Prototype Arcade Shooter Test
When the game is initially started, players will be presented with a start screen with several interactable buttons, one of which is a button labelled “start” which will take the player to the active gameplay portion of the program, and the other is labelled “quit” which will end the programme immediately.
The gameplay consists of two primary actions; movement, which is controlled with the arrow keys, and firing mining lasers, which is controlled with the left mouse button. The apparent objective of the game is to destroy the asteroids that spawn around the screen. Each time an asteroid is destroyed it will break into smaller rocks that the player will also have to deal with. Contact with an asteroid or a rock will reset the player to the beginning of the gameplay section, providing the player with obstacles to avoid which increases the challenge and interactivity of the game. By keeping the player on one single screen (players or asteroids leaving one edge of the screen will loop around to the other side, creating opportunities for creative applications), they are forced to contend with the smaller rocks they create, creating a dynamic difficulty curve relative to the players activity in the game.
In addition, as the game is set in space, the ship the player pilots is not affected by air resistance, therefore any motion generated by the primary movement of the player will continue to move the ship until the player cancels out the force by moving the ship in the opposite direction. This increases the skill ceiling and player satisfaction with the movement system.
The players score increases as they destroy more asteroids, and after they player crosses a certain threshold, the limit for the number of asteroids that can spawn at one time increases. This could be considered to be a “ Level system for the game, while at the same time providing a challenge to more experienced gamers.
Minimalistic graphics were adopted to not interfere with the gameplay by interfering with clarity and so as to make the game playable on as many systems as possible.