[Prototype] Not Your Average Endless Runner
Hey guys
So this game is inspired by a ludum dare game called Fracuum and I've been wanting to make it for a long time now.
Meant for mobile (though still has a lot of performance issues which you might notice). No specific additions in mind yet, but definitely want to finesse the progression and maybe add power ups, make coins more valuable to collect etc.
Feedback is most welcome.
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Endless Runner Android.zip
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Endless Runner Windows.zip
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Comments
Things that you might want to add:
- is there an end Condition, like a timer or the game forcing you to progress or something chasing you to give you an Incetive to continue playing and to make it more and more difficult (as the endless genre is known for doing)
- Maybe adding some obstacles to challenge the player a bit more than just hopping down to the next ring.
Keep up the good work!
Yeah so my next steps is exactly that, adding incentive, time, score etc. Obstacles do come in as you go deeper and the player move speed increases as well, but still need to work on more progression.
I really want to play on the fact that one can go forwards and backwards, maybe you have to fetch something on level 50 and bring it back to level 1?
Looks really cool! The effect comes across really strongly, though I really want to ask what the core mechanic is? How does the game make you feel like you want to play on? What's the test in skill? Or exploration?
Obstacle? What kind of obstacle? Right now it feels like there's some kind of puzzly element in there, but it also looks like the player can go anywhere, so it doesn't feel particularly challenging as far as a thinking game goes.
The way the level itself spins slowly, while looking cool, doesn't really seem to serve any real purpose, and if this is supposed to be a speed running game, makes planning and looking ahead more difficult by being disorienting.
Fetching a thing from level 50 and bringing it back feels like it would just be traversing the same level twice, which intrinsically feels like it's just padding the gameplay time with the same thing. It doesn't feel very interesting.
I hope you work more on the "core mechanic" of the game, so that it's easy to see what the "hook" is in terms of interaction!
[-]Controls are simple, suitable for Android and if you want this could even be reduced to a one button game, remove the swap and do a bit of work on level design.
[-]The game sparks 'trippy' vibes, you can put one of those rainbow color swirls into the center if you want to push that.
[-]I'm not sure if this should be an obstacle game, as in having to avoid hazards and turrets or whatnot, seems more appropriate to make it a puzzle of some sort.
[-]Some sections are too small and need very quick reaction times, maybe increase the minimum length of sections.
[-]I felt that I knew that there was nothing at the end of the pit, yet I wanted to keep playing, this is perfect for a waiting room game.
[-]You could introduce a bridge to another circle at some depth.
If you could make it something like this, I think it's a very good spin-off of a very popular puzzle and might get you a decent user-base. Anyway, keep working on it, it's a very good concept IMO.
If it's for mobile, and you keep it about collecting coins, I'd really like upgrades to purchase with the coins...
Though that said, I found it much more interesting going deeper than collecting the coins. Naturally I'm motivated to go as deep as I can, and scrounging for coins is going to make the experience worse (like spending a lot of time hunting coins on each level isn't going to be fun as fun as getting deeper).
Maybe the coins could do something.... like they protect you like rings in Sonic, or charge up some other action you can perform....
And maybe you can make some of the collection easy, like you automatically collect anything that is a few rings above you (and out of the screen). That way if the collection is important, you don't make players fiddle for ages in easier levels getting all the collectibles (because the easy levels are fine to breeze through, but would be dull to have to cover all the ground).
I guess I'm saying, if collection is a central part of it, I'd like the collection to motivate the player in additional ways (score attack is a start, but adding other reasons to collect the coins that mesh with aspects of the actual game as apposed to only affecting a scoreboard). And at the same time, if collection is a central part of it, I don't want it to take away from the thrill of going deeper.
Another mechanic that might be fun is changing the color of all the ground you walk on. Sort of marking your territory... maybe that could link to some other mechnic or something.
Anyway... it's a really rad prototype!
So it seems there could be 2 directions to go: 1) focus the game on being a maze and going deeper 2) making the game score based, go deeper and collect coins to increase score and buy upgrades, all while avoiding enemies/obstacles. I like both options so will just have to see what feels better. I like this idea. Though I did intend to do something like Icy Tower where the level graphics change every 100 levels.