I started with the original Destructivator code. I figured it was pretty solid, and I could use it as a base. That was the plan anyway, but I’d forgotten quite a lot about it. So for example, there is a Let’s Play on Youtube somewhere when somebody got stuck in a wall and had to restart. De-stuck-tivator I think one commenter said. It also soon became clear that rather than do a proper job of the wall / platform detection code, I’d designed the levels around the various flaws. What a lazy git!

So I took the decision to re-write most of it. For the best really, as I’m now 100% confident in it, which feels good. Ended up having to re-write pretty much everything that I initially thought would be re-useable.

As I started to get the gameplay mechanics working nicely with a couple of test levels, I started to think about the gameplay, and specifically the main criticisms at the time. These were:

1) It’s too hard.

2) I can’t shoot when I’m jumping.

3) I want to shoot upwards.

4) I want to Up to double as climb ladder and jump (somebody argued VERY passionately for this).

5) No replay value

Of course there were plenty of criticsms around the quality of the game, but I would hope you’ll take for granted that I will improve the quality all around.

So, my thoughts:

1) It’s too hard.
All my games are hard. I like to play hard games, hence I generally make hard games. Maybe it’s because I grew up with 8 bit games and early arcade games, which were all hard. No tutorials, no hand holding, just challenge from the get go. And I think that’s what suit my games best. So, if you were hoping for something easier then I’m afraid you will almost certainly be disappointed.

2) I can’t shoot when I’m jumping.
Okay, people did seem to just accept it and get on with it, and it’s just one of those videogame design decisions. Here is your challenge, here are your tools, do your best. Like not being able to sidestep in Resident Evil 5, or stand still in Pacman, you just accept what you’re given and get on with the game. Well, maybe moan a bit, but gamers understand games need to have rules, even if they wouldn’t stand up in real life. Having said all of that, I decided to introduce the feature in the new game. I need to offer new gameplay and level design possibilities, and this is a natural way of doing that.

3) I want to shoot upwards.
Like the previous one, this will also be in the game. You can fire straight and diagonally upwards. This feels like you’re more of a bad ass and also opens up plenty of scope for level design.

4) I want to Up to double as climb ladder and jump.
Initially I thought yeah, at least as an option. It would annoy me, going up a ladder when I wanted to jump but if that’s what people want then why not. But then that would make it impossible to jump off a ladder, so wouldn’t really work. So probably I’ll have to dump this idea unfortunately.

5) No replay value.
Also, not enough levels. Well my plan for this version is to have more, slightly bigger levels. And rather than an arcade style “start from the beginning when you die” I will go for a mission based approach. Current thinking is that each mission will have 5 stars available - 3 for getting good times, 1 for not losing a life, and the final one for not taking any damage. That’ll almost certainly change, but I like it. Scoring isn’t really going to work in this game - to complete a level you need to wipe out all of the enemies, and I don’t want to force in coin collection or a combo system. The only natural variables I can think of at this stage are level completion time and how little damage the player took.

So there you go, some initial thoughts on design. I realise this might be a bit long winded and tedious, but I’ve written it now so I may as well publish it! If there’s anything in particular you’re interested in knowing about please leave your question in the comments or contact me on Twitter.

Cheers,

Pug.