I really enjoy the overall premiss. As a hider you really feel like being hunted by an overpowered enemy. You need to predict his movement and his actions, trick him, juke him, outplay him.
The map is designed
with a two layer system. Almost any area in the map has a second
layer to it that is usually only accessible by the hiding players.
From these spots they can stalk their enemies and plan their moves.
Giving players the opportunity to slow down and think about their
actions was very important for me. As much es the fps component feels
fast paced and action packed the game play itself lends itself much
more for slower and precise play. Just running around the level until
you randomly find your enemy usually gets you nowhere and and as a
hider more often then not killed.
Sound is another important aspect. Every move you make creates sound. If its firing your gun or even just walking, everything can give away your position even if you are in full cover. The hider has the ability to duck down which also softens his footsteps and making it harder to be detected by sound.
The final tricks to eliminate any chance for stalemates are changing the bounds of limitations. Many games force players into certain actions with a timer. Once the timer runs out the favoured team wins. This rewards quick thinking and reflexes more then careful planing. By removing the timer the games pace is entirely up the the hiding team as they spawn in an area inaccessible for the searchers. They can take all their time to observe and strategize they want until they strike. At the same time they need to put themselves into dangerous situations if they want awareness over the searching team. Here I remove an often used boundary and give the players more freedom in their play style. In order to prevent any kinds of stalemates in which the players ignore the objective and turn the game into a straight up death-match there is no way for the hiding team to actually frag a searcher. I also gave them a very limited supply of ammo for their stun gun to provoke careful usage of their ammo. Once a hider has fired all his 3 stun shots he has no ability to fight back in a conflict. But the usefulness of each of these shots makes them all the more important and relevant for the core game play instead of just becoming a gimmick.
All in all I'm extremely pleased with how this project turned out. And even though I haven't played much of it yet and really enjoy the dark and scary atmosphere as a hider, and the action packed hunting as a seeker.
There are many problems and systems that could be done better I'm sure.
The overall art style with the hard shadows is, while essential for the game play, very jarring and sometimes even abstract to the eye which is not intentional by any means. The weapons don't handle too well, the firing feels weak and unimpactful. And a very annoying bug in the ground detection causes the game to ignore a jump input every now and then which can create awkward situations. Since the footsteps are such an essential game play aspect they are overly loud and can get kinda annoying when all you hear is your tap-tap-tap for several minutes. And the slow pacing can create plenty of downtime for the seaker, depending on the willingness of the hider to go in or not. This aspect also makes the entire game concept extremely griefable.
Also, since the game doesn’t feature any kind of input prediction at all and instead handles movement calculations directly on the client it's extremely easy to hack and break by any kind of hack software.
But still, I think for a 2 day prototype these drawbacks are mostly minor and the game stays playable and enjoyable for the most part.
Sound is another important aspect. Every move you make creates sound. If its firing your gun or even just walking, everything can give away your position even if you are in full cover. The hider has the ability to duck down which also softens his footsteps and making it harder to be detected by sound.
The final tricks to eliminate any chance for stalemates are changing the bounds of limitations. Many games force players into certain actions with a timer. Once the timer runs out the favoured team wins. This rewards quick thinking and reflexes more then careful planing. By removing the timer the games pace is entirely up the the hiding team as they spawn in an area inaccessible for the searchers. They can take all their time to observe and strategize they want until they strike. At the same time they need to put themselves into dangerous situations if they want awareness over the searching team. Here I remove an often used boundary and give the players more freedom in their play style. In order to prevent any kinds of stalemates in which the players ignore the objective and turn the game into a straight up death-match there is no way for the hiding team to actually frag a searcher. I also gave them a very limited supply of ammo for their stun gun to provoke careful usage of their ammo. Once a hider has fired all his 3 stun shots he has no ability to fight back in a conflict. But the usefulness of each of these shots makes them all the more important and relevant for the core game play instead of just becoming a gimmick.
All in all I'm extremely pleased with how this project turned out. And even though I haven't played much of it yet and really enjoy the dark and scary atmosphere as a hider, and the action packed hunting as a seeker.
There are many problems and systems that could be done better I'm sure.
The overall art style with the hard shadows is, while essential for the game play, very jarring and sometimes even abstract to the eye which is not intentional by any means. The weapons don't handle too well, the firing feels weak and unimpactful. And a very annoying bug in the ground detection causes the game to ignore a jump input every now and then which can create awkward situations. Since the footsteps are such an essential game play aspect they are overly loud and can get kinda annoying when all you hear is your tap-tap-tap for several minutes. And the slow pacing can create plenty of downtime for the seaker, depending on the willingness of the hider to go in or not. This aspect also makes the entire game concept extremely griefable.
Also, since the game doesn’t feature any kind of input prediction at all and instead handles movement calculations directly on the client it's extremely easy to hack and break by any kind of hack software.
But still, I think for a 2 day prototype these drawbacks are mostly minor and the game stays playable and enjoyable for the most part.
-file closed-
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen