Since I don't think I'd go into this kind of detail in the feature (I should be talking less about the game and more about the process, after all) let me explain what we were TRYING to offer the seasoned/veteran gamer...
At its highest level, the real goal of Gravitronix is to send two or more projectiles at your opponent at once and force them to take damage/be defeated and to prevent the opponent from doing the same to you. Opportunities to do this are constantly appearing and disappearing, as the arena itself is in a constant state of kinetic flux. After playing the game for long enough, I find you begin to see these opportunities coming beforehand and are more likely to be ready to take advantage of them when they appear.
Naturally, a new player will not see any of this depth, but that's okay because I've had a 40-something religious woman drop six S-bombs in a single round because the simple goal of "don't let crap into your territory" is generally enough to keep new players excited. Really, anyone can pick up this game, twist the controller and press the A button and effectively be accomplishing the goal of defending the territory. This tends to work even better on a two player team as a skilled player can be offense while a newer player is on defense.
But back to the depth: there is nothing happening on screen that is not relevant to your success/failure. If a sphere is drifting slowly, you can strike it with an explosive projectile and send it at your opponent from an unexpected angle. If a shard has just acquired its 3rd speed mark (meaning it now has a full 2X speed multiplier) that's relevant, and if one opponent is simply sitting there and holding that shard, biding his/her time until a vulnerability opens up, you'd best believe it's relevant.
Beyond that, one of the best tools skilled players have at their disposal is the repel beam. If you tap A/C right as a projectile is immediately in front of you, you'll cancel its current velocity and immediately repel it an at angle relative to your paddle at the time (think of timing sword swings to send Ganon's magic attacks back at him and you have the basic idea).
But the real beauty of the system is that, because the angle is relative, EVERY half-degree of twist on the remote or nunchuk factors into where you will send that projectile. There's also a reward system built into the beam: if you hit with it, you'll hear a specific sound effect, a speed mark will be added to the projectile (making it faster), and you will immediately be able to follow up with another repel hit. If you miss, however, you must wait for a half-second cooldown before you can fire either of your beams. This prevents button mashing and rewards players for accuracy, all the while allowing them to quickly aim projectiles for any part of the arena they wish to assault, if they're precise enough in their aim, of course.
There is a definite hardcore experience to be had in Gravitronix, but the question remains whether or not people will ever take the game that far. I took it that far, but that's only due to the hundreds of hours of playtesting I did personally (I still enjoy playing it, though I trounce any human opponents for the aforementioned reasons so no one will play against me). It might just be that the early stages of gameplay don't make the lurking depth apparent enough to keep people playing long enough to discover it. If that's the case, then this would be the biggest misstep we made with the game (though, figuring out how to entice players to become veteran players at a game is a pretty tall order for a first game from a green startup
).
Topic: Medaverse Developer Diary: A Simple Challenge (Read 32888 times)
