Black Hole Runner is my Ludum Dare 27 entry, it’s about black hole and time dilation. I found almost everyone complains the slow vertical movement, which is caused by time dilation. To me, the slow movement has its reason, that’s just what I want, a slow motion effect. But why players don’t like it and how can I improve it?

The biggest mistake I made is let players waiting. Games should keep players busy, from receiving information (visuals, audios, texts and emotions) to taking response, always let them having something to do. Even in the turn based game like Go, in opponent’s turn, player have lots of brain work to do.

Yes, time dilation slow down spaceship’s movement, I can’t make it faster under this precondition, but I can give player more works. I found below possible solutions.

* Adding a laser weapon to break the asteroids.
* Pressing UP and DOWN to move a spaceship is so easy, increase the apm.
* Adjust the speed of background music to the in game time speed, emphasize the dilation situation.
* Adding fancy visual effect to attract players attention.

Tags: Black Hole, Ludum Dare, time