Objective:
Provide a simple, yet compelling gameplay experience for traveling through a world, that is easy to pick up and learn.
Experience:
· The fun begins as the player launches around the game world with a single touch of the screen.
· Quickly discover and feel rewarded with new ways to interact with different surfaces in the world.
· Feel relaxed while exploring and collecting food.
· Witness your progression through player size increases.
Vision:
· Simple, accurate controls.
· It's easy to play well.
· Enough variety to keep the player interested.
· No pressure from timer count-downs.
Reference - Angry Birds (Mobile/PC/etc) - Simple, one-touch control. Launch where you expect to be launched.
(Image Source: blog.mrmeyer.com)
Reference - Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack (Vita/PC) - Blob changes scale based on consumed food. Uses physics based mechanics.
(Image source: Drinkbox Studios)
Anti-Vision:
· Control style or mechanics that take practice and patience to master.
· Multiple types of input that determine what the player is doing on screen.
· Energy/health meters, timers, and other resources to manage.
Gish (PC) - Tricky platforming, takes a while to get used to the controls.
(Image source: www.fun-motion.com)
Super Metroid (SNES) - Tight controls, but some are very difficult to master. Multiple 'abilities' to equip and use.
(Image source: Wikipedia)
Details:
Slingshot-style locomotion
· Touch the screen and the blob will jump.
o Touch and drag to 'pull' back and get more launching power.
o Direction and distance movement accurately represents the player's expectation.
o Plenty of visual and audio feedback to show the outcome of movement
o Blob color changes slightly when aiming in the direction of objectives. Prevent the need for maps and UI.
· Direction arc displayed to show initial course
Physics based environment
· Blob will roll down surfaces as expected in real life.
· Larger blob will gain more momentum/speed
· Other objects in the game world can take part in world physics as expected.
o eg. large rock rolling down a hill
o eg. Knock down a piece of fruit normally out of reach.
Growth
· Eating food increases blob size
o The larger the blob, the larger the food it can consume.
o Larger blobs can jump higher and can interface with surfaces in slightly different ways than smaller blobs (large blobs can float on fluids, where smaller blobs will sink).
· Levels visibly scale to the perceived growth of the blob
o eg. level 1 is from the view of an ant
o eg. level 15 is from the view of a small bird
o eg. level 30 is from the view of a bear
o Player can complete each level with a minimal amount of food, but will need to collect them all to access all areas of the game.
o Collecting more food than the minimum allows the player to access further areas of the game earlier, if desired.
o Camera adapts to blob growth.
· Can split to become smaller, in order to fit through smaller areas
o Splitting reduces size by half, and leaves a 1/2 size empty blob behind.
o Player can re-collect discarded blobs to grow bigger again.
Surfaces
· Blob can interact with different surfaces in different ways. Examples:
§ Sticky surfaces slow movement, and allow for wall jumping.
§ Rubber surfaces allow the blob to ricochet off.
§ Weak surfaces can be broken through, depending on blob size.
§ Colored barriers can be passed through when the blob is of the same color
§ Liquid surfaces can be floated on with a larger size blob.
§ Slick surfaces can be slid on to maintain, or increase momentum.
§ Molten surfaces harden the blob, allowing it to roll instead of jump.
§ Fluffy surfaces add fluff to the blob, which will allow it to float on breezes.
Damage
· Being hit by threats and hazards splits the blob in half (similar to splitting)
· Must re-collect blob bits to get larger again
· Blob recollection should ALWAYS be possible, and never prevent a player from continuing
· The player will never die.
© Scott Balmer - Game Design - 2014
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