Gameplay Concepts

We need to determine once and for all what the gameplay will consist of beyond the obvious, jump over obsticles.

For instance there are no enemies in the game but can we use traps instead like a rotating saw, or lava burst and other moving parts like that.

also as for the level design. Since this is an iPhone game im not sure too many people care about the adventure mode. Most I seen people play are Highscore based games, I think the endurance mode itself could carry the entire game.

however if we do use the adventure mode i was thinking we could go from a moderate terrain to a jagged terrain the go underground and eventually end up in hell or the earths core.

Will powerups be introduced? if so in what way? How are they obtained and what would they do.

What does this game have over the competition what makes this game different from the rest. What will people appreciate that is new?

is multitouch an option for game controls?

lets figure this all out and get the gameplay wrapped up.

AS for original level modes, we are selling the game, we will have to give them something probably 20 levels will do, anyway

POWER UPS:

- jet pack or something, your swipes could determine teh vertical position of your character.

- EMP temporary electric pulses disable all technology like lazers.

- AUTO RUN. will take control for you and take you through the level for 3 seconds.

-

POWER UP COLOUR CODING:

- red: powerups that affect the surroundings.

- Green: powerups that affect or boost your ability.

- Blue: total control or god like power ups (RARE)


Traps will be good!

Game has a new concept, that's it's challenge, the question we ask is, what will they want to critisize?
the controls are the most important thing to work on. for example sky divers controls are really annoying as you are constantly obstructing the view of the ball.

Multitouch will not work i don't think i wish it did, i think power ups should bank, and show as little icons in the corner. then you tap the icon when you want it. 40*40 icons, even in game.

That's my first thought.

Wow Great Answers.

20 levels sound fair, will there be any boss fights? if so how could you possibly add them to a game like this? Im guessing an inifinate run at our lowest terrain while dodging fireballs from the boss above, and forcing him to crash or hitting a trigger that deals damage to it? hmm seems like a bit much for a small game . what do u recon? how many Bosses?

I like the power up colour guid thats great, i think we should stratigically place those in places where you have to risk a crash in order to get them, and randomize whether it would show up or not and randomize the power-up itself.

I think we wil have to discuss the power ups in more detail as to why or why they would not be an asset to the game, and throw in a bunch more ideas untill we come to a conclusion on a handful of power-ups.

Same thing goes for traps I think we need a detailed discussion on what type of traps would fit the game.

when you say the game has a new concept, are you refering to the swipeing? I seen my brother play on his iPhone all the time and all he does is swipe in the the games hes got. for instance basketball you swipe the ball up and release into the hoop. Am I mistaken or has this been done before?

great discussion lets keep this up and try and wrap it up by the end of the week.

I would like to here thoughts from Orange as well, all memebers deserve an equall right in the creative details.

straight off, i meant the swiping to create this kind of motion, i have never seen an Iphone game with swiping that is a side scrolling reaction testing platformer, yes loads of games have swipes but what the swipes do i consider unique.

As for bosses, i think a shooting boss is taking things a bit far, the person doens't have loads of control over the ball and it could confuse.

races are a possiblity but i personally think a "Boss" level should just be a level double in length. because it's maintenance factor, it will be hard to maintain. yes it leads to stress but you need to have some stress in adictive games, when my friend was playing a game with a similar concept he tried and tried again despite the fact the level was really hard and that he ended up with about 30 tries in the end. stress=addiction. even big games use it. Modern Warfare 2 for example...

Swiping movement isn't original, but how it is used is, that's what im getting at. it's a shame i can't just compile it to an app and test it myself... :S but oh well

Yeh i haven't really spoken to orange today, hopefully he'll be on soon, and maybe once im off or something.

As for powerups, for the random level generator, we will make a series of short courses that link together like a jigsaw. on these we can place a powerup template and that won't necessarily appear, as for chance, i reckon a 1 in 20 that it will appear, so that's one powerup for every 20 obstacles. then onto:

flow chart:

bland generator 1 in 20 >

power up

green 1 in 2 50% if> random between green powerups

if NOT >

Red 4 in 5 40% again if> random between red powerups

if NOT >

blue 10% > random between blue power ups.


we can manually place these in challenging places, hence the risk factor.

Oh I see so we'll have final Tier Stages. That sounds good to me, I like that concept a lot more.

For the stages I would like to see large maps with huge ramps where you fly across a large space and different platforms to choose from to choose your destiny.

In the Demo on the third stage I managed to jump up and through the glass at the very end i rammed into the wall but for instance if someone pulled that off they could ride on an easier course, but if they didnt they would get a bumpier course, and maybe those two courses could meet up again before the end of the stage.

I'd hate to keep the game too confined I would like to see it open up into a more wow factor.

ok, so we want huge levels then, fair enough, just wondering, should there be some form of checkpoint if a level is huge, you respawn half way through?

anyway we get working on the physics for ramps.

i like the idea of spilt course alot!!

Love the ceck point Idea yea thats perfect also i was thinking for FPS we could tile the stage into 2, 3 or 4 sections as needed to disable those parts of the stage instances to keep the game at high speeds. in other words ie.

[1][2][3][4][5]

if your in section 3 instances for sections 1, 2 and 5 are turned off. this should keep the FPS up.

no need to worry about sections, anything that is not in view is diabled already.

yea but we can section out the stage into parts that way the entire stage is not loaded at all times we could tile 10 or 20 if we wanted to without losing speed.

it would have an identical effect to the one now with regards to the stage. And as for creating and destroying instances it would lagg with that. and seeing as 128 particlse doesn't make it lagg at all...

OOH CAN U MAKE THE CHARACTER BREAK GLASS WHEN SMASHING INTO THE GROUND FOR DOUBLE JUMP? ALSO SHOULDNT DOUBLE JUMP BE HIGHER I COULD BARELY TELL.

yeh it can be higher, break glass? do you mean just run the glass particle effect?

WELL I LAND ON THE GLASS WHILE SWIPING DOWN AND GOT KILLED. I WAS THINKING IT WOULD HAVE BROKEN WHEN I LANDED ON IT LIKE THAT.

oh right that yeh.