to fill it entirely, which will mean the player has won the game. Also, possibly, an upgrade system? It may well be too late in the game for that, but we shall see.
More Gameplay Mechanics
Another thing? A thing to do? My present thoughts, an enemy that fires a homing rocket that needs to be shot down by the player. I have an idea for the behavior in my head, the thing that might take up my time is building the art assets, so that's something to think about.
Wrap Around
It seems very important that the player not be able to shepard all of the humans into one corner and harvest them, hence I'm working on a 'wrap-around screen' behavior which should eliminate that possibility.
Throw Humans Towards Ship
It seems to me that, despite getting used to it over time, it can be quite jarring to have to try and catch the humans when they're being abducted, so I'm working on a fix for this that throws the human directly at the players position rather than into the air.
Bug Fixes
Failing increments the level - At present, due to the way the level progression system works, upon failing a level the 'level' attribute is still incremented, meaning the game becomes progressively harder no matter wether the player is successfully completing levels or not. This is an easy fix.
Check Evasion Behavior - There seem to be some bugs with the evasion behavior that cause the humans to sit still when they spawn with the ship within their detect radius. This is difficult to test but I will attempt to work out the problem.
Always Simulate Aggro Humans - At present the humans who are supposed to head towards the player and fire at them do not 'simulate' when off screen, and hence only begin to head towards the player when they come on screen. This is a very simple fix.
So that's the action plan, with any luck I'll post an update the sunday before the deadline.
Wish me luck,
Jack
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)