Available from start, or play through to unlock?

hrsmedia

Hi, I just wanted to get the opinion of the forum on this.

I have 20 levels in my game and a survival mode. I currently have set it up so you have to play through the levels to unlock the next and survival mode is unlocked at level 5 (levels take about 1-2mins to complete).

Do you think I should change it so all the levels and survival mode should all be available from the start of the game?

quantumsheep

That's a very good question.

My worry is always that I'll make content that some people will never see, because the game may be too difficult for them. How difficult is your game?

Kraken has unlockable levels, as you describe in your post. I think that's fine because it's a high score game, and the point is that you're trying to progress to finish the story. Also, it's not that difficult in easy mode!

However, another game of mine has 12 levels, and all of them are unlocked from the start. This is because each level has a unique piece of music attached to it, and I'd hate for anyone not to be able to hear it if they wanted to.

One thing I have done, is have a variable called 'gameprogress'. When a level is complete, add one to it.

At the end of the game, if 'gameprogress'=the amount of levels in a game, then you know the player has played through from the beginning.

Give them more points for this. Or unlock something. Just reward them for playing through somehow.

That way you've appeased people who like to play levels in any order (unlockable or not) and reward those that play it all the way through from the start.

Just my opinion - good luck!

QS

reddotinc

No way!..

I don't know how everyone else feels, but I love having the challenge of unlocking levels and making it through the last level of a game, having earned my way there. Gives me a great sense of achievement.

But I do understand what QS is saying, although my feeling is if they never play it long enough to see it then they probably wouldn't appreciate it that much anyway :-/

quantumsheep

I don't think there's a 'right' or 'wrong' answer to this one you know

QS

AfterBurnett

Gotta have rewards

quantumsheep

POLYGAMe said:
Gotta have rewards

Sure - of course!

But if the reward is 'you get to see the rest of the game you paid money for', is that enough?

hrsmedia

The game is not too difficult, it gets more difficult as your progress. It's supposed to be simple, pickup and play (I will post a video soon). I think I will leave it as it is and add some more rewards. Thanks for your comments.

Edit: The question now is what rewards do I add?

scitunes

mini games? powerups?

Frazzle

Nice to see scitunes here.
Customization?
I love being able to choose what I want to as a gamer.

hrsmedia

I'm not sure now. I might just have everything unlocked.
I was thinking maybe put an UNLOCK ALL option if you want to skip ahead?

JamesZeppelin

Read this thread i started here about how most gamers today couldn't beat mario 3 cause there was no save. The thread seems to be quite active with a lot of views on game difficulty.

http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=61090

I think the best games offer easy or hard modes
that way you have challenge but don't get bad reviews by wimpy gamers

hrsmedia

Interesting thread, left me a bit undecided now though..

Any Sous Chefs want to have a look at my build?

Edit: My game is really targeted at casual gamers, it's pretty simple, so probably is best option just to have everything available.

Frazzle

I think you'll get more accurate responses if you sent out demos of your game.

UtopianGames

Hard one to answer but this is what we decided on for Bumps.

Play area 1 in any order you like but you must complete all 9 levels to progress to area 2 and unlock the 1st mini game Air hockey. Inside air hockey you have to beat the CPU on easy medium and hard settings (score 5 goals against CPU pretty straight forward tbh) to unlock 2 player Hockey.

At the start of area 2 we have a micro tilt to live game (can be skipped) then onto the next 9 levels and so on and so on.

Hope this helps.

Darren.

FranzKeller

Unlocking (at least to an excessive degree) is so stupid. That and level up grinding...

Isotope is a great game ( as was geometry wars) but it commits these sins heavily, to the detriment of its fun factor...

And so many games are ruined by one impossible level which prevents access to any future levels

AfterBurnett

That's where good game design comes in. I thought geometry wars was perfectly balanced. Some of the unlocks are virtually impossible at first buy it's an awesome feeling when you finally clear them! I'm putting rewards in all of my games to some extent. You don't need them
, just a nice little bonus for the player.

FranzKeller

I haven't the time I used to as a kid to play for hours and hours to try and unlock "the good stuff"... games that make you start with trivial levels and power ups are a drag,
and often end up on the shelf. (Or make one reach for game shark and the like!)

I say, always start them off with excitement! ( Which means no long intros before action!)
A game should reveal SOME of it's best stuff on level one.

I wish for an AI fueled difficulty engine that can sense the player's skill level and challenge
them accordingly ( yes, a hope for the future! but who knows when breakthroughs may occur)

BTW - where is the best place on this message board to discuss "Game Theory"?
(Rather than direct discussions of our GS projects.) and mention prime examples of good
game design? All the programing skill in the world can't make a bad idea good, after all. ;-)

hrsmedia

I decided to just have everything unlocked from the start. I submitted the game about a week ago, has been in review for last few days.

Riffel

In Tigerfish you unlock levels, but you can chose your way, the easy or the hard. course hard way have more rewards. Great topic, love game design discussion.

synthesis

For what its worth...
We are having all levels locked from the start...but to unlock it...you only need to play the level prior. There is no requirement within that level to unlock the next level...other than you have to play it once. This forces the game to follow a specific sequence but doesn't require you to be "good" at the game to enjoy it in its entirety.

chosenonestudios

synthesis said:
For what its worth...
We are having all levels locked from the start...but to unlock it...you only need to play the level prior. There is no requirement within that level to unlock the next level...other than you have to play it once. This forces the game to follow a specific sequence but doesn't require you to be "good" at the game to enjoy it in its entirety.

Great idea Syn! I might incorporate that also...

FranzKeller

BTW - How DOES one create unlockable levels on GS?

It would be cool for an adventure game, to progress through the levels one by one

I'm not against all unlocking, just excessive usage of it
(And repetetive level up-ing that they call "Grinding" in the MMO world.)

Btw, also, how would you do something like save a characters EXP or $?

blockquote>synthesis said:
For what its worth...
We are having all levels locked from the start...but to unlock it...

synthesis

To do it takes a whole lot of attributes. You have to use booleans for each level lock status. And then you have to save them on first launch and load them at each subsequent game launch and save each one as you progress. Its cumbersome and took be about a week to get all my level sequencing setup.

Not one for a beginner...but intermediate GS devs can probably do it. It just takes a lot of patience and trial and error to get it right.

You can check out my level setups here in my Toxic Roach app on the GS web. The source dev files are secret/proprietary...but the demo example (in a run state) is available for you to look at.
http://gamesalad.com/game/play/70409