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Rxanadu

Trying to flesh out game prototype

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Disclaimer: I'm a bit tired as of the time I'm writing this, so some of the things I said in this may make little to no sense

Hello, everyone:

 

I need help figuring out what to do with a recent prototype I created in Unity.  Basically, it revolves around a gun which allows players to 'blink' from one place to another, much like in Dishonored (pronounced "dis-hoe-nored").  Much like Dishonored, it takes place in the first-person perspective. However, players have the ability to launch projectiles in space and travel to their latest location.  Players can use this to travel great distances with ease.  By holding down and releasing the projectile-launching button (currently the left mouse button) after a set amount of time, the projectile will travel faster and farther than normally, allowing for faster travel between across environments.

 

It currently seems interesting enough to me to tinker around with a bit more, but I'm not sure what else to do with the project or which direction to take it in the future.  The main thing I don't want this to be is another Portal knock-off puzzle game: no sterile laboratories, no snarky invisible voice talking the player down while doing puzzles, little to no traditional puzzles.  This could apply to games like Quantum Conundrum, Magrunner, and (arguably) Stealth Bastard Deluxe.  The environments and gameplay situations in these games just don't strike me as very creative in my opinion.  

 

Anyway, I ultimately just want feedback on what I have available to show right now.  This, in turn, will aid me later in seeing where I can or need to take this game in order to become a game.  Speaking of which, I may just make this a free game by the end of all of this.  You can play it online following this link.  The main objective as of right now is to get to a floating platform with sparkles flowing out of it.  The controls are as follows: 

  • WASD - move character
  • Space - jump
  • Left mouse button (press) - launch projectile
  • Left mouse button (hold) - charge projectile
  • Right mouse button - travel to projectile

Again, let me know what you think of the prototype as of now.  Also, inform me whether it works properly or not.

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Overall: I enjoyed it! This sort of full-powered travel stuff in first person turns out to me quite exhilarating to me (portal, dishonored). The control feels smooth and basically everything did what I expected and wanted.

 

Small issues:

- right mouse in the web player pops up a menu when not in fullscreen

- I didn't always get my mouse pointer back when hitting the target so I couldn't click replay

- the speed of the blink feels a bit 'off' - I would increase it. Floating towards your target point isn't as fun as blinking to me.

 

Where to take it is of course a huge question. One thing that might be fun to try is, if you can get networking going (or local multicontroller), you could make it into a simple pvp game by having players create an explosion when they pop out of the blink. Then it would probably be necessary to only make the travel projectile fly while charging though. This is partially inspired by the play of Puck from Dota 2, if you're familiar with that. he has a damaging projectile that travels slowly, and she can, at any time, press a button to travel to its location.

 

Also worth considering maybe is whether you want to turn this into something twitchy a la portal speedrunning, or something more plan-based like the new blink in the dishonored DLC.

 

I hope there's more discussion about this because I feel there's a pretty fertile seam of gameplay here that has been largely unmined so far.

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Agree that it is quite cool, and definitely a concept you should explore further. =)

 

 

 

What strikes me about the question "where to take it", is to think about if you want to go more towards portal or dishonored when it comes to escalation. That is, do you want this ability to be as-is through the whole game, and only ramp up the puzzles/level design, or do you want to escalate with more and more abilities/upgrades? Or something in between?

 

A little more specific feedback: I found it hard to judge the distance the ball had traveled, and frequently over- or undershot my target. A longer "tail", might fix this, but that's just a theory. 

As you're making a similar game, I'd suggest you go play through Portal again with developer commentary, even if you have already. They do some really clever things to alleviate these kinds of problems. For example, whenever you need to eyeball a distance in depth, there's usually a checker pattern around, making it a lot easier to see the correct perspective and distance. That's not to say you should do exactly that, but there are other ways to integrate the same solutions they arrived to, without becoming "just another Portal derivative", as is your fear. 

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I think this combined with ricochets might be interesting. Or being able to blink between multiple, slow moving shots could make for some good timing puzzles. Or a non-aggressive enemy that blinks to your shot if they see it in the air, stopping you from using it.

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Cool prototype! I think the mechanic might be interesting in a pvp deathmatch scenario (basically a quake clone). I could see using rockets offensively to attack or defensively to teleport leading to some cool choices and gameplay.

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Translocators in Unreal Tournament might be a good example to examine as well. Can't comment on the similarities as the link seems to 404 now.

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