IPPS DEVLOG

Introduction:

IPPS is a side scrolling Space shooter where the player is trying to avoid enemy that chasing behind them and trying to shoot and dodge the treats in the front. The Player play as an InterPlanet Courier who got in trouble with a motor gang during his delivery and have to escape from them in order to complete his order.

Mechanics: 

Player:

Movements: Player can only move up and down. 

Speed: Player’s speed increase throughout time, there is a peek value for the speed.

-Add the feeling of high speed chasing

-Player gradually move towards the right side of the screen.

-Players can hold the fire button down to perform rapid fire.

HP: the player has total 20 HP. 

Enemy and Environment:

Chaser(deadline): enemies who is chasing the player, if the player collide with them  the game will be over.

RoadBlocks: Standard obstacle in the game, will push the player towards the deadline if the player collides with them. Player’s bullet cannot destroy the roadblocks.

Damage RoadBlocks: This obstacle deal 1 damage to the player during collision, the roadblock will destroy itself after the collision. Player’s bullet cannot destroy the road blocks.

Enemy Turret: Static enemy unit that will fire at the player. The bullet fire in a straight line and deal 2 damage to the player if the player is hit. Will be destroyed right away when hit by player’s bullet.

Enemy Rider: Enemy unit that will follow player on the Y-axis and fire at them. The bullet fire in a straight line and deal 2 damage to the player if the player is hit. Will be destroyed right away when hit by player’s bullet.

Enemy Boss: Enemy unit that will follow player on the Y-axis and fire at them. The bullet fire in a straight line and deal different amounts of damage to the player based on what type of bullet they are. The Boss fire a standard enemy turret/rider shot that causes 2 points of damage to the player in a fast quick fire rate, and special bullet that will cause 3 points of damage to the player in a slower fire rate. The Boss has a total 600 HP, and the player’s bullet deal 2 points of damage to the Boss every shot. 

Item:

Health Battery: provide 2 points of HP to the player. Cannot be picked up by the player if the HP bar is full.

Levels: The game contains five levels that all included in one scene. The reason I don’t want to make seperate scenes for each level is because I want to enforce the idea of how the player is in a high-speed space car chase and I don’t want the scene transitions to reduce the feeling of this. The five levels can be breaks down into 3 types of difficulties:

Level 1-2: Easy levels, introducing player movements, shooting, and enemy types to the players.

Level 3-4: Medium levels, the levels are constructed with a combination of different types of obstacles and enemies. Players are more likely to lose the game by running out of HP from enemy fires and hitting the obstacles.  

Level 5: Hard level, the level contains a Boss that take more time to kill and deal more damage to the player. Mobs are also placed in the levels to increase the chance of game over for the players.

Prototype:

I made the game as simple as possible during the prototype phase. During this stage of the production my focus was to try out my concepts and started to build the basic mechanics of the game such as player movement and enemy behaviors. I want a simple framework of the game during the prototype where there are many space for improvements but it shows me and the player a basic image of what the game is about. Also at the same time I made a list of tasks and goals which I want to accomplish at the end of the production of this project. Alone with prioritizing each tasks and evaluating how many time I might take to finish each tasks. 

BETA and Playtests:

At this stage of the production I have added more mechanics into the game started to adjust the numbers of player’s HP, moving speed, and firing rate. At this point what I have in the game is 3 levels of each difficulties. 1 type of road block and 1 type of enemy. The game is ready to receive feedback from the players and I’m ready to add/cancel tasks from the list based on their feedback.

Here are the feedback I received from the playtests:

Play Test #1

PlayTester: Costas:

• Slower Camera Speed
• Slower Enemy projectile speed
• Health Item for player to pick up
• Including Animation for player when it reaches its top speed
• Reduce the difficulties of the Intro Levels

Play Test#2

PlayTester: Shantanu:

• Give player a reason to shoot the enemies
• More Moving Space 

Play Test#3

PlayTester: Michelle

• Check-points
• Give player more reasons to shoot
• Make player smaller on the screen

Play Test#4

PlayTester:Cole

• Include scores for player’s kills
• Healing Items>checkpoints
• Maybe add one check point before the boss fight

Play Test#5

PlayTester:Cindy

• Animation when player reaches top speed
• Change the difficulties on the middle levels
• Again, more reasons to shoot the enemy instead of avoiding them 
• Make the size of player’s bullets bigger

Play Test#6

PlayTester:John

• Rapid shooting
• Adding roadblocks that costs damage to the player
• Change some enemies’ positioning on the map.

Here are a few common issues players have with the game during the playtest:

1.Lack of target to shoot, having troubles to hit the enemies.

2. The scrolling speed of the scene is a little bit fast for players to start playing the game.

3.The Uninterrupted level transitions makes the game too difficult easy levels, it needs a way to save the player's progress or items to help recover player’s HP.

Finalizing the Project:

Based on the feedback from the playtest, I decided to make the following changes to the game.

1. Adding enemies that would trace player’s position on the y axis, increase the amount of targets that the players can shoot at on the screen. Also increase the fire rate of the player, the more bullets they can shoot out at moment easier for them to hit the targets.
2. Reduce the screen scrolling speed, but also adding roadblocks that deal damage to the players so the game wouldn’t be too easy to play.
3. Adding Healing items to help the players to survive longer.