A primary feature of this game is the high mobility of the player characters. This makes it fun to simply traverse the level, making the game instantly engaging. It also raises the game's skill ceiling, allowing talented players to evade their opponents and reach objectives more easily. When brainstorming the game's initial idea, we discussed giving players a choice between various movement abilities so as to not overwhelm them. After further discussion though, we decided that, ironically, making players have to choose abilities was overcomplicating things. Why not just give them everything? So that is what we plan to do, give players as many exciting mobility tools as we can come up with. After bouncing some ideas around with the team, I wrote a document detailing all the possible movement types we would like to implement, and how they should function. This document should serve as a useful tool for our programming team, giving them guidance on exactly how the characters should be able to move. Having this document early is also useful from a level design standpoint, as it allows us to construct levels with these movement types in mind. Here is the contents of that document:
With the different movement options decided, it was time to work out how the player would perform this moves, and so a control scheme was needed. We are developing this game for PC, so I designed a control scheme for both of the most popular game controller types, mouse and keyboard, and gamepad. This gives players the option to use whatever type of controller they are most comfortable with, increasing accessibility. It was very important, when deciding on the control scheme, that all of the movement types, even the more advanced ones, were intuitive and easy to use. This would ensure that the gameplay felt fluid and carefree rather than technical and fiddley, a problem high-mobility games sometimes run into. Here is our control scheme:
Movement is of course a very nuanced part of any game and is very reliant on creating a subjective "feel". As such, there is only so much you can do on paper. The movement system will need to be continuously tested and tweaked throughout the game's development to ensure it is delivering the intended experience to the player. Our programmers have successfully put together the basis on the online multiplayer and so should be able to deliver an initial version of the basic player movement soon, so stay tuned.
As a game designer with minimal artistic ability, I am intrigued by the idea of using AI to create decorative or illustrative artwork. So here is my first attempt at using Midjourney AI to produce some art for the game. The prompt I gave it was "agile cartoon character doing parkour". The character and setting are more realistic than the kind of thing we are hoping to implement, but the cartoonish style, action-packed movement and varied platforms give the right idea.
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