Infinite Battle Fishtank
Genre: Single-player Arcade
Platform: PC
Engine: Game Maker
Skills Used: Systems Design, Documentation, Scripting, Testing
Team: Jed Myers (Designer), Eric Winebrenner (Programmer), and Tyler Rivard (Artist)
An asteroids-like game where the player has been given a tractor beam instead of a gun.
Intent
It was Freshmen year and our second assignment was to create a game that was similar to a classic arcade game but with one mechanic changed. We chose to make an asteroids-like where you had a tractor beam instead of a gun. This created an entirely new experience that force the player to make dozens of second to second choices in a high density.
Platform: PC
Engine: Game Maker
Skills Used: Systems Design, Documentation, Scripting, Testing
Team: Jed Myers (Designer), Eric Winebrenner (Programmer), and Tyler Rivard (Artist)
An asteroids-like game where the player has been given a tractor beam instead of a gun.
Intent
It was Freshmen year and our second assignment was to create a game that was similar to a classic arcade game but with one mechanic changed. We chose to make an asteroids-like where you had a tractor beam instead of a gun. This created an entirely new experience that force the player to make dozens of second to second choices in a high density.
Initial Prototypes
The original versions of this game worked exactly as described above. It had a lives system, a basic enemy who shot at the player, drifting debris, and the tractor beam. You could use the tractor beam on debris. After this initial prototype was tested at QA, a number of testers expressed frustration at the fixed spawn position and in response we added the ability to choose where the player could respawn. In addition, our foundation solid, we chose to make new power-ups that both spawn but also are dropped by enemies. |
Life Systems
One of the early problems I had when translating Asteroids is my dislike of traditional arcade-style life systems. I firmly believe that such systems are archaic remnants of an era when games made their money back through arbitrary life counters that rarely increased even with highly skilled play. I wanted to replace this so I instead made you limit to play your score. Every time you died you had a penalty that occurred to your score based on the wave you were playing. This penalty was arranged in a linear difficulty curve.
Your highest score was recorded in the background but your immediate, relevant score was the threshold for continuation. This forced players to score as highly and quickly as possible to give themselves more chances to complete a wave. Once the score reached 0 the game is over and your highest score is shown.
One of the early problems I had when translating Asteroids is my dislike of traditional arcade-style life systems. I firmly believe that such systems are archaic remnants of an era when games made their money back through arbitrary life counters that rarely increased even with highly skilled play. I wanted to replace this so I instead made you limit to play your score. Every time you died you had a penalty that occurred to your score based on the wave you were playing. This penalty was arranged in a linear difficulty curve.
Your highest score was recorded in the background but your immediate, relevant score was the threshold for continuation. This forced players to score as highly and quickly as possible to give themselves more chances to complete a wave. Once the score reached 0 the game is over and your highest score is shown.
Enemies and Balance
We wanted to ensure that there was a steady difficulty progression where we introduced enemies and new pieces of drifting debris. Early in the project we decided to include enemies and debris that when touched would explode on delay, giving the player both a new obstacle but also a new tool. I introduced these in a staggered manner so as not to overwhelm the player and to give them the opportunity to learn about explosive mechanics through the drifting mines and then introduce the enemies. |
Power Up
A number of power-ups were added to the game. After a brainstorming session where we tried to figure out the best way to increase the amount of options a player could have we came to these:
1. Ability to grab enemies as well as objects. This meant you could grab the standard enemy and use them as cover as well as as a makeshift gun.
2. Ability to gain one death's worth of score, giving you essentially a free death and/or supplement to your score.
3. Making a shield that everything bounces off of for 12 seconds.
Conclusion
This project was an amazing first learning experience and taught me a lot about me love for interlocking systems and the value of innovating early and often. It was a project that fooled playtesters into thinking they were playing a Junior or Sophmore level game at the time.
A number of power-ups were added to the game. After a brainstorming session where we tried to figure out the best way to increase the amount of options a player could have we came to these:
1. Ability to grab enemies as well as objects. This meant you could grab the standard enemy and use them as cover as well as as a makeshift gun.
2. Ability to gain one death's worth of score, giving you essentially a free death and/or supplement to your score.
3. Making a shield that everything bounces off of for 12 seconds.
Conclusion
This project was an amazing first learning experience and taught me a lot about me love for interlocking systems and the value of innovating early and often. It was a project that fooled playtesters into thinking they were playing a Junior or Sophmore level game at the time.