WEEK 5
Platformer Post-Mortem
One reading which inspired my design process was from chapter 4 and the term ‘flow’ and how you have to carefully balance frustration and boredom for an optimal experience (Fullerton, 2018, p. 100). My initial design for this was to create many obstacles and threats as well as many pathways for victory, while also moving away from the frustration aspect by adding lives (3). So that the player would not get punished too hard and continue engagement in with what happens after taking dmg. One classic example I noticed was super mario 64 where you can take a lot of hits from enemies before finally losing.
Given another chance, one thing I would change in terms of my processes in developing the prototype, would be having more emphasis on play testing. Due to time, I was a bit rushed and couldn’t implement the player feedback and then get it tested again. Therefore, if I could do it again, I would get the prototype tested earlier and then get it tested again with animations and the feedback given added in. Another is to use better animations/sprite models. By doing this I could create a better feel for the player and make the characters movement feel more impactful when moving/jumping. I would have also liked to do this to some enemies, where enemies with animations dealt more dmg.
If I had to redesign my platformer game, I would have liked to focus more on the aspects of my enemies. This is because I think they were too basic and having one dimensional movement made the game a lot easier than what I envisioned it to be. I would have also liked to make my game more side-scroller like, where the game moves along on its own, I think this would have made it a lot better as it would have given the player less time to think, increasing difficulty and thus forth increased player satisfaction when the level is completed.
Sources
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