Sam Group prototype 1 - miwamiwa/CART315GroupPrototypes GitHub Wiki

Group Prototype 1 Url: https://github.com/miwamiwa/CART315GroupPrototypes/tree/master/Balltower Melissa Lim and Samuel Paré-Chouinard

Ball Tower In this game the player must run across a large platform in a closed space in search of a dog. Balls about the size of the player roll across the platform, obstructing their view and slightly impairing their movement (they are much lighter than the player). There is no particular incentive pressing the player to find the dog, so they can also freely interact with the environment. When the player finds the dog, the floor falls down one level, the player and balls following soon after. The dog moves to a random location, and a new level starts with more balls added to the floor. The first level starts with just a few balls scattered across the surface, and by the end the player is inching his way through a pool of balls. The balls that spawn in the first level are red - red balls spawn a new blue ball when the player touches them. Balls that spawn at the start of each subsequent level are white. White and blue balls don't spawn new balls. The player can move around using arrow keys or WASD. They can also click to perform a "kick"/power-move that sends balls that are immediately in front flying. An arrow points him towards his goal every few seconds. The camera is stationned beind the player at all times. The shell that surrounds the play area has inverted normals so that the action can be seen from the outside.

In this prototype we chose to use the falling mechanic from my dog game prototype. During the playtest many players thought the fall was an interesting level transition, most were trying to move quickly from one level to the next and some suggested emphasizing that aspect of the game. One player enjoyed paying close attention to the fall, eventually finding a manner of falling into locations she couldn't otherwise access. While the platform we chose for this prototype doesn't really allow for that specific behaviour to happen, the fall itself now includes an important aspect of the gameplay as the player has a chance of seeing where the dog hits the ground before the balls cover his view. The game should also be quite fast-paced, so falling between levels will happen often, rewarding the player with the view of all the objects in the scene falling down to the next level.

Design Questions

How well does the search stand as a core mechanic? What kinds of player behaviours emerge from the ball physics and/or kicking that could lead to new mechanics to refine the game? Levels contain alot of randomness and range from rather uneventful to chaotic - at what point are players most interested in the game? Do they feel challenged? Overwhelmed? Are certain patterns in the randomness that stand out as interesting for play? Camera - how do players react to the camera position? Do players use the fall as an opportunity to locate the dog?

Playtest questions

do you feel engaged by the search? do you feel engaged by the dog character? do you look for the dog when you fall? did you find ways of interacting with the environement that you found interesting? what is something you wanted to achieve but couldn't/didn't manage? how do the environment and controls feel at the start? middle levels? towards the end? how do you feel about the pace of the level progression and difficulty increase? is there a point at which this feels too chaotic? what level/density did you find most enjoyable? what's a situation/encounter with the moving balls that you found interesting? annoying? how's the view?

FEEDBACK

Most testers enjoyed the dog character and the search Difficulty progression comes off as subtle but comes to be noticed eventually Players don't attempt to use the balls in any way other than by kicking them. For some there isn't much of a feeling of challenge, mostly chaos. The case is appealing to some, not to others. Falling down the levels makes many testers wonder what they might eventually find down there. Earlier/mid range levels sound