Hi all
here is a link to my comp game:
version 6
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/187819585/E Comp ver 6.1/E Comp ver 6.1.html
So the idea is that you are stuck in a Labyrinth on a strange planet. You have 5 minutes to reach the interstellar portal home before it closes and leaves you stranded on the strange planet forever.
WASD = movement.
Mouse = look.
Space = jump.
left Click = shoot.
Health = Top left of HUD
Timer = Top left of HUD
Left Shift = Special Power
Special Power:
Red walls - Become transparent
Orange Walls - Move up and down
Yellow Walls - become transparent and you can move through them
Green Walls - Explode
here is a link to my comp game:
version 6
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/187819585/E Comp ver 6.1/E Comp ver 6.1.html
So the idea is that you are stuck in a Labyrinth on a strange planet. You have 5 minutes to reach the interstellar portal home before it closes and leaves you stranded on the strange planet forever.
WASD = movement.
Mouse = look.
Space = jump.
left Click = shoot.
Health = Top left of HUD
Timer = Top left of HUD
Left Shift = Special Power
Special Power:
Red walls - Become transparent
Orange Walls - Move up and down
Yellow Walls - become transparent and you can move through them
Green Walls - Explode
Comments
1. Enemy AI (3 types - Drone, droid and zombie)
2. Timer and lose condition
3. Health Manager
1st post updated with newer version - but here it is too:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/blxq2pw577i0nor/OiUIp6-FNB
Also need to improve the win condition. At the moment the game simply restarts when you reach the "home portal".
1) I appreciate that it's supposed to be a maze, but I honestly have no idea how to navigate. I saw there was a huge pillar in the middle but I couldn't really use it as a reference as I had to constantly check for enemies. The walls and grass that all looked exactly the same left me extremely confused.
2) Sound. I want to hear an enemy before I see them.
3) I don't get motion sick very often, but the combination of everything looking the same and the fast movements of the mouse(which might be my own settings) and fast movements of the enemies along with everything looking the same made me motion sick in about 10 minutes.
4) I don't see the need for health. I think it would be a funner mechanic to have the spheres slow you down instead of kill you. It is essentially the same in the end, but if I'm only slowed down I at least have the rest of the 5 minutes to practice to do better on my next run.
5) I also didn't understand what to do at the gate...I was looking for a switch for half the time before I just start popping a cap in it's ass out of frustration.
But it's looking like a cool idea so far. Would love to see some random traps. :)
1) I will add props to the stage to deferentiate certain areas (and to give some sort of navigation tips?) and I will look at different textures for the walls. Just wanted to lay the maze out first and just threw a texture on a prefab wall because it was even worse in plain white. But, sorry did not want to give anyone motion sickness. Will also maybe slow the drone AI down a bit. Did you get to the droids and Zombies? Also don't want to make it too easy - it is a Labyrinth after all.
2)This is going to be my biggest challenge this month. I have very little experience with sound in Unity, so this is going to be a great time to learn.
3) Again - sorry for any discomfort caused.
4) Nice Idea. I want to add a Highest score of sorts with the completion time, so a time penalty might not be a bad idea. Question: How would I get at the variables on the standard FPS controller/Character motor scripts in Unity?
5) Will try to figure out a visual que for the gates or alternatively have them open when you approach them - so that you have a choice to shoot them from far or wait for them to open. Didn't want to clutter the screen with extra instructions.
6) Any ideas for traps you would like to see?
Sound isn't too hard, essentially you have two components. The first is a [url = http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/ScriptReference/AudioListener.html]Audio Listener[/url] which is usually attached to the main camera, and in your case will be attached to the player GameObject. The other component you will need is the [url = http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/ScriptReference/AudioSource.html]Audio Source[/url]. You would attach one to each enemy and load in a clip. You can then use the Play() function to play the selected audio clip, at random intervals or when the player is close or whenever.
I'm not sure I understand your question about the variables. All the public variables would be exposed in the inspector, like movespeed and such. ( I assume, I haven't worked with the built in controllers much) Anything else you'd probably have to open the script in an editor.
I like the idea with the gates, make it so that the players who don't shoot the gate actually have to stand and wait at the gate before they can go through.
I wasn't really thinking about specific traps, more like placed at random places to mess about with you. You could try things like inverted controls and see how that goes. Or maybe give them some kind of tunnel vision.
1. The mouse should be locked in the game, then released when you press escape or something. It's super irritating when the mouse cursor leaves the area.
2. The mouse sensitivity seems to be insanely high? Makes it hard to aim.
3. Frame rate? Seems quite laggy for such a low poly basic game?
That's the technical stuff, now the game design stuff:
1. There should be an indication that I'm being hit. Red haze or something. I dunno when I'm getting hit and mysteriously died.
