I was out of town on Friday and all weekend at my brother’s wedding (congrats bro!), so I haven’t been able to play the prototype for the past three days. Playing it again today, I think it was good to take a break from it. I’m able to see it in a different light after stepping away for a while.

One of things I most noticed about playing it today is that I really enjoyed it. I think I’m on to a solid path with the gameplay now. I suspect the main game mode for the game will end up being very similar to what I’ve got now.

The other thing that became very clear today (and that I had hinted at last week) was that I need to change the end condition for the game. The game ends around the same point every time I play it and the loss of the game feels out of my control. I think it’s better if the player feels like they had control over whether or not they lose. The games that frustrate me most are the ones that feel like there was no way to avoid losing, and that’s what the prototype feels like right now. The game becomes nearly impossible around level 7. I want it to feel like there’s always a chance that the game could continue; I don’t want it to feel like it’s inevitable that you’ll lose at level 7. Maybe it’s just a matter of adjusting my tuning variables that ramp up the difficulty, but it feels like a deeper problem right now. I think the mechanic I’m using to increase difficulty is broken.

I’ve been playing a lot of Geometry Wars: Evolved 2 over the last week or so. I’m completely hooked on that game. I really enjoyed the first GW:E, but this one is brilliant (mmmm…them Geoms is so tasty! Tasty, tasty Geoms.) GW:E2 does what I’m talking about to a tee. In that game, it becomes really really difficult to keep progressing. You’ll get to a point where there are dozens (or hundreds?) of enemies on the screen at one time, but no matter how hard it gets, I always feel like if I just practiced a little more, I might get a little bit further. I haven’t hit a point where I feel like it’s impossible to progress in the game. That’s what I want my game to feel like. The question is: how?

Owen

This entry was posted on Monday, September 8th, 2008 at 2:07 pm and is filed under Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.