This iteration I will slow down the fuel drains, the speed the mini enemy tutorial moves at and try to link up the score with the player in game actions because there were the most requested and are an important part of the design. The other changes I will implement are fuel low warning signs, health low alerts and adding more icons to the HUD mini map.
Implementation:
Reduced fuel drain speed:
Initially I halved the drain rate, but I found even I couldn't make it back to the trader from mining a planet. Then I tried halving the value again, but it wasn't quite enough. After this I decide to reduce the value form 1 fuel per second of movement to 0.25 fuel per movement (about a quart of the original value).
Added trader and enemy Mini Map Icons:
I have been meaning to add these new icons to the Mini Map for a long while but other things like game play refinements have distracted me form this. With the icons I created them as bitmap images in PhotoShop in single block colours. With the trader I used a bright purple colour, with two rings and a dot inside the rings to resemble the actual shape of it.
With the enemy I created a pointy looking ship that had two wings to vaguely resemble a top down view of the model. I used the colour red because that colour is associated with danger, and most enemy's on radars are coloured red. This should help the player link up what is on the radar to what is happening in game. The imaged used are shown below. ( the image on the left is the enemy radar symbol, on the right is the trader ring ship radar symbol).
Added Warning Text in the HUD:
At the top of the screen I have added several pieces of 3D text. These are to alert the player when something is going wrong. Many players did not know when their fuel was low and wondered why they the game was over so quickly. To help with this I added some 3d Text to the top of the screen in a blue font, so the player can link up the colour to the fuel resources and the GUI bars. The player should see this in game as relate it to the fuel bar.
I have done the same thing for when the player's Mass cargo storage is full and cannot mine a planet, I made the text green like the Mass Resources and the HUD bar for it so the user can relate the two.
By the way, only one of the pieces of text will be show at a time. In the picture I have just screen captured both to ease of use in this blog.
Just to repeat my point, all of the text only appears when a certain condition is met, i.e. the blue 'Fuel Low' text only appears when the player's fuel resources are at 25% or lower. When the fuel raises above that value, the text disappears. When the player's mass storage is full the text appears, but disappears when the value is lower than 3/4 full.
Added Debris into the level:
A comment I got from many players (mainly on the art and aesthetics side), was that the game level itself was too bare and empty. I partially agree with this as well because I did not want to clutter the level, but the level needed a little something to lake it seem less empty.
I looked at many images of space and space games so see what I could include in my game. I also looked at various web sites and the Unity Asset Store for items I could use. I noticed in a number of space games, asteroids are used as well as satellites and abandoned space stations and lab equipment.
Firstly I created an asteroid in 3Ds Max by creating a low poly sphere (about 400 polygons), then I added a noise modifier and altered it's parameter values, as so it did not look too bumpy or spiky (or too little so it still fitted in with the games style). After this I looked online for an asteroid or space rock texture, but I could not find anything suitable. I looked to one tutorial that show how to create space rocks and it suggested finding a texture of the 'Moon' and applying it to the model. I quickly went of Google and promptly found a good Moon .jpg image to use as a texture and it was royalty free too.
With the Moon texture I resized it to a 512 by 256 texture and it got it from (Hastings-trew, J. 2006. Web. 26 May 2014. <http://planetpixelemporium.com/earth.html>.). For the record I have not got the wrong reference despite the page title, it just happened to be on the same page as the Earth texture Map. Coincidentally I found this on the same site that I found the Mars planet texture.
I also tried to find a satellite because this fits in with the theme too. I found a low poly model of this on www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/337131. It was 368 polygons and does my make my game drop frame rate so I am happy with this. I decided not to texture this because as far as I am aware the model is not UVW unwrapped and I cannot afford the time to texture the model, also I texted it out and people can see what it is in game and prefer the colour of it since most satellites are black and grey with the metals colour, very much substance over style.
I placed these assets near the outskirts of the level as to not distract the player too much and clutter things up, but still make the game level more interesting. All of the assets have colliders and rigidbodys but as the moment they don't damage the player and they cannot be destroyed by the player. However I may include this feature if I get the chance before the dead line. It is mainly there for aesthetic reasons, also I don't want to over load the player with more stuff to think about considering there are enemies in the level. Again the satellite is there in the level, and has both a collider and rigidbody, but it does not harm the player if they collide into it.
New Audio:
Button clicks
I have added two new audio clips into the game. The first one is the button click sound for the menus, level intro screens and game over screen. Because my game is space and sci-fi themed my menus looked either like holograms or pains of glass, therefore I thought a button click sound may not fit the game well.
I decided to go for a sound that was noticeable, but sounded lighter than a proper clicking sound. I settled for 'btn050.wav' by junggle on www.freesound.org/people/junggle/sounds/28860/. This sound does what I want it to because it gives the player audio feedback when they click a menu button as well as the colour tint of the button with the help of nGUI (Tasharen Entertainment, 24 May 2014. Web. 26 May 2014. <https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/2413>).
Tutorial Level Complete Sound
Many player requested a sound effect when they complete the level when the warp gate appears. This way they get more responsive feedback other than just visual feedback when they complete the tutorial level. I obtained this audio clip from Sweeper. "SoundBible.com."(Sweeper. 28 Apr. 2011. Web. 19 May 2014. <http://soundbible.com/1795-Electrical-Sweep.html>.).
Player Feed back:
Fuel Draining Slower:
Many players liked the how their ships fuel lasted a lot longer then in past iterations. Player's found they could make more than one trip to a planet before having to go back to a trader for more fuel. In face many players found they could actually travel back to the trader after a single trip.
Mini Map Icons:
When I introduced the new mini map icons many players liked the change. The player could tell that the purple ring with dot in the middle was for the trader because it was the same colour and shape. They could also tell where the enemies where on the map and in the game world so they could work out how to avoid enemy ships.
One person suggested either making the enemy graphic smaller or just a red dot so it doesn't take up as much of the mini map. Provided I get the time I will do this.
Firing button:
Most players thought the new firing button was OK because I tried out the middle mouse button and players found it uncomfortable to use.
Player Warning HUD Text:
The majority liked the idea of the HUD warning text at the top of the screen but on a practical level, most players did not notice it. They also said they couldn't see how it linked up to their in game actions as well as the resource GUI bars because when in battle with an enemy ship they did not look up at the screen and did not notice the text most of the time. I thought about moving the text nearer to the front end items such as the fuel bar and so fourth, but then I thought that this may confuse the player because instructions during the tutorial are in the same place. I will think about where else to place these text warnings for the player.
Asteroids and satellite:
A few players wondered asked if they could shoot the asteroids and possibly if would damage their ship. When I asked if they would like this feature to be in the game they all said, they thought it would be a nice addition since it would be another item to avoid and add to the game play (both the stationary asteroid fields and the moving ones in the level). In general thought the new debris in the game added to the immersion and made the space feel less empty.
Next Iteration:
In the next iteration I will concentrate on slowing down the enemy tutorial because player's still thought it explained the new enemy mechanics too quickly. I think I will make the timer take longer between the different triggers so the player has more time to digest the new new information.
I will attempt to make the player's actions more obvious, such as when the enemy is taking damage and make the warning text relate to player actions more in the game, like the Fuel Low Text.
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