2. I have NO IDEA where I'm going. It's one thing to make a maze, it's another to make the player feel utterly hopeless. I think you need to indicate progress - give the maze distinct segments so that the player can figure out if they're getting closer. Make the first door from section 1 to section 2 relatively short/easy, then make it longer/harder. Right now I'm just wandering.
3. Those pole bits that you could blow up helped that a bit, gave me a feeling of progress, but it wasn't quite enough. It made me feel like I'm supposed to be here - am on the right path. Was I? I have no idea. That has to be quite deliberately designed in.
4. Enemies... Are they random? Maybe have them walk from the portal which is the spawn point? At least then there's some kind of indication that I'M SUPPOSED TO GO THAT WAY. Maybe. It could be imbalanced. And hard to implement.
5. Right now there's not enough cue for the players to figure out the game except by playing it over and over and memorise the path. That's not good enough.
6. I didn't even realise I had a weapon until much much later. An on-screen indication of the weapon (barrel etc) would help that a lot.
7. The gunplay... Not sure where you want to take it. The enemies being 1-hit kills means they can only be dangerous if they managed to sneak up behind you, but I haven't noticed any level design where they would be behind you or overwhelm you by numbers. I think think about the game design around the gunplay a bit. You could up the tension immensely by either taking away the weapon and making the monsters move slower, and maybe giving the player an environmental weapon to kill (like a pit where they could fall into) or something else. Or adding the monsters strategically around the maze so the player will tend to step into a room and the monsters would ambush the player, which is much more interesting.
Cool :) Have fun! :D
@Tuism - Thanks for playing. I think I will add a type of "hotter, hotter no colder" mechanic to the game to assist the player with navigating the maze. But to be honest isn't the point of a good maze to make the "mazee" (that's totally a word) feel hopeless. But I agree it does not make for a fun game. I will look at mouse sensitivity. I could not find a mouse lock script yet. Will look into it. Enemies start moving toward you (using a pathfinding alg) as soon as you enter their area. There are several "node areas" in the game. I will try to add a gun barrel to the screen. I will slow the drones down. Other Ai types are much slower, but larger and take more hits to kill. I'm working on traps. i think that being able to hear the Enemies will also help a lot, as Rigormotis suggested. But thanks again for playing.
I am so happy that I posted a build earlier this time round. This feedback is really cool.
myFPSController will then show up in the inspector and you can drag and drop the FPSControllerScript from the gameObject into the reference and it should work. I hope that helps. :)
With regards to what Tuism was saying about the hopelessness of the maze. I felt the same way, and no the point of a good maze is not to make the mazee feel completely hopeless. If you make the player feel hopeless...ie that their actions/decisions make no difference to the final outcome then they will lose interest and stop playing. You want your players to play your game(in case that wasn't clear :P). you can make the maze difficult and long, but try not to make it confusing(as in all the textures look the same kinda thing).
Edit: forgot about this : [url = http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/ScriptReference/Screen-lockCursor.html]How to lock the cursor[/url]
So you gotta reward the player, there are many ways to do this, but let's take maze for example. It's maze, so players want to feel like they're over coming the maze. That doesn't happen instantaneously with a switch from Despair -> Yay I Win! when the player gets to the end - it's built up over several smaller steps of rewards, like:
1. The player realises they're making progress through the environment being different (@Rigormortis spoke about this with Prince of Persia) - imagine the walls of the maze had a distinct entrance hall section feel, then there's a outer security office feel, then a security vault feel, then a core reactor feel... Or even just red -> Orange -> Yellow -> White walls. The player will feel like they're getting somewhere gradually.
2. Marking progress strictly with numbers or something. Specific doors from the outer rim to inner rim marked with signs [TO THE CORE] or something. Having these sparsely means the players aren't guided like dumb sheeps but they're reminded that they're on the right path.
3. Give them a way to figure out the right way, like the hot/cold thing is valid, though I DO like the giant pillar in the sky thing, that also works - except your walls are probably too tall to make that effective. Think about the design of the rest of your stuff - do you need the walls SO high that it blots out the sky? All the time? You could design it so that the pillar is more often visible than not. That also has to do with the way the player moves. Planning in windows and things. I think that's cooler than "hot cold". Heck a compass would do that the same, but the pillar feels better, more thematic, if it's designed right (by it i mean the level and not just the pillar)
And there's so many more ways! Just gotta try things :)
Thank you, thank you, thank you for the lock cursor info!!!!!!
Fixed :P
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/187819585/eps/eps.html (link also in 1st post)
1) I have changed the textures on the walls to a see-through one. This has 2 benefits. Player can see enemies coming from further away, which gives you more time to prepare for them. This also means that I did not slow my enemy AI down. Also the player now hopefully feels a little less hopeless as the "Goal area" is more visible from further away.
