I’ve been working on a new game idea and I kinda wanted to throw something into the world to see if it seems fun to anyone but me.
the game is called Thruster Phase
Basically you control a spaceship and your goal is to get to these energy orb things. The interesting part is that you control the ship by programming a sequence of engine phases that fire for different lengths of time at different power levels.
You plan out your sequence and then execute it. Then you just keep fine tuning it until you get to the end of the level.
Below are some quick screenshots and a 5 level VERY early Web Player Demo
I would love to know what people think of the concept and any advice on how to proceed
It was hard to work out what to do, but once I worked out how to time when the jets fired, it was fun. You either need to update the tutorial or change the interface to make it a little easier to work out, although I know this is just a prototype idea at the moment.
I think it would be possible to turn this into a fun game, there are lots of things you can add to build fun and challenging levels. For example, asteroids that float, gravity from near by planets, tractor beams that move or swing you, even other ships.
Not sure how you would make this challenging, apart from the obvious complete the level. Most puzzle games have a award system to give you a score at the end of the level, but yours would be the same every time, no chance of user error like tapping the screen at the wrong time, so once it’s worked out you could easily do it again first go which eliminates the replay value or trying to get a better score on the same level.
Overall, I think it could be turned into a fun game, it just needs a better interface and additional graphics.
Yeah if I proceed I will definitely be improving the tutorial and making it more interactive and not just text and pictures. I also plan to add things like moving obstacles. I like the idea of nearby planets effecting the gravity!!!
It seems I may also need to look into ways of improving the interface as well but I’m not sure how.
I do not agree. It is very easy to create challenge and encourage the player to beat his score.
Finishing the level in a game like this is one thing. Finishing it in the most efficient way is another.
You could for example pass an obstacle by setting left thruster to 3s, but what if it was enough to set it to 2s or 1s?
What if you do this 5 times? Then you would’ve finished the level 5 or 10s faster.
Just a simple and quick example.
With this game you can determine the player to fine tune a lot his thrusters in order to achieve perfect score.
Yes I was thinking score could be determined either by the amount of time it takes you to complete the level, or the amount of fuel that you consume to get through the level. Maybe I could even do different criteria for different mission types.
