At the end of the class, I am happy with how this project turned out. As I'm sure it goes with every development cycle, there was more that we wanted to do but simply could not cram into the time frame. This post will cover a few of the things that hopefully will excite those who've played the game already.
I really wanted to have interactable objects in the scene that did not affect the completion of the level. In fact, I pushed so hard to have these things that the art assets were created! If they could be clicked on, I wondered whether players would maybe click on them as part of superstition. The dice could perhaps emit a different jingle sound on a 1/20 chance, creating some curiosity about whether they really did do something for the game. Maybe the players would hit the dice before hitting launch?
This idea came from another incomplete concept, which was to eventually allow for players to attempt to launch the ship without 100% of the systems online. Based on whichever systems were incomplete, there would be a percentage chance of launch success.
This idea of does it actually do something is one I look forward to including in future designs.
This idea could be further extended by actually requiring players to pilot the ships in a meaningful manner. So if one player had their key control scheme reversed Right and Left, and inverted Up and Down, an unfamiliar pilot who stole the ship may have a really hard time succeeding in escaping with the ship -- let alone fight with the foreign craft! This lopsided "combat effectiveness" could naturally put players in a bind about whether their personal ship should be a deliberate challenge to steal and operate, or make it easier to operate for their own offensive usage.
If curious, feel free to view the game design document we created:
GDD
I really wanted to have interactable objects in the scene that did not affect the completion of the level. In fact, I pushed so hard to have these things that the art assets were created! If they could be clicked on, I wondered whether players would maybe click on them as part of superstition. The dice could perhaps emit a different jingle sound on a 1/20 chance, creating some curiosity about whether they really did do something for the game. Maybe the players would hit the dice before hitting launch?
This idea came from another incomplete concept, which was to eventually allow for players to attempt to launch the ship without 100% of the systems online. Based on whichever systems were incomplete, there would be a percentage chance of launch success.
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| I have lots of // TODO comments throughout the code |
What's the point of donating the ship?The decision to donate ships would have been the way to progress "the main story quest" and help The Cause achieve their objectives. We thought that by having enough followers as a result of donating ships to The Cause that maybe you could get certain level-wide bonuses: more time on the clock thanks to interference from the locals; better sale values in stores; etc. At time of launch, the donated ships only increment a counter. This should make the decision to periodically keep unique ships as trophies or to liquidate them on the black market more interesting, since you'd trade off the story progression for short-term personal gain.
What's next?This game was a proof of mechanic concept for a larger game I have in mind: players are the ones stealing ships from other players. In order to mitigate chance of theft, and to increase the time a player has to react to an attempted theft, the players could personally customize their cockpits and arrange the necessary start up system modules in whatever way they wished. If you made an overly complicated, hard-to-remember start-up sequence, it might come back to penalize you when it was necessary to quickly escape in your own personal ship! Therefore, the player had to balance the challenge of start-up with the ease of personal operation. This idea is set to the backdrop of a salvage mechanic loop. Therefore, as players found and stole miscellaneous ships, they would end up with various switches and reactors and other such thematic elements that would have consistent styling. As the player is in their "lair" working on their inventory, another player could come and attempt to steal the ship out from under their nose!
This idea could be further extended by actually requiring players to pilot the ships in a meaningful manner. So if one player had their key control scheme reversed Right and Left, and inverted Up and Down, an unfamiliar pilot who stole the ship may have a really hard time succeeding in escaping with the ship -- let alone fight with the foreign craft! This lopsided "combat effectiveness" could naturally put players in a bind about whether their personal ship should be a deliberate challenge to steal and operate, or make it easier to operate for their own offensive usage.
If curious, feel free to view the game design document we created:
GDD
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