Week 2 development

GAME DESIGN

The main concern for the game was the crafting system. It was not well defined and was missing something. After the first paper prototype it became obvious that it was missing clarity on what items can and can't do and what they can be combined with. To solve that we needed to come up with a solution that would both make it clear to the player what they can craft (and what they need for it) but not explicitly tell them. Coming up with such a balanced solution proved challenging so we decided to split this complex problem into two different simple problems and solve them one after another.

The problems were: how do we communicate to the player what they can and can't craft and what components to use? and how do we make sure the player doesn't know all of the recipes in the game (allowing them to only make the best gear)? The solution to the first problem is quite obvious: show the player all of the recipes! This solution works terrible for the second problem, but as mentioned before, we decided to solve one problem at a time. So if the player is shown all of the recipes, how do we stop them from knowing everything there is about the crafting system? Well, we black out the images, leaving only the silhouettes. This solution works perfectly both for the second simple problem as well as for the main complex problem.

Even though the crafting system was now clear and fun, the learning system suffered from it. The main incentive to learn about items was to be able to make an educated guess as to what they can be combined with. Now this incentive isn't gone completely, but greatly reduced. So how do we solve this issue? Well, we need to link the learning outcome to the crafting system directly. We decided to do that by putting all of the recipes into different levels. Levels are obtained with IQ points, which are obtained by learning about things. This means that if the player does not learn about the items they have, they won't know the recipes items can be used in.

We have conducted a new testing with a new paper prototype that included the changes described above. The players were much more clear about their goals (both long term and short term), making the experience much more engaging. The players always knew what they could craft once they had the components, however, when they didn't, it was hard to tell what are the things that they don't have, which is perfect! IQ system also performed extremely well. There were lots of laughs about low IQ of the monkey (it starts with 0) but also the players were much more motivated to learn about things knowing that they will get an explicit reward (rather than implicit).

PROGRAMMING

Another concern the team had was combat. Combat is a vital part of the game and the main challenge for the player. Whilst other parts of the game like learning and crafting can be tested almost to the full extent with paper prototypes, this is not the case with combat. The only way to test the feel of combat is by actually implementing it and then playing it. Hence, this week's programming was focused on combat (instead of crafting as was previously planned).

The two robot types that are currently in the game are the brawler:

And the gunner:

Another new addition is the vent travel. The vents can be placed anywhere in the level and linked to any other vent in the level. If the player right clicks on the vent, they will pop out of the vent the vent they clicked on is connected to.

LEVEL DESIGN

The first look for the first level is complete and tested online. It looks something like this:

It performs very well but it does not yet possess any meaningful functionality so it will have to be reworked.