Day Three - Implementing Choices
The next step was to turn my game into a final, finished product. Right now it’s just lots of cool things thrown together, but there’s nothing interesting. There aren’t many choices, it’s not dynamic, and there’s no progression system.
First, I added some combat mechanics:
Jumping Attack
I added the ability to jump on enemies to deal damage to them:
Directional Shooting
I added the ability to shoot up and down:
Powerup System
The tried-and-true way to make a game cooler is to add powerups. I decided that I’d have three kinds of powerups. Since my game is centered around the choice engine, two of these powerups would impact choice. One would give a new weapon and another would replace the negative choices with positive ones. The last powerup is just a simple HP powerup. Here’s how they look in game:
The good choice and the weapon choice will replace the existing choice. In this way, they are powerful not just because they upgrade the player, but because they slow the progression of the enemies.
Good Choices
Here’s what the green powerup, which replaces enemy-buffing choices with player-buffing ones, looks like:
There’s 6 possible choices:
- +1 max HP
- +2 HP
- +1 jump damage
- +1 fire damage
- move speed+
- jump height+
Weapon Choice
Here’s what the gray powerup, which replaces enemy-buffing choices with a weapon selection, looks like:
There’s 6 possible choices:
- Ricochet Gun
- Similar to normal fire, but bullets ricochet 5 times before being destroyed
- Shotgun
- Slower cluster fire
- Triple Machine Gun
- Large bullet volume with a low precision
- Machine Pistol
- Large bullet volume with high precision but less spread
- Rocket Launcher
- Shoots exploding rockets that damage a radius
- Boom Boots
- Makes enemies explode when stomped on
UI
I added visual indicators for player stats:
New Level Design
I noticed that the old level design had certain “dead spots” where enemies couldn’t reach. So, I updated the level.
Moving Forward
The game has a lot more meat now, with more interesting choices and player stats, but there’s still no progression system. Moving forward, I have to implement the progression system and do art and music.