Post by Leonard on Jun 30, 2016 18:06:50 GMT
Fitting with a theme of what I'll be writing about today, a shorter diary today. Minigames are added in to create more interactivity, bring a change of pace, reduce monotony or to add content which would be difficult to represent with standard game mechanics. And hey, who doesn't like those? Let's look at some that made their way in.
Stealth
Stealth mechanics was already in the demo, during the hunting segment. It's going to remain and be more prominent in the full game - aside from hunting for ground prey, the same mechanics will be used to avoid or ambush enemies. I've received some complaints that the mechanics of stealth were hard to understand in the demo. I have to concede that the implementation was counter-intuitive. To change that, I've reworked the whole system. Aside from making it a lot easier for me to reuse, it allowed me to change the inner workings of it, and enemies' field of view is blocked by obstacles, as almost everyone who played the game has expected for it to work. I hope this will make it less confusing, and more enjoyable experience for the players.
Fishing
It wasn't one of the first thing I came up with, considering the player plays as a ThunderClan cat, but with an option of learning how to fish at some point, I had to add something to facilitate the skill use. The idea is simple - the player has to use their paw to scoop the fish out of the water. This is made difficult by the time limit, and the fish movement. Different fish have different behaviour and speed, making planning important.
Here's a screenshot of the minigame interface (subject to change in the future):
Tag
Well, the concept is well known, I hope. Basically, you have to avoid getting touched by a rival cat. Now, this presented some design questions - how to make this fun? The player cannot have a different speed than the cat that is chasing him - if player would be faster, it's trivial to win, if the player is slower, it's an exercise in futility. The solution, which I think works quite well, is to have two cats chase the player, each of them having complementing strategy. The strategy of the chasers is based on WindClan hunting strategy - one of the cats relentlessly follows the prey (the player in this case), while the other tries to cut off the escape routes. The player's goal is to evade them for a certain period of time.
And here's a screenshot of me (black cat) falling into a trap.
That's it for the things I wanted to talk about today. If you're having any ideas for minigames, I'd be happy to consider them. I think that they will add some variety and breathing room in the game, and so I'm willing to add a few more.
Stealth
Stealth mechanics was already in the demo, during the hunting segment. It's going to remain and be more prominent in the full game - aside from hunting for ground prey, the same mechanics will be used to avoid or ambush enemies. I've received some complaints that the mechanics of stealth were hard to understand in the demo. I have to concede that the implementation was counter-intuitive. To change that, I've reworked the whole system. Aside from making it a lot easier for me to reuse, it allowed me to change the inner workings of it, and enemies' field of view is blocked by obstacles, as almost everyone who played the game has expected for it to work. I hope this will make it less confusing, and more enjoyable experience for the players.
Fishing
It wasn't one of the first thing I came up with, considering the player plays as a ThunderClan cat, but with an option of learning how to fish at some point, I had to add something to facilitate the skill use. The idea is simple - the player has to use their paw to scoop the fish out of the water. This is made difficult by the time limit, and the fish movement. Different fish have different behaviour and speed, making planning important.
Here's a screenshot of the minigame interface (subject to change in the future):
Tag
Well, the concept is well known, I hope. Basically, you have to avoid getting touched by a rival cat. Now, this presented some design questions - how to make this fun? The player cannot have a different speed than the cat that is chasing him - if player would be faster, it's trivial to win, if the player is slower, it's an exercise in futility. The solution, which I think works quite well, is to have two cats chase the player, each of them having complementing strategy. The strategy of the chasers is based on WindClan hunting strategy - one of the cats relentlessly follows the prey (the player in this case), while the other tries to cut off the escape routes. The player's goal is to evade them for a certain period of time.
And here's a screenshot of me (black cat) falling into a trap.
That's it for the things I wanted to talk about today. If you're having any ideas for minigames, I'd be happy to consider them. I think that they will add some variety and breathing room in the game, and so I'm willing to add a few more.