Hello everyone!
Last week we talked about our artistic direction for the game, so this week we're talking about the ideas we've had for the gameplay.
In order for the player to fully experience the artstyle we're trying to convey, we thought that the best genre to deliver was a side-scrolling platformer. With this in mind, we started looking into several games to come up with gameplay mechanics.
Figure 1 - Example of double jump in Celeste
Every platformer game nowadays has a series of mechanics that are almost expected to be implemented, one of those being the double jump. Having the ability to jump a second time in the middle of the air gives the player the ability to keep momentum while in the air, slightly adjust their positioning or even allows for sudden shifts in direction, making it a core mechanic is a lot of modern platformers.
Another core mechanic we're looking to implement is wall jumping. Together with double jump, wall jumping and, to some extent, wall sliding/clinging have becoming an increasing mainstay in modern platforming games. Having the ability to wall jump and wall slide/cling gives us more freedom to explore verticality when it comes to map and level design.
Figure 2 - Example of wall jumping in Megaman Zero
Now onto the core feature of our game, dashing. Since our intention is to have a very simplified combat system, dashing will be the only method of attacking available to the player. Because of this, the player will have access to two different types of dashes that can be used both in combat andd in movement/exploration: a quick, short distance dash with a small cooldown that be the player's primary tool; and a slow, long distance dash with a lengthier cooldown in order to be able to access further areas of the map.
Figure 3 - Example of dashing in Overwatch
One particular thing about the dashes in our game is that their cooldown will be reset if they defeat an enemy, allowing for an immediate follow up dash to either continue defeating enemies or to access higher platforms by using the enemies as stepping stones.
And since our character is a frog, we are thinking of ways to implement something that frogs are well-known for into the different mechanics shown above. Maybe some tongue grappling hook? Who knows!
Figure 4 - Frog trying to catch a dragonfly
See you all next post!
