Team Huddle - Player Progression

The focus of the water cycle project is to teach the player the water cycle through the progressions of the levels. As developers we decided that we want to ensure that the player can always progress through the game to complete and learn about the cycle. this led to several decisions from how the player progresses, player scoring and player lives.

Player progression

The system we implemented uses blockades, the player must complete the level (which is based on a certain element of the water cycle) to proceed to the next. In certain Levels the player can experience a different path which could end up being a different level path to when they first finished the game or to another player. Although the player might not want to replay all the levels numerous times to get the desired level we kept in consideration that the game is to teach the water cycle and will most likely be played in a classroom with many young students. With the consideration of large numbers playing the game it once it offers a real talking point when only a small amount will be on the snow/ice level path. This will then lead the students to talk about what level they played through and what stages of the water cycle they experienced.

To achieve the objective levels are designed to not be long. The game is an educational tool so a game with a long play time would be hard to fit into a teaching schedule. We want players to finish the game in one playthrough so this influenced the decision to not have game saves.

Also with the game being player in one playthrough game difficulty was something we had to consider. Instead of the enemies becoming strong or faster compared to the player we decided to challenge the player through level obstacles, such as slippy ice blocks or wind tunnels, that require the player to apply the knowledge that they have acquired in a slight alteration to the previous level.

Player scoring

Upon completion of the game a time and a percentage is given to the player. This is worked out by the amount of lives and how many coins the player has collected. The implementation of the was added due to feedback of the alpha showcase. Testers wanted a reason to collect the coins and a reason to replay the game and discover the possibility of new levels, the percentage complete and time score will offer players the ability to race against each other for the fastest time.

Player lives

The player begins with 5 lives but can obtain up to 9. Testers stated that coins were useless so we implemented a mechanic of when the player collects all the 10 level coins it obtains an extra life. This mechanic is one that will be monitored on the next play test as most testers were dying just learning the controls.

A tutorial level where the player cannot die should allow them to learn the controls and gather a feel for the game and hopefully prevent them losing a lot of lives on the first playthrough. As stated we want the player to finish the game so they can learn about the water cycle so if the player constantly dies the player is not going to want to play.

If testers continue to die then maybe lives may have to be taken out, just be used as an additional method of scoring (all lives left = 100%) or even obtaining less amount of coins gives an extra life.

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