What is your favorite aspect of the proposed game? Why? For this question, point out what you think is the coolest feature of the game, what makes it novel, or what aspect would make you most inclined to play it. Your thoughts on the coolest part of the game may differ from those of the game designers!
What is your least favorite aspect? Why? Which part of the proposed game seems to be the least fun? Is there something that might be dull or boring? Why might you get tired of playing the game or find it frustrating? Be candid, yet tactful and polite with your answer.
What one change or addition would you suggest to most improve the game? Offer a helpful suggestion on how to make the game better. Maybe you have an idea on how to make the gameplay more fun. Or, perhaps your favorite feature could take on a more prominent role. You might offer a resolution to your least favorite aspect that would improve the game. Please make comments that are reasonable given the scope of the course.
I like the multiplayer mode where you can compete against your colleagues and use your coins to drive them crazy. Especially the mirror coin is awesome.
I don‘t like the aspect that you don‘t have a goal in your primary game mode and thus the game cannot be "beaten". Maybe you could add distinct levels which can be individually started. In this case, if you fail in a higher level, you don’t have to start at the beginning, having to do all the boring slow levels again.
Maybe you could add different playable spheres with different physical properties like mass, size, friction etc. in order to make the gameplay even more interesting.
I like the rotation of the cubes which requires thinking in an unfamiliar and interesting way.
The motivation to play your game could be increased by adding more riddle-unrelated elements such as an extended story or something like mini game modes. Such a mini mode could be a randomly generated world where you have to get to the exit as quick as possible. If the seed which was used to randomly generate the map and the required time are displayed at the end, multiplayer interaction would be possible. For example by challenging your colleagues to beat seed 3563 under 1:24.
I would like it if you could remove paint from a surface you painted before to get the paint back you used. This would help to avoid the case where you have to restart a level when you made an error at the beginning of the stage but noticed the error too late when you did not have enough paint left in the end, which would be prety annoying. The downside is that the level design would get even more complex.
The drunk’o’meter sounds like fun. That way it increases the benefit of delivering as much alcohol as possible per visit since each visit you get drunker. Maybe you could even add a hospital or something which would reset the drunk’o’meter to zero.
I don’t like the fact that the game has no goal. It is pretty frustrating if you are only a couple of meters away from the delivery point and the time is up. Maybe it would be a better concept if instead of using a decreasing timer, set a certain amount of money which has to be reached and a timer measuring the time needed.
It would be cool if one could upgrade the truck with the money gained from delivering the goods. For example tune your tires to gain improved maneuverability or get a better engine for higher top speed. You could as well think of a special cover which fits tighter around the goods and thus you lose less of your freight when you collide with obstacles.
I like the fact that you are free to chose the way to get to the checkpoints and take tactical considerations into account.
I think there are not enough possibilities to catch up to a player which is already too far in front since the effects of the gods have a limited range of influence. The fact that you will cross them on the way to another waypoint is not strong enough in my opinion since if that happens you are already too far behind.
It would be cool if there was a way to change your god during the course of the game, which would add more tactical possibilities. Maybe by spending enough ambrosia or by pray to a different god for a certain period of time during which you cannot control your ship.
I like the fact that the riddles can be solved in multiple ways such as the spikes which can be triggered by the player itself but as well by some random objects in the environment which can be used as tools by the player.
I don’t like the scoring system which takes the amount of used physical objects into account since it punishes creative solutions which involve more physical objects than the intended solution.
You could add some items in the dungeon that can be picked up and help the player or grant him additional powers. For example magical gloves which increase the amount of force the player can exert on physical objects or glasses that, when worn, highlight objects that can be interacted with.
I like the focus on strategic elements in the gameplay which is expressed in the concept of fuel and damage points.
The fact that the Mayan player gets a different view than the alien pursuer is difficult to implement since both players are looking at the same screen and thus the alien player could easily check the minimap of the Mayan player to see where he is located.
I would like to see some element in the game maps that can deflect an approaching URO in a different direction without damaging the URO and without slowing down the URO in order to allow for quick 180° or 90° turns which would in my opinion make the game quicker and more interesting.
I like the idea of the individual elements of the Chinese Wall for easy creation and destruction.
As far as I understood, there seems to be no real end of your game. Either you manage to keep on track and can continue "forever" or you fail and "die".
I'd thus suggest to introduce some concept of level. This will make the goal clearer and also gives the players the chance to pause after a while...
I like the shading techniques you are planning to use. I think it fits perfectly to your game idea and will provide special "look and feel".
Try to avoid that the whole game fun depends on the level design. It might happen that once you've solved the designed levels, the game gets boring (and I guess you won't be able to design plenty of levels)
Maybe you can add a collaborative mode such that multiple players have to work together in order to save the riddles.
I really liked the idea of the Drunk'o'Meter. I understand that you declare it as an 'Extra' but I would try to include it in a lower layer.
