Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
There may be a feeling that the Rocket Boots idea is a little clichéd, so it
is probably best to allocate a maximum amount of time to discussing it, at the
end of which if there are no significant developments the idea will be
dropped. It is just as important to drop weak ideas, or ideas that cannot be
incorporated into the current design, as it is to have the ideas in the first
place. If an idea is going nowhere, move on.
The initial brainstorming could look at how to adapt the concept and
variations may be suggested: jet boots, spring boots and anti-gravity boots.
The last idea strikes the team as worthy of further exploration.
Wo rried that having the anti-gravity boots active all the time may prove
to be a gameplay problem, discussion continues about how to limit their
functionality and make that limitation become part of the gameplay. With
this in mind, one suggestion is that the boots should be anti-gravity pulse
boots. A short burst of anti-gravity would shoot the player character into the
air, but they would then be subject to the pull of gravity and fall back to the
ground. It would be down to the player to work out how to use that sudden,
huge leap to their advantage.This is a good development, but there is now a
concern that the player will simply keep jumping their character continually.
The next suggestion involves a modification to the boots so that they take
thirty seconds to recharge and the battery packs for them only have ten
charges. Finding the battery packs for the boots becomes an additional layer
of gameplay.At this stage, any numbers discussed are simply pulled out of the
air and would require full game testing and tweaking before a proper game-
play balance is found.
Although the mechanic is a feasible one, we need to be sure that it fits the
overall concept of the game. If it is a Victorian mystery adventure, then the
idea of the boots would never have been suggested in the first place, but the
fact that we entertained the idea to the degree we did implies that the basic
concept fits with the game's premise.
The next stage in the development of any mechanic is to assess the impact
it will have on the overall gameplay - the level designs and level building -
and the other mechanics like shooting weapons. Then there are the specific
details that have to be considered - the application of physics during flight,
the damage to the player for missing the building's rooftop, etc.While looking
at these aspects, the design team must be its own devil's advocate, because if
any possible problems are not discovered and ironed out at this stage, then
they are bound to surface later, as bugs, when they will be much more costly
to remedy.
