Re-Specced
For my first prototype I chose to make something relatively simple, since I would have to learn how to use ActionScript 3.0 in addition to actually creating the prototype in the time allotted. I decided to create a simple eight-way shooter with a continuously respeccable character: In addition to the player and swarms of enemies, the playing field contains three special targets; shooting one of these adds power to the player’s attack strength, defense, or speed but decreases the power of the other two.
The main thing I wanted to experiment with in this prototype was seeing how giving increased control to a player can tailor the game experience to one that’s most fun for them. One major challenge was trying to balance the advantages of each of the stats, in such a way that the player would want to use all three at different types. The enemies who specialize in one of the three stats (who begin appearing in the third wave in the demo above) were meant to encourage players to keep respeccing: I know that I certainly panicked just a little when my strong but slow character was suddenly attacked by the speedy enemies.
If I were to eventually flesh this out into a full game, I’d like to make the enemy AI more sophisticated in order to better match the game mechanics: enemies that float near a target might cause a player to accidentally allocate points into an unwanted stat, and defenders guarding a target could lock a player into their current setup until they were defeated. Power ups could similarly follow the game’s theme, with player’s having the option to decide whether an item is used to temporarily drastically increase attack power, grant health regeneration, or provide invincibility to make the most of a fast character.