Making Meaning

After leaving the game alone for a week, I sat down to figure out what I should add next. I noticed that my game was feeling more like a toy; it may have been amusing, but it lacked tension. If I wanted to make my players feel accomplished, I needed to make victory less inevitable.

I considered what kind of limitation I could add that would make each attempt to hit the ball more meaningful. Should I score the player based on how many hits they attempt, à la golf? Maybe the ball should diminish each time the player hits it? Maybe a simple time limit would suffice.

After trying out a few ideas, the one that felt best was limiting the amount of time the player is allowed to boost before resting. Because the player cannot move forward at full speed all the time, they must be more deliberate in their choice of how to hit the ball, and the short periods without boost give them a chance to relax and make a plan.

I am always hesitant to take the player's attention away from the action by adding a meter, map, or counter in the corner of the screen, and in this case I managed to avoid doing so. The boost meter is built into the 'fin' of the submersible (see 'diegetic UI').

Of course there is much to do before this game will turn any heads, but I am happy to say it feels like a game now.