{"author_name":"Milo","cat":"LD #23","comments":[],"epoch":1335038280,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"57473","p_author":"Milo","p_authorkey":"2934","p_urlkey":"93222","p_title":"Something\u2019s Missing\u2026","p_cat":"LD #23","p_event":"LD23","p_time":"1335038280","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"2934","us_name":"Milo","us_username":"milo","event_start":"1334880000","event_key":"10","event_name":"LD23"},"text":"<p>Well, I got a working prototype and, as is usually the case, I&#8217;ve found that it&#8217;s not really what I want. The game depends on being exciting &#8211; there must be constant action. It needs to constantly put you in peril, and you need to constantly be able to escape. Unfortunately, I haven&#8217;t captured that. It just feels very easy at this point, even when I set every parameter to as high as they&#8217;ll reasonably go. Doing the math, it seems that around 60%, if not more, of the incoming asteroids are not a threat at all (and, in fact, serve to block more asteroids), which is a problem. I&#8217;m thinking that the randomness of it might not be working, or maybe it&#8217;s the uniformity of everything being an asteroid.<\/p>\n <p>Possible solutions:<\/p>\n <ul>\n <li>Incentivize staying on the home planet somehow (and make it possible to do so). Or, have some other thing that, rather than saying, &#8220;DON&#8217;T be under the asteroid when it hits&#8221;, have something that forces or encourages the player to be somewhere specific. You could gain a bonus from mining an asteroid.<\/li>\n <li>Do exactly the opposite &#8211; destroy asteroids after the player steps on them<\/li>\n <li>Make the player control two characters simultaneously.<\/li>\n <li>Strategically send asteroids to be extra-problematic for the player.<\/li>\n <li>Add more obstacles. I mean, it is space, so adding lasers shouldn&#8217;t be a problem. Then you&#8217;d have to use asteroids for cover (and then the game could send all the asteroids from the useless direction) or something.<\/li>\n <\/ul>\n <p>In any case, I suppose I&#8217;ll do a bit of graphics at this point as a bit of a break. Maybe the secret ingredient might be an absurd amount of particle effects and shaking the screen.<\/p>","time":"April 21st, 2012 2:58 pm","title":"Something\u2019s Missing\u2026"}