Challenge Stage One

Hello!

This week has been a crazy week for my group. We decided early on that we wanted to challenge for Stage One. This basically means that we were having a crunch week trying to prepare for the challenge. Our programmer began by creating a new mechanic for our Black Hole Game. All players can shoot a Pulsar to expel any objects that were consumed by the Black Hole. This idea came upon us when we watched the boxes fly across the room and into the Black Hole. The idea of fighting using Black Holes, and Pulsars was very original and would push us away from that already "done" Deathmatch game play. Following this creation we made several other small iterations of the game. We made it so players can lob the Black Hole Bullet to give a different style of shot. We also made it so players cannot be affected by their own Black Hole. This was an important iteration because it means players will have to focus on other players more and can take some responsibility of themselves for keeping and eye open. We also made a charge mechanic which will make the Black Hole bigger and more [powerful depending on how long the shot is charged. We came upon this idea just by thinking of what other games had and the visual affect of most futuristic guns. The final iteration we made was only allowing players to create Black Holes in very specific areas. This was a test for a puzzle version of the game we were thinking of.

In the end watching these mechanics play out in QA testing really made us feel comfortable that the mechanics were fun and most of the iterations were. The only one that wasn' enjoyed was the allocated space for each Black Hole. It made the players feel too constrained to what they were able to do.

We will challenge this week and we are ready to show everything we have. From the feedback we got and the loads of work we put in we will be ready. In addition this week I whiteboxed out two potential levels. We hope to get them into QA soon so we can figure out what style level and what layout will provide the best gameplay for a mechanic like ours.



Until next time,

Aaron