View Full Version : SpaceFlea needs your help
Hi all,
As many of you may already know game development is a tricky business fraught with budget constraints, technical challenges and the perpetually postponed shipping date.
Many developers sit on a pile of partially completed works hoping that one day one of them may spontaneously hatch into a golden goose. In my experience all you end up with is an odd smell in the room.
Today I'd like to try something different and share one such project, namely SpaceFlea (http://retroepic.com/spaceflea/).
Sadly SpaceFlea is neglected almost to the point of abandonment. The poor thing needs a little TLC. We have endless lists of ideas on how to revitalise this prototype. The most promising ideas removes the perspective shifting mechanic, which is a pity because it's quite charming to see it in action.
This is where I hope some of you could help with some fresh perspective. Some input from the community may be all that is needed to help us decide on which direction to follow.
We're eager to hear what you guys think.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy the prototype!
dislekcia
15-12-2010, 04:01 PM
Hmm. I like the core game idea, it could very easily be a great touch screen game.
I'd like it if the player could click and drag to move the perspective, instead of it being always tied to the absolute mouse position. Obviously you'd then have to do a couple things, the first is create a maximum skewing that you can get to (maybe when stuff hits the edge of the screen?) and the second would be to remove the laser pointer on LMB. Don't get me wrong, I like the pointer, I just think that the choice to have it show or not is a non-choice: Players are always going to want that info and it's taking up a control slot at the moment, so why not just have a laser trail that's a specific length always shining up from the flea so players will know what angle the flea will jump at. After all, the sliding the planets around is the fun part, so let players do that more. (Also, these two changes make the game work much nicer on touch devices, hah!)
I like the puzzle designs that you've got, although I think you're falling into the trap of "ramp up difficulty" far too early. There are some skills that could be taught in a more granular way, like the sliding perspective during a jump trick. I'd break that into 3 different levels: The first is one with two collectibles but only one jump, where the two collectibles are obviously out of alignment with each other, so the player has to drag in mid-jump to collect them; Then I'd have a level where the player has to dodge an asteroid field (I prefer the hazards to be non-planetoids, cleaner learning for the player) between two planets; Then finally I'd have a slightly more difficult level where the player has to collect something AND dodge during two different jumps. So yeah, there's some pacing that you could work on.
Finally there's a ton of room for neat little puzzle elements that you can add to the game. The big one is gravity: Black holes that swing the player around them, you'd probably need to make them unaffected by the perspective shift, which would actually make them quite interesting, like you'd have to keep populated planets away from them for extra hard puzzles later ;). You could also have specific orders that planets need to be visited in, or even specific time-outs that items need to be collected by after visiting a certain planet... Then finally you've got mobile items, like rockets you'd have to rendezvous with, etc.
I think that you'd need to design the levels with very minimalist sensibilities. At the moment some of the later levels feel really packed. There's also a few contrast problems with some of the level backgrounds vs the planets, you need to make things be easily visible. Finally, you need a strong framing for why the player is doing this and a theme that you can spread around throughout the game even if it's not a big narrative... Something like you're interplanetary mail, delivering and collecting packages. Maybe some packages expire, maybe there are pirates later that try to intercept your mail deliveries, who knows...
BlackShipsFillt
15-12-2010, 09:34 PM
Different kinds of fleas!
I like the flea that can glide by moving the planets around, but there could also be other kinds of fleas...
Like fleas that can bounce (instead of dying on planets), fleas that can split on command (allowing one to die but another to survive), fleas that can kamikaze planets, fleas with jetpacks, fleas that blow up when they die, fleas that attract bonuses.
I'd probably try make bonuses be more fun, and maybe less dogmatic... If there were lots more bonuses, or interactive things, and the goal was rather to get to the end than collect the every single bonus, players may feel a bit more playful about it... Although maybe you are onto that already with those soccer balls (which seem to be secondary objectives)... but I would like lots of them with flashing numbers and fireworks.
I haven't played right to the end (I played to the second level of pink shields), so this may be included already, but how about rotating planets... or even orbiting ones.
Also you could try include a sense of adventure by centering the camera on the flea and following it on a puzzle that extends past the edges of the screen.
At the moment there is quite a nice puzzle element going on. And also quite a tricky motor-coordination thing that is going on (with the moving the camera to dodge planets). I suspect that because of this SpaceFlea appeals to two different audiences with a relatively small overlap. I think you need to choose one or the other... so either make the coordination part easier, maybe through slow motion or something... or make it much more open ended and faster (like maybe the flea bounces and does not stop except on special planets or with special fleas). You've said that you are removing the perspective shifting, so maybe you're thinking along these lines already.
I also concur with the points Dislekcia made.
I would like to see the solar system that the flea navigates more alive... If it is a space delivery ship then the planets should be alive with cities and little space ships and astronauts flying around (and bashing through them up scores bonuses)... Also there could be things like warp gates and interplanetary catapults (that can be aimed, like the barrels in Donkey Kong) and transport systems that can be paid for (to get somewhere far away without any hassle)... Delivering stuff could pay the player money, and if so then there should be upgrades that the player can buy.
Another possibility is to take the whole delivery thing even further and make the whole game about earning money and buying better ships... so do away with the single screen roadblock puzzles and have some sort of grand map with various planetary systems that will pay for goods from nearby, but tricky to get to, places. If demand for goods wears off after a delivery or two then the player will have to explore further and further to find challenges that pay better, and spend money upgrading their ship to achieve even trickier/more-profitable challenges. And it can all be framed in a grand plot to be the best delivery captain... or have some mystery of missing people and a cargo somewhere of infinite worth that everyone is looking for... etc.
Also the commander of your space delivery ship could be drunk.
Thank you for the excellent feedback, there are some really intriguing ideas here.
I'm new to this form of creative exchange and can only imagine that we could perpetually bounce ideas off each other and not arrive at a result, so how do we proceed? The first thing I suppose would be to take a closer look at the suggestions presented here.
Control interface changes
This is a valid point and thus far we have explored a few options including the click & drag option. We came to the conclusion that the motor skills challenges don't play well with the click & drag interface. The left analogue stick would have been a life saver at this point. So here we hit the first fork in the road (as pointed out by BlackShipsFillt) - Puzzle vs Motor Skills
Difficulty / Learning Curve
To be fair to our level designer we have over 60 levels with a much clearer introductions to the various skills required. We chose a hand full of levels (almost at random) for the public prototype, so I agree that we should have chosen more wisely.
Story/Setting
Our story was basically an exodus story, where the space fleas' home planet was consumed by a fataly successful red matter experiment and our hero was charged with collecting as many optional eggs (soccer balls :P) as possible and the required food & energy (Hearts & Bolts) needed for the long journey to the dog star. It sucks compared to the excellent mail delivery idea! Excellent!
Specialist Fleas
Since currently we only have one flea on stage we opted for augmentations to our flea hero instead of having multiple specialists. Most of the items were passively activated or activated on the next planet jump. For instance the shield featured in the prototype can be used to land on a single hazard planet. We also had a red matter pickup which would consume the next planet the flea jumped from. This is another fork in the road - One SpaceFlea vs Multiple SpaceFleas.
Aesthetics & Extras
You guys are right on all counts, even though some of the ideas will be tough to integrate with SpaceFlea in its current form. Let's see what develops.
These suggestions, especially the mail delivery idea, paints a picture very reminiscent of UGH! gameplay - a game which I've wanted to remake for years now. Plus the mystery package / lost person is a perfect fit. This means that we should probably favour the motor skills over puzzles and perhaps stick with a single flea which we control directly. We would need to get closer to the action which should allow us to provide richer worlds without cluttering the screen even further, but probably means that we would need to abandon the perspective shift mechanic.
I think we need to iterate the prototype but I think that something more exciting has been added to this cocktail thanks to both of you. A very successful exchange indeed! Thank you for your time and input!
BlackShipsFillt
18-12-2010, 04:19 AM
I'm probably being dumb here, but what is "UGH!"? (The game you mention that you want to remake)
I think you're right to keep the single flea, I think my different, multiple fleas suggestion was a bit off the ball. Multiple specialist fleas would only really work if the fleas changed on the spot, because restarting from the beginning with each flea is out of the question, and if that is the case you may as well use powerups (like you have right now).
If you do go motor-skills orientated, something you could do with the power up effects is make certain powerups collectible... I'm not 100% sure, but I think activating a power-up is slightly more fun in a motor-skills orientated game than running over it (and auto-activating it). Although this could create a controls problem (I'm not certain what platform this is aimed at).
I like the idea of an exodus theme, if you go the puzzle route, it could also work. Personally I am a big fan of unknowable enemies, like the Nothing from the Never Ending Story. Kind of like: Oblivion is coming. Possibly brought by black ships of doom, or red matter sucking up all of reality, or perhaps some vile intentionless thingy. Your ship needs to travel across the galaxy to find cosmic help, and along the way aliens join and follow you. (although I don't know if this is better than a delivery theme, it depends on mechanics in the end).
Also I would suggest that (if you did an exodus theme) when the player lands on a planet other creatures and spaceships that occupy that planet join his/her party and trail him/her to the end of the level. Besides giving the player a bonus score these aliens could provide the mechanics that you have already implemented eg: some aliens provide fire protection. Also some aliens might recruit more aliens, while other aliens might not be friendly or may have factional grudges. I personally like the idea of forming a rag-tag party of aliens venturing across the universe, it'd make for a less lonely game and allow the game to have voices that can thank the player. A theme like this provides opportunity to create funny/loveable creatures (that squeak and bounce into each other and greet one another etc) which can be a big bonus if you can pull it off.
Ugh! was a fantastic little game from the 90's (http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/ugh/). It revolved round a caveman who invented a helicopter- apparently before the ladder was. With his flying machine perfected he establishes a taxi service for the cliff dwelling folk in his perilous neighbourhood. It's a very charming little game, quite unforgiving though.
I like the rag tag team idea - it fits with the idea we've been toying with to include other giant insects and their abilities. Spiders that can spin webs, armoured beetles, a regenerative swarm of mites, strong ants, splitting worms etc.
Like I said in my OP some of these ideas preclude the perspective mechanic which we're trying to keep in the mix. Alas I think that it's one of those cases where one would have to make the sacrifice for the greater good. In order to differentiate between the units we need to get closer to the action. We could of course use colour cues in the laser effect- but this results in a bunch of coloured lines floating between the planets which neutralises the insect theme.
The tragedy is that the original pitch was simply 'hopping between perspective shifted planets'.
BlackShipsFillt
19-12-2010, 10:08 AM
Perspective shifting is quite an otherworldly mechanic... I feel like it is the kind of mechanic that needs to be explained, otherwise it could look like a graphical mistake...
If for whatever reason the ship you are traveling has a "2D Drive" which allows it to travel anywhere instantly so long as it can be mapped to a 2D plane, then that would make it work for me... But it probably also needs to special effects, so the player knows what is going on is special.
Once again I am uncertain of the platform, but it would be nice that when the player is shifting perspective the planets leave blurry trails behind them and the screen becomes slightly purple or something, and when the player releases it makes a sound effect and pops into the real-world again.
Shifting Perspective is an incredibly powerful tool, probably something that is much sought after in your universe, I don't know what you have planned, but it definitely needs to be clear to the player that they are warping the fabric of the universe, and that what they are seeing isn't a dodgy physics simulation.
Maybe an easier to render trick might be to render everything as if it is 2D when the player is shifting... so planets become flat blobs or line drawings during the shift, and they pop back when the player releases the shift.
I know what I'm suggesting are aesthetic things that are probably on your list anyway, but if you do decide to use perspective shifting I feel that it demands a fair amount of visual flavour to keep the player on board.
Also... I'm not sure about this, but shouldn't the ship change size when it lands on more distant planets? ...otherwise the shift is allowing the ship to become gigantic.
[edit] UGH! looks like a lot of fun (by early 90s). It's a pity they don't make cute cavemen games anymore. Enslaved would totally look like this if it had been made in 1992.
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