U.G.G Development Log 3 - Design Intent

Tomorrow, I will be starting the next Trimester towards my Bachelor degree in Game Development.

Though this means I will be developing this game at a much slower pace to make room for my class work, I will pick up additional experience and skills that I'll likely need in later stages of development.

In the meantime, I want to use this development log as a Design Intent brief for this game project.

During the playtesting that was carried out in my class, I noticed two significant trends in playtesting that influenced the design vision of this new game project; The friendly competition driven by the high-score mechanic, and the almost addictive thrill provided by the core loop of managing speed and altitude.

Despite the frankly empty state of the original prototype, these two mechanics alone provided great amounts of entertainment and accomplishment within my class. Therefore the main focus of the final iteration of this concept shall be the interplay of these two core mechanics, with a much tighter and more energetic core loop.

To accomplish this, I will expand upon these mechanics by adding/changing the following things.

High score system: The scoring system will be driven by far more than just distance. The base score will still be based on distance but will be supplemented by a variety of bonus point conditions and even conditional multipliers. Some ideas for these bonus point conditions are narrowly dodging obstacles, performing loop de loops without losing too much momentum, and completing a set of collectible items - similar to the Red Coins from Mario, or the K.O.N.G  letters - within a small timeframe.

Slipstream: Further complementing the scoring system will be 'Slipstream'. This system is a multiplier-based mechanic, where players will fill a metre by flying at high speed uninterrupted, and every time the metre is filled, the bar will reset and the multiplier will be applied to all points earned. The multiplier and any progress on the bar will be lost when the player falls below that speed threshold by a significant amount (usually by hitting an obstacle or stalling), and the bar will slowly empty when the player is below said speed; the multiplier downgrading each time the bar becomes empty.

I will also be adding a system for spawning random obstacles, powerups and otherwise beneficial objects to provide much more replayability, as well as adding an additional layer of skill and risk in the core loop. Currently, there are only two items, a bumper that stuns and pushes the glider, and an updraft that is spawned on the ground and lifts the glider into the air, providing ample opportunity for players to regain momentum and continue their run.

Once again, I must thank you for reading this post and I hope you have a wonderful day/night.