Developer Diaries 6: Level Progression
January 7 by John for Blue Attack!
The level progression system in Blue Attack was obviously influenced by Star Fox. Let's face it, after you leave the initial world, if you do well, you can progress to the harder levels. I mean, even the idea that there are three paths - hard, medium, and easy - is a direct copy of Star Fox's level progression system.
I toyed with the idea of changing it around, and adding more flexibility to it, or even a save system that would let you retry a level as you progressed - but I decided against all of them, in the end. Why?
Because Star Fox did it exactly right!
There must have been a lot of great original thought that went into that SNES game, and a lot of reasoning in Star Fox 64 for why they didn't change it much.
At its base, Blue Attack is an arcade style game, pure and simple - once you start playing, you can't go back. At most, you can alter your course on your way to the game's inevitable conclusion. The better you do in a level, or if you meet a specific goal or requirement, you get the option to take the more difficult (and lucrative) route through the level progression.
Good play is met with reward. :) plain and simple.
The other thing I took directly from Star Fox is that the most rewarding levels (in terms of point value) isn't just a straight shot across the top. Just taking the hardest levels all the way doesn't net you as much as dipping down slightly, something that expert players figured out within a month of the game's release.
What went wrong:
Hard levels were too hard to get to, especially on the first level. Even at my peak, I only got the hard difficulty level progression maybe 4/5 tries - it was really hard! Since release, we've relaxed the requirement to get to that first hard level.
The game was more hardcore than the original Star Fox - that game had continues, which means when you died, you had a few retries. In Blue Attack, you had extra lives, but they played out as a new launched fighter in an already-possibly-screwed-up battlefield. Sometimes, that wasn't really a second chance! Some people appreciated the hardcore nature of the game, which made the level progression and skill level of the player more meaningful - but many players found the game just a bit too hard and gave up early. :(
What went right
The upgrade system! This is the thing people remember the most about the game, as far as I've seen. The level progression naturally increases in difficulty, and if you don't perform well enough to afford great upgrades, you might get rolled in later levels. However, being at or slightly above that curve is very rewarding! Seeing your small ship gain power, weapons, extra shots, and finally get up to 8 wingmen is pretty awesome. You can go from having a slow-fire peashooter, to having over 20 streams of shots coming from a large group of fighters, practically filling the screen with blue glowy death.
Conclusion
I love Blue Attack. :)
That's about it. I loved Star Fox, and I managed to make a game different enough, in enough ways, so as to not be charged with blatant copying. Blue Attack is its own creation, unique in many ways (not the least of which is my personal art style), and for that I will always love it. I'd love for Nintendo to remake or update Star Fox and put it on my iDevice, but since that's never going to happen, bring on the Blue Attack. :)
I toyed with the idea of changing it around, and adding more flexibility to it, or even a save system that would let you retry a level as you progressed - but I decided against all of them, in the end. Why?
Because Star Fox did it exactly right!
There must have been a lot of great original thought that went into that SNES game, and a lot of reasoning in Star Fox 64 for why they didn't change it much.
At its base, Blue Attack is an arcade style game, pure and simple - once you start playing, you can't go back. At most, you can alter your course on your way to the game's inevitable conclusion. The better you do in a level, or if you meet a specific goal or requirement, you get the option to take the more difficult (and lucrative) route through the level progression.
Good play is met with reward. :) plain and simple.
The other thing I took directly from Star Fox is that the most rewarding levels (in terms of point value) isn't just a straight shot across the top. Just taking the hardest levels all the way doesn't net you as much as dipping down slightly, something that expert players figured out within a month of the game's release.
What went wrong:
Hard levels were too hard to get to, especially on the first level. Even at my peak, I only got the hard difficulty level progression maybe 4/5 tries - it was really hard! Since release, we've relaxed the requirement to get to that first hard level.
The game was more hardcore than the original Star Fox - that game had continues, which means when you died, you had a few retries. In Blue Attack, you had extra lives, but they played out as a new launched fighter in an already-possibly-screwed-up battlefield. Sometimes, that wasn't really a second chance! Some people appreciated the hardcore nature of the game, which made the level progression and skill level of the player more meaningful - but many players found the game just a bit too hard and gave up early. :(
What went right
The upgrade system! This is the thing people remember the most about the game, as far as I've seen. The level progression naturally increases in difficulty, and if you don't perform well enough to afford great upgrades, you might get rolled in later levels. However, being at or slightly above that curve is very rewarding! Seeing your small ship gain power, weapons, extra shots, and finally get up to 8 wingmen is pretty awesome. You can go from having a slow-fire peashooter, to having over 20 streams of shots coming from a large group of fighters, practically filling the screen with blue glowy death.
