Thomas Härdin, lead design for Fenrir back again.
We are making progress with the game concept Bullet Hack. A lot of the core is finished, such as movement, shooting, win/lose conditions, etc. Today i will explain recent progress and future plans for powerups. Note that following is based in the mode that is the hacking gameplay.
Lets start at the first powerup. We had some early ideas as a group about different kinds of powerups, for example a multi shot projectile, sweeping laser in a cone or even a bomb covering the screen with its effect. However to have something that met the alpha criteria with at least one powerup and still be something easily implemented and useful i thought we could settle for a rapid fire mode. Meaning the player gets increased fire rate when it is activated, in this case we implemented it through decreasing the cooldown between shots when the player shot with space, so you could essentially shoot faster when spamming space. This was clarified in game with the projectiles changing colour drastically. Also to have an easy time testing with the powerup we bound the effect to a key, in this case "F". It let us use the effect without complications, however the plan was always to have powerups being pick-ups when searching in rooms as the spy character. Who is searching these office rooms for clues and industrial espionage. To continue on the rapid fire powerup, we also had a distinct sound when it was activated for further clarity and feel.
So, i am happy with the first powerup being this simple, we are currently tweaking how long the effect should last and how often you can activate it, this will need visual effects representing cooldown and availability.
Moving on to future powerups, me and one of the programmers has thought out an early version of a double-shot mode, where the player can shoot two projectiles per shot for a duration. Some may think its too much and not that exciting with two powerups just changing the way normal shooting behaves, but there is where the third powerup will come in. My plan for it is to have something that looks like a menacing great orb that you can launch through a separate key and it doesn't change your shooting behaviour but rather it is fired separately slowly moving through the screen from your character to the left and ending at the right end obliterating everything it touches on its way, always pulsating with electric energy.
This is the progress and plans for powerups in our game, feel free to fill me in on opinions.
Hi Thomas!
SvaraRaderaIt seems that your team is doing great in terms of how much have done with core game, having something that you can play and interact with is always a show of progress and fun for the creators. The way that you test your power-ups intrigues me, a very interesting way of testing your mechanics, something I will borrow for my design process. It also seems that you have taken the group’s ability in mind when setting goals and designing the mechanics that you are implementing into the game. If there would be anything I could give you advise on, it would probably be that if you find that you want to add power-ups you might not have to. Because what the player perceives the game to be with one power-up might be enough, it also makes it easier for you to refine what you already have in the core game. But that is just a suggestion
All in all, I think that you have a method for designing your game and your blog is easy to read and keeps it both entertaining and formal. Keep up the good work and good luck on the power-ups
Best Regards
Philip Hagberg Enea