Asteroids Post-Mortem
With the asteroids prototype that I wanted to create, having different ships that would fly around and shoot at the player with unique shooting styles was inspired by most shoot-em up and bullet hell style games. While my prototype started out as an average asteroids style game with the player shooting the asteroids and staying alive for as long as possible. I decided to add a feature where when the player shoots an asteroid to destroy it, it would spawn in an additional asteroid which was one stage smaller than the destroyed asteroid. This provides more tension when playing the game which then makes the game more exciting as the player will try and stay alive even though it is becoming increasingly more difficult. Another feature that I added was different power-ups which would buff the player for a short period of time. These power-ups included a rapid fire which would allow for destroying asteroids in a faster manner which would clear the screen more. This allowed for a bit of relax for the player as the screen would be less packed than before. Another power-up was a shield which would destroy asteroids and make the player invincible for five seconds. This allowed the player to calm down and allow for them to think of a way to keep surviving once the shield disappeared. A third power-up which I began to implement but didn’t fully was a rocket power-up which would change the bullets that the player shot into rockets which would explode and destroy multiple asteroids in the area. Overall, while the game remained rather simplistic, I was able to add different things which built upon the gameplay and made it a more interesting game.
If I was able to redevelop the prototype, there would definitely be changes made and different things added. Changing the sprites and having a background would be done to allow for a more unique feeling to the game. This would allow for more customisation to the game. Another feature that I would add would be different firing modes for the player to use. This would allow for a more diverse range of ways to play the game. If I had more time to work on the prototype, I would have added more power-ups and possibly different enemies which spawned alongside the asteroids.
If I could change the prototype and add what I intended for it, there would be a few things that I would change. First, I would add different ships that the player could choose from. This would allow for different playthroughs of the game having different speeds and firing modes. Another feature that would be added would be varied enemy types which would cause the player to strategize on how they would defeat them. This would change the way the player played the game. The final change which would be added would be bosses and other larger asteroids which would cause the player to focus more on taking them down and trying not to be killed.
Overall, the prototype was very fun to make and had a lot more things to do in it compared to the platformer prototype which I made a couple of weeks ago.
Fullerton, T. (2018). Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games. ProQuest Ebook. Retrieved from: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/qut/reader.action?docID=5477698