The Next Steps

I feel our little group did fairly well on this project. While we may not have released the next big indie game, this was the first time for us to both work in a group, and experiment with creating a multiplayer game. We were able to stick to the specs we had initially set, and I would say that's a decent accomplishment in and of itself. If we were to continue this project there are definitely some changes we could make at least from my perspective.

Firstly, the core game-play loop feels a bit stale. As it stands the game really isn't much of a challenge. While I am not expecting the next dark souls out of a four week project, there needs to be something that keeps a player coming back for more than just an initial test of the game. While the moving targets could be seen as a bit of a challenge, all a player really needs is a little patience and they'll be able to rack up as many points as they want. The main way I see this could be implement is through a target that isn't relatively stationary; a target that periodically fives the player more points but is harder to hit, would be one way to attempt to alleviate this situation.

Another area where the design could be improved, is more emphasis on the multiplayer aspect. Each player is separated into their own little section, while this isn't necessarily a bad thing, the way it is executed in this game feels too disconnected to the other players. An example of a game that has this similar style of disconnection is something like Tricky Towers. Each player has their own play space and doesn't directly impact what happens in other player's zones, however the key word is directly. In that game players are still able to indirectly interact with each other based on different power-ups that can be used within a session. Adding an interactive feature, or changing the way information is given to the players, can overall drastically alter the perception of the players  so they feel more connected, or in competition.

The last major improvement that could be made, would be giving this game it's own art style. This is the most reasonable one not to achieve within the given time limit, but if we were to continue this project the game would need to be able to stand beside other games and feel distinct. Pre-made assets are generally fine to execute a prototype, but at some point the game would need to have it's own identity if it were expanded on further.