- Time Management
- Multiplayer
- Concentration- Clean & Clear Graphics, 2D or 3D
- Target Variety
- UI Zoom In/Out
- Simple Instructions
The first level of the game will be located out in the desert where there will be cover behind rocks and foliage. This cover will be used by both the player and the opponents, and will be the key feature of the zoom in/out mentioned above. Once in cover the player cannot shoot or aim (zoomed out), but can however reload - similar to the Time Crisis game found in many modern day arcades.
This also shows how multiplayer could work, with both players assigned to some cover on either side of the screen. Of course there would not be 3D animated characters such as in Time Crisis above, instead just a view of each other's rifle - both in and out of cover. The space bar will most likely be the toggle for cover/shoot and the mouse will move the target reticule, with the left mouse button to fire with.
The enemy opponents will be the typical martian image with laser guns, and to add variety there will be martians with a jet pack flying fast without cover as the game progresses. At the end of the stage there will be a boss - a flying saucer hovering from side to side across the screen firing a barrage of laser shots at timed intervals. Once the boss is destroyed, the points for each player will be totaled and the best shooter of the stage announced.
As well as having 3 types of opponent during the round, there will also be friendlies which the player has to avoid shooting. These will include 2 different civilians, male and female which will often appear in the heat of battle. Shooting the friendly will cause a deduction of points - something the player will not want particularly when competing in multiplayer mode. As previously mentioned in research, this will cause the player to concentrate more on the game - one of my objectives to accomplish.
The issue of incorporating "time management" is still in consideration. To add it into the actual shooting stage isn't really possible, but one possible solution is to add it in the game UI/main menu. The player could work on upgrading their weapon, firepower, rate of fire, ammo etc. whilst not playing the actual game. In order to do this they will require a high amount of points gathered from playing the shooting stages, which will be used up after purchasing an upgrade. The element of time management comes into play when the upgrade starts - it could take 6 hours for example to upgrade the rate of fire to the next level. This progress they make will be saved to their character profile.
Another mechanic I found out about was whilst playing a game on Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures (now added to my research), which consists of dozens of casual games incorporated into an MMOG. One of these is a shooter, firing down a range where targets move from side to side at various speeds. What this game had though was something that I had not yet found in my research - a critical hit score, i.e. headshots. When hitting headshots consecutively your critical hit score stacks up to give you more points for every shot. It would be a good idea to add this into my shooter, as it would give players the chance to gain more points by being more accurate - especially important in multiplayer if the opposite player was fast yet had poor accuracy.
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