2) I have also colour coded the different parts of the maze from Red to Green. So that the player knows that he/she is progressing in the right direction.
3) I have added a gun (very bad art gun) to the camera, so that the player is aware that he has a weopon.
4) @Tuism will be glad to hear that my game now has a locked cursor that does not move off the screen. Thanks again to @Rigormortis for the help and advice. You sir are a legend. (press ESC to unlock cursor)
5) I have toned down the mouse sensitivity a bit.
6) You can now either shoot your way through the gates at the end of each section or wait for them to open manually.
There is still a lot of feedback from the posts above to act on (like player movement speed vs health and SOUND), and I am woking towards getting those sorted. Any more feedback would be awesome.
Also, let me know if my links are better now (think you don't need to download anymore).
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/187819585/Comp E entry ver 4/Comp E entry ver 4.html
update:
1) Gun now has an Idle, Run and shoot animation
2) There is now a visual indication if you are being hit
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/187819585/Comp E entry ver 4.4/Comp E entry ver 4.4.html
Added a skybox, some signage and then some minor tweaks that nobody will probably even notice
So I tried it and sure enough. LAGGGGGGG. Maybe my computer isn't super up to spec, but yeah. Not enjoyable for me so I didn't go much further. Cool idea though... If a bit lazy in the design department :P
Seems like it could get quite fun
I did say it was a cool idea! I do think that "all the walls are transparent" would be a cool idea, but what're you doing with it?
And my saying that bit is a bit lazy takes nothing away from the rest of the design. I didn't say "THE WHOLE GAME IS LAZY" I said "that part of the game is a bit lazy in design". The two does not equate! I just didn't get to the rest of the design because, well, I couldn't play the game cos of lag. whether my computer is just too ancient or what, hey I don't know. I'm just telling you my experience. Generally web builds are much slower than your local build. Did you play the game on web build?
And the "dead man walking" thing is a thing people use to describe a game that has a time limit, where the player KNOWS they can't complete the goal in the time they have left, so they're left less interested. It's not an insult, it's a design challenge. Prince of Persia had the dead man walking syndrome. If I can say that of that super awesome game that sold millions that everyone loved, what's wrong with saying that of your game? I'm just pointing it out.
So, I don't know, do YOU want to work on it? We're here to offer constructive criticism, not to tell you your game is shit and go do other stuff. I certainly didn't say "it's shit go work on other stuff", I pointed at aspects of the game and described what implication they have on gamer experience.
It feels like you think I'm attacking you or your ability or something... I'm not! Nor is anyone else here who offer constructive crticism and feedback! :o
If you made the walls transparent and it had mechanical significance (like, say... the enemies move super fast, so are hard to kill, but you can kill them easier through a wall. Or if you lined up two enemies you could tag them both with 1 shot and link them to immobilise them. Or something. Or you can go into transparent wall mode only for a short while at a time depending on some kind of resource.
So I'd say you've learnt lots from whatever it is you've made, and that's awesome as it is. Whether you can turn this learning into an awesome game is another thing. Most game designers go through 100 prototypes before something is "fun" :)
I like the transparent walls because it does make the level "feel" easier although I still got stuck occasionally.
I think what's missing is some variety and incentive. I got through the end of the first maze where I found some sort of potion thing which I think was for health only to encounter another maze just a different colour. By the 3rd maze there was "some" variety because the enemies looked different but I think you should spend some time thinking how you can change up the levels so they're more interesting. Maybe the walls move in the 2nd maze or the there are doors that open and close on a timer (probably not a great idea since the player is time conscience and will think it unfair if they have to wait); and in the 3rd maze it's combined with more interesting enemies.
That would be a reason to have wall transparency work as a positive gameplay manipulator.
@Fengol that design tool is awesome.
Special Power:
Red walls - Become transparent
Orange Walls - Move up and down
Yellow Walls - become transparent and you can move through them
Green Walls - Explode
I still need to tweak a bit, but atleast it is working. Want to add a visual indication that player is using the power. Also if you did not read this or the instructions in the first post, you will most probably not understand well as there is no tutorial in-game. Still want to sort out sound. Improve Ai and add Juice in general. All critisism is welcome.
newest version (also in first post):
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/187819585/Comp E entry ver 5/Comp E entry ver 5.html
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/187819585/Comp E ver 5.3/Comp E ver 5.3.html
Just added a hand to the scene to give a visual indication of the special power used.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/187819585/Comp E ver 5.5/Comp E ver 5.5.html
The only thing now is the mouse sensitivity is waay too high - the default unity FPS controller seems to always be set too high.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/187819585/E comp ver 5.6/E comp ver 5.6.html
All critique welcome