[Yumil]

Yumil

Yumil

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I'm sad that I was unable to participate, but I did come up with an idea and would at least like to present it for further thought even though the session is over. I will probably revisit the idea later when I feel I can actually manage the concept in programming.

Basically there will be no bullets in the game in a traditional sense. All enemies will basically be kamikaze. Your ship/whatever basically has the ability to swap between 2 different colors ala Ikaruga. However, instead of allowing you to absorb shots, it just changes your charge from + and -. Enemies will be various level of strength of + and - and you will have to manipulate your position and charge in order to make them crash into each other(which their charge will manipulate each other as well). Throw in that when you "shoot" you basically shoot a projectile that will push them towards the max of one spectrum your ships color currently is. So if you shoot while in + mode against a - mode enemy, the enemy goes towards neutral.

Anywho, I figure various patterns of enemies and various different charges would make the game quite involving and challenging as each encounter would be rather dynamic. Boss encounters could be fun as they could set their charges and you would have to use enemies they shoot at you against them.

I might try doing something like this in the future, so thanks for the prototyping idea for giving me the idea, but I'm putting this out here in case anyone else likes the idea. I mean, this is a community for sharing ideas for the betterment of the community.

Im sad I didnt have the skill or the time to participate in this session, but maybe I will the next one.

[bugdoodle]

bugdoodle

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Hey Yumil, I only just found this site and am attempting to get up to speed with a tool like Game Maker so I might be able to attempt the next challenge. I think they run them every month, 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off (correct me if I'm wrong regulars) so you've got some time to learn...

It's finding the time that's tough sometimes.

[maw]

maw

maw

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Yumil, I once made a game about magnetic objects (check http://experimentalgameplay.com/game.php?g=484). From my experience I can say that it can be quite challenging for players to take meaningful actions and estimate the paths of objects wich are manipulated by gravitation/magnetism from a moving source. Thus my game became quite simple although my first idea was to create something like a shooter too.
Of course I don't want to scare you off, but I recommend you to build a simple but functioning prototype as early as possible for testing.

MAW

[Yumil]

Yumil

Yumil

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Yumil, I once made a game about magnetic objects (check http://experimentalgameplay.com/game.php?g=484). From my experience I can say that it can be quite challenging for players to take meaningful actions and estimate the paths of objects wich are manipulated by gravitation/magnetism from a moving source. Thus my game became quite simple although my first idea was to create something like a shooter too.
Of course I don't want to scare you off, but I recommend you to build a simple but functioning prototype as early as possible for testing.

MAW

I can see where the confusion comes from. However, I think it's more due to the way the game gets harder than from estimating paths. It seems every level everything gets a stronger field, thus you push bubbles back further(not a problem), but you are manipulated by the enemies much more readily. It'd be fine, but your velocity starts getting quite high and makes missing some enemies nigh impossible in the high 20s. Really, I just felt like I didnt have too much control in it after a certain amount of bubbles, I was subject to the random enemies basically. It's still fun, but that amount of helplessness doesnt help it much:(.

It's just my opinion, but I feel the player shouldnt be manipulated by the fields to make a successful game. I'm of the school of thought that losing control of your player is no fun. So, the magnetic parts would all be for enemies, and if you really wanted to, you could just dodge them all, but those who like the game would master manipulating them. Course, a lot of this would have to deal with level design whether it ends up fun(placing enemies right when you put an innate field strength on them).

Anywho, back to prototyping. I actually do that to test simple ideas, however I have a very hard time making tools, such as level editors and what not. I guess it's due to me not having much practice with said tools to know how to structure one or the file format. Heck, the last tool I made was just a simple map editor in which I just stored the map as an array and the copy and pasted it into hard code to make my level file>.< Anywho, not being able to go to the next step or have something I can reuse really hurts me mentally as I'm always trying to think ahead as I do something(even so simple) and if I dont know what to do afterwards I have a hard time doing now.

However, Im trying Torque X builder(free with XNA creators club, so why not) right now, and though the builder is not all how I wanted(I cant change anything in it, its not WYSIWYG) and its a bit limited, I think I can at least use it to make prototyping a bit easier and give me an idea of what to do with a tool.

Thanks for the advice, and your little game is kind of fun, just cant get to the 30s in bubbles:P