I like the game concept a lot. I think a party game is great for the scope of this project, and I also think that it will allow you a lot of time to test and make it have that certain kind of fun that party games do.
I don't like that I have to start the second bullet with "I don't like." There is nothing I dislike, but several things I would consider:
I wonder if having the destruction of planets would be too chaotic if the playing field is too small.
I think that building an AI for this game sounds absolutely insane.
I would consider giving players lives -- having the gravity fields and all sorts of stuff flying around and blowing up sounds like an inexperienced player would get destroyed in a couple of seconds. Especially if ships are flying around in the (invisible) gravity fields and the shots that are fired are affected by gravity as well, it might be really, really hard to hit someone. I would consider adding shooting aids (like tracking missiles) for this purpose, and give people either multiple lives or some sort of health bar.
I would reconsider limiting the thrust that a player has -- I think it would be really unsatisfying to burn up your fuel and then just careen into a planet.
I would also consider different ship types with different strengths or power-ups. (Though you've probably thought of this already.)
Pascal Spörri
I like that your planets can have different designs and that the planets are destructable
I don't like the idea that one is able to land on the planets to get an object and would remove that capability
Hitting objects and planets should hurt the player. Add gravity forces to "heavy" weapons.
Jonathan Merlevede
I like your clear choice for a party game. I expect this will help you when you are filling in the gaps troughout the semester. I also like your artwork and the general idea of a 2.5D 'party style' battle in space.
I don't like the debris, but then I also might just not understand how it would work.
I would go for the comic style. I think that it will look better than (an attempt at) realistic graphics and, more importantly, I think it fits your game design better ('fun').
Nicholas Pleschko
I like the idea of having fast rounds. Also destructible planets seem very cool!
I don't like the fact that you can move wherever you want. I think it would be better to restrict movement into one direction (front) or just against the gravity (see the ipad game Orbit1)
It would be also cool to somehow attach to another player with some kind of tractor beam.
Marco Zimmermann
I like the idea of the destructible planets and also the idea of star dust to show the gravity fields (you didn't seem to be sure about that, I would certainly include it).
You should be careful not to include too much diverse boxes that randomly appear not that you have to explain them over and over to new players what these things do (but I think you can do a lot with good symbols for the boxes).
If I were you, I would consider adding half a dimension... I think also casual gamers will grasp it.
Jakob Progsch
I like, spaceships... spaceships always work. Also fast round times and hop-in gameplay.
I don't like too much chaos, it poses the thread of having the gameplay descend into arbitrary flayling.
I would also consider respawning and counting lives as a format (as opposed to dying and waiting out the round), since too short round times to make players not wait might require to escalate the chaos too fast.
Romain Prevost
I like the comic graphics style, it might not be easy but it would be really cool !
I also like the idea of a party game that is quick to learn and easy to play, but I would take care that the game is still playable and that the chaos you want to introduce is progressive.
If I were you I would consider a 3D version instead of 2D because the physics engine would not be really more difficult (considering your gameplay) and it would make it really unique.
Werner Randelshofer
I like the visual style of your drafts and I love the idea with the destructible planets.
I don't like the way how to move and rotate the space ship in the original asteroids game. I think it is awkward. I hope that in your game, flying the ships will be easy.
I would focus on the battle aspect of the game and make sure that the physical aspects are made obvious for the player and easy to use. For example, in figure 1.4 you show a space ship swinging by on a planet. How about indicating with a line going from the space ship to the planet that swing-by is possible, and providing a button on the controller, which does the necessary speed changes so that the space ship will swing-by?
Mattis Paulin
I really dig this galactic worms. Destructible planets and bonus seem really fun
I don't like the modular part. You should have a precise idea of your game before launching the development phase.
I would be very careful with the gravity fields in order to make the game chaotic, but not the movements of the players.
Christian Schüller
I very much like the way you focus on the important aspect of the game. Multi-player fun game. The proposed idea seams to provide enough potential to achieve that.
I like the involvement of destructible planets
Nothing
It would be very cool if one could kind of settle down on planets to install simple base stations and defense systems which provide support in the space battle. This would introduce a simple strategy element and distinguish the game from a multi-player asteroid like game.
I am interested to see the implementation of the weapons. Especially those which are gravity dependent. At the moment it seems to be quite a challenge to control them. It should not end in a random chaos.
Finally, I think that a smartly realized control of the ship is crucial. Asteroid like or different...
Nicholas Waldin
Gravity will make it difficult to steer if too strong and might make the game infuriating. Though it should make for an interesting twist.
"heavy weapons" (that get affected by gravity) may be almost impossible to aim.