Your game depends a lot on the driving physics and the AI of the police cars. If those won't work properly, your game won't work as well. Try to minimize this risk!
Why not make a 2nd player drive the police car? (then you only have to focus on the driving physics and not the AI...)
I think it's a great idea of mutual checkpoints but no predefined paths in between. Especially if you manage to design the map such that there is not a one and only fastest path. And of course I'm looking forward to the modeling of the Sirenes...
As far as I remember you plan to have a split screen setting. Therefore you have to carefully think how you want to display the map such that is still visible where the other boats are. I guess this is necessary in order to use the ambrosia efficiently...
As I have already told you I think it could be interesting to introduce some concept of wind. It does not have to influence the sailing physics directly, but it could positively effect the challenge of selecting the right path.
Your ideas for the puzzles are very creative and promise a lot of fun.
However, be aware not to design riddles which get boring after you have solved them. A memory, for example, can provide fun multiple times...
Maybe you can add a multi-player mode where the players either have to collaborate to solve the puzzles or the compete (e.g. who can solve a memory faster or who is better in memorizing hyroglyphs...)
I like the fact that the two rolling objects have different characteristics and thus different strengths.
How do you plan to display the minimap for the Mayan player without the Alien being able seeing it?
As far as I understood, the fuel cannot be reloaded once it is used up. So maybe you can provide a functionality that the fuel gets reloaded once to don't spin around, or you can collect some "fuel-item", ..
A strong aspect - apart from the original idea and setting - is the possible player interaction in the multiplayer mode, which may be a lot of fun for whole evenings due to calls for revenge etc.
A negative point is that there is no real goal, if I got your idea right. You just run from the meteor, until you still die or fall of the wall, right? It is nice to go for high scores, but in my opinion also a bit frustrating if you know that at some point, the speed is too high and 'death' unavoidable.
You could introduce a mechanism to destroy the approaching meteor. Certain power-ups have multiple functionality and can be shot on the meteor (instead of only harming enemies, or improve yourself) which decreases in size with each hit until it finally disappears.
Riddling is a lot of fun and you can get addicted very quickly to it if they are created in a challenging way. Especially the feature with the isometry can cause 'head ache' and create a stickiness factor - really original idea which can be put in challenging puzzles.
It is pretty hard to create challenging riddles and consumes a lot of time. There is some danger that there is too much time 'wasted' in creating levels and hence, the graphics and game play may be afflicted.
introduce a competitive mode where 2 or more parties have to find their way through the scene, but can also change the bricks in order to harm the other player. Maybe, certain 'special' features can be introduced to improve/provide various malicious interactions
I mostly like the idea that you need to be fast, but still slow/precise enough to keep your load 'in balance', i.e. that the rum is not revealed.
A negative point is that there is no real goal, i.e. you just has to go as far as you can and then hope for a good high score. Therefore, the players always face an unavoidable end of the game (i.e. time intervals may get smaller and you cannot deliver anymore) which may be slightly frustrating (depending on the gamer type).
You could introduce a collaborative mode where you have helpers that try to defeat the police cars (risking that there are more of those showing up). The collaboration could be performed by using extra cars that try to collide with the police cars, but also in a way that the helpers are located on the truck and can shoot on police cars or put the awning back on the barrels etc.
I like the idea of a race, where you have arbitrary check-points that can be reached in different ways and also during the race, players far back can still interact with the leading ones in order to maintain their chance of eventually catching up. Therefore, sudden changes may happen during the race.
I 'fear' that there may be too much luck involved in collecting ambrosia when they are spawned randomly and therefore create an unfair game setting...
You could let the player choose in which order he wants to pass the check-points and therefore add another tactical element to the game. In addition, if you display the ambrosia locations on a mini map the luck factor gets decreased because all player have the same knowledge of those.
Solving those puzzles sounds like a lot of fun. Original ideas for that can highly enhance the game play.
It is pretty hard to create challenging riddles and consumes a lot of time. There is some danger that there is too much time 'wasted' in creating levels and hence, the graphics and game play may be afflicted.
You could introduce a competitive mode where two parties think they have the mummy to return and then find their way through the riddles why posing new obstacles to the other player.
I like the idea of hunting and being the hunted one where the 'victim' has some bonus on start, but really needs to struggle to not being captured while the hunter will have means to overcome his initial disadvantage. Playing with the various resources creates an interesting tactical element.
Well, it's bad that you chose the same historical theme as we did. As something that may turn into a negative point is that it's extremely difficult to balance your various resources, such that it is always reasonably possible to escape, but also to catch your target. It would still be playable (due to the alien/Mayan change after a game round) if it is obvious that the Mayan is caught, but it would be much more interesting to have it balanced also on that level.
What about a 2 v. 2 mode? You have two aliens and two Mayan for the same game setting. The aliens may focus on one single Mayan, but the second one has means to harm the aliens in order to help the other one. However, it is really challenging to make a balanced mode out of that.
