For my individual prototype, I create a modified version of the arcade space shooter, Asteroids. The main concepts of the game remain the same, like the original space asteroids game the player controls a spaceship in an asteroid field, which periodically spawn flying asteroid from each corner of the map. The objective of the game is to shoot and destroy as many asteroids as you can while trying not to get hit. Over time the number of asteroids spawning will increase as well making the game more difficult as the game progresses.
I kept the ascetics and mechanics of the arcade shooter the same, like the player’s current score and the high score as well. At the bottom left corners it showed the number of lives the player had just like the original game. Of course the graphics, sprites and backdrop I used are of much higher quality then the original game but that is expected since the game was made back in the late ‘70s. On difference from my game and the original was that the ship did not have the ability to rotate 360 degrees.
I chose to make this game on stencyl because of the limited amount of time we had on our individual prototype. I did not think it was enough time to teach myself a new platform and get the game fully function by its due date. Stencyl was very easy to pick up with the limited time we had to make the game.
http://www.personal.psu.edu/ptp5029/Space%20Asteroids.swf
I checked out your game over the weekend and I was pretty hooked. There were definitely some issues with the game, but for the individual prototype this was to be expected. I think with more time and polish this could be a great “toilet game” and would work well on a mobile platform. The thing I liked most about the game was that you could play it over and over again trying to beat yourself or your friends. I played it with my roommates over the weekend and we ended up creating a leaderboard trying to get the highest score.
I thought that a menu or some instructions would have been helpful, but was able to pick up the controls by mashing the keyboard for a little. The reason I felt like instructions would have been helpful is that while I was able to move and shoot, I did not know if there were any other functions like bombs or speed controls that I was unaware of. There were also a few glitches like having the bullets push the space ship around and having the asteroids take too long to remove themselves from the field. Again, I think that these are things that would have been dealt with given more time to test and revise the game.