Conclusion
I love Blue Attack. :)
That's about it. I loved Star Fox, and I managed to make a game different enough, in enough ways, so as to not be charged with blatant copying. Blue Attack is its own creation, unique in many ways (not the least of which is my personal art style), and for that I will always love it. I'd love for Nintendo to remake or update Star Fox and put it on my iDevice, but since that's never going to happen, bring on the Blue Attack. :)
Comments [2]
Yeah Blue attack is great! I enjoy the upgrade system most probably just to see how beastily you can make your fleet.
Also I kind of think you are foreshadowing a new Blue attack game or update since you say there will be no Starfox one. As you say Bring on the Blue Attack!! ;)
Also I kind of think you are foreshadowing a new Blue attack game or update since you say there will be no Starfox one. As you say Bring on the Blue Attack!! ;)
I say more Blue attack yes.
Ofc I have some thought of how to improve the game :P
So lets get down to business, I post my thoughts on improvement here on catinaboxgames, and you give me 25% of your total revenue for at least 10 years.. Now how does that sound! Kinda tempting, hu? :D
I dare say it is. It's a deal then, my lawyer (UsedtobeGreen) will contact you guys someday in the future.
Anyway here you have it:
1-How about Turrets! everyone low turret right? they are self sufficient, handle them self, Have auto targeting, but most important are MEGA cool. So why not make it possible to add like 5-10 turrets on the Base ship and upgrade them, would be nice if there where different kind of turrets to chose from, some good against fast moving enemies, some better against slow, with different kind of amo, and so on. and sure they have auto targeting but it should be possible to change the settings on them. So they behave like you want, maybe targeting strong enemies, weak enemies, fast enemies (monitor/laser style), having turrets focus fire, and so on. would be super. AND would be nice if the main fighter has has some kind of auto-targeting turret on it (monitor style from red conquest?)
2-An expensive MV following the main fighter healing it and the rest of the followers? :D
3-Why not add something like the Planet cannon from Second wave (deadly but with limited shots, But it recharge as you get further in the game), making it a Carrier Gun or something. Could work extremely well if you don't get any points/cash for using it, making it a last resort weapon, kinda like nukes would be :P
4-About NUKES! How about a ability to drop of an expensive but deadly Nuke (preferable named something Yber-cool like "Nove Bomb", "Shiva Tactical Nuclear warhead" or "HAVOK Nuclear Mine") That would explode ether with remote control or just after a couple of seconds, where you, yourself actually have to get to safety not to get caught in the blast. (safety could mean the carrier?)
5-About REMOTE CONTROL and mines! Would be nice if there where some kind of mines, with an equivalent payload to the normal bomb, so you could lay out a cluster of mines if you have to.
-Feels like I have written many posts about "super" weapons now, To ad replay value it would maybe be nice if it only was possible to pick one super powerful gun in the start of a new game
0-Or it could be Green Attack! would be super awesome with lasers, or something :p
0-So you see, I love turrets, and ofc I do think there should be cheap turrets in Red Conquest to, would be cool to deploy those things protecting resources, harvesters and bases, though they need to have a button for self destruction. or extremely slow movement, (not firing while moving)
0-About a Blue Defence third wave. How about having a new special ability, Fighters! Just deploying automated fighters for a limited time. They could possibly fire at the same place as he normal planet gun.
I'm sure most if these ideas wont work, but hey, I i think BIG when I brainstorm about Catinabox games. If you guys find something good that would work, then im al happy.
Ofc I have some thought of how to improve the game :P
So lets get down to business, I post my thoughts on improvement here on catinaboxgames, and you give me 25% of your total revenue for at least 10 years.. Now how does that sound! Kinda tempting, hu? :D
I dare say it is. It's a deal then, my lawyer (UsedtobeGreen) will contact you guys someday in the future.
Anyway here you have it:
1-How about Turrets! everyone low turret right? they are self sufficient, handle them self, Have auto targeting, but most important are MEGA cool. So why not make it possible to add like 5-10 turrets on the Base ship and upgrade them, would be nice if there where different kind of turrets to chose from, some good against fast moving enemies, some better against slow, with different kind of amo, and so on. and sure they have auto targeting but it should be possible to change the settings on them. So they behave like you want, maybe targeting strong enemies, weak enemies, fast enemies (monitor/laser style), having turrets focus fire, and so on. would be super. AND would be nice if the main fighter has has some kind of auto-targeting turret on it (monitor style from red conquest?)
2-An expensive MV following the main fighter healing it and the rest of the followers? :D
3-Why not add something like the Planet cannon from Second wave (deadly but with limited shots, But it recharge as you get further in the game), making it a Carrier Gun or something. Could work extremely well if you don't get any points/cash for using it, making it a last resort weapon, kinda like nukes would be :P
4-About NUKES! How about a ability to drop of an expensive but deadly Nuke (preferable named something Yber-cool like "Nove Bomb", "Shiva Tactical Nuclear warhead" or "HAVOK Nuclear Mine") That would explode ether with remote control or just after a couple of seconds, where you, yