After Momo's post on the blog, I started thinking about the current overall design plan...
In our case (a competitive multiplayer game), I'm thinking "collecting" is only fun if collecting is unrestricted and clearly gives sufficiently great benefits (like in Bomberman). In other words, I think the current design plan which involves collecting 1-time use weapons, where you can't pick up additional weapons is entirely missing the point of using the "collecting" mechanism. I might be wrong, but I think it has the following design flaws:
1) you get in situations where you have to avoid "situationally bad" weapon drops since it may be at a good position to fire ( but you'll pick it up if you fire your current weapon there),
2) having to constantly run around to pick up 1-time use weapon drops can feel like a drag and can conflict with claiming/coloring new tiles, and
3) the weapon drops (or icons) can visually clutter the level, since they can't be all picked up right away.
We can still have "collecting" be a part of the game-play (e.g., power-ups, enhancements, buffs, etc.), but I don't think 1-time use weapons work.
Anyways, right now I'm thinking what if the player can have up to 2 weapons at a time (Note - "2" so that they can make a meaningful choice between which to use), but they obtain it automatically (like the puzzle blocks in Tetris). After using a weapon, it takes some short duration to obtain a new one that fills the slot. The only thing that greatly disturbs me is how to elegantly display the weapons that each player has. Currently, I'm thinking a visual icon will temporally pop-up right above the player character's head to indicate which weapon that character just obtained, but a more permanent display of the weapon will be somewhere more out of the way; also, if the player has no weapons (i.e., used both weapons almost simultaneously), then maybe only 1 weapon is recharged at any one time so that there is only 1 temporal visual icon at any one time. (I've also thought about achievements that can skew the chance of obtaining certain types of weapons. The chances can maybe also be skewed based on situational context.)
What do you guys think about all this? Any criticism or different ideas you'd like to share?
you have a good point. I think we should brain storm this on sunday before we go any further
ReplyDeleteIt's true that picking up 1 use items isn't true collecting. I was thinking of the 1 use thing more as tactical options that force the players to decide between alternatives. The question I wanted the the players to think "what is my best choice at the moment" rather than "how do I get everything".
ReplyDeleteThe collecting comes more from the claiming of the tiles. The tiles show what the player has accumulated. The pickups are just temporary tools to facilitate taking tiles.
If we have multiple weapons at a time, it would be better to represent the weapons on the HUD as icons to make the information really clear. I don't think we need the multiple weapons though.
I like having weapons that might be situationally bad potentially obstruct the player. It makes the level more dynamic since it changes the locations that the player wants to walk to over the course of the game. Having a situationally changing level reduces repetitiveness on such a small map. Yet, the players collectively have control over the what tiles and weapons haven't been taken so it's like the players control the level and change where it's good or bad to go.
Changing course to pick up 1 use weapons may take time away from collecting tiles. The player has to make the decision if the weapon is worth it at the time. Again, it's about forcing players to decide between the most worthwhile outcome in a situation. It's about constantly reevaluating objectives as the match progresses.
I think it would be fine to have "unlockables" after achieving certain things in game that can give options to change what pickups are available at the start of a match. It's kind of like how "Goldeneye" let you unlock "All Rocket Launchers" multiplayer after beating some single player mission on a high difficulty.
I prefer the weapon pickups over the "random card draw" weapon idea. The pickups let the players see their choices on the map and race to reach them before their opponents (much like the tiles). It makes the weapons something that multiple players can interact with rather than something isolated to a single player.
However, I do like the "random weapon draw" idea as a concept and believe it could be effective in a real time combat game. It could be like in "Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories" or "Battle Network" and let the player play the weapon cards individually or as a special card combo to achieve effects. I just think the grabbing weapons that are all over the map fits better with the tile collecting theme.
While I like games in which the player is encouraged to wait for the right moment to act, I think of Gridiron as more of an always acting and always reacting game.
ReplyDeleteWhen I played "Chain of Memories" I spent more time looking at my cards on the HUD rather than watching my character onscreen. "Mega Man Battle Network" was simpler because I could only stand in 9 places on the screen so I didn't worry about movement so much and it felt okay to concentrate on my cards. Tony, your random weapon idea isn't nearly as complex as the card-based combat games I described, but it's a similar type of idea and it would likely have the effect of encouraging players to look at their weapon inventory and wait for its slots to fill up rather than observe the map space.
I don't think weapon drops would clutter the level as much as make it feel fleshed out. Bomberman has bombs and pickups all over the place and that feels fine.
I don't like having to change where I look on the screen constantly either, that's why I suggested that the item temporally pops up above the character's head when the character receives a new weapon.
ReplyDeleteWith respect to Bomberman, I think it really has 2 phases (disregarding the beginning when locations are blocked by boxes): 1) the drop what I'm doing and go grab the power-ups (with a bit of bomb planting and dodging) and 2) the kill the opponent phase. My point is that the power-ups generally aren't just left there.
Anyways, if you feel that your idea is fun (and the group agrees to try this route), then we'll prototype this (especially since it would be the faster route to try). However, I've been hesitant to implement it (mainly because we don't have many weapons in the first place but also) because it'll be non-reusable code (if we decide we want to try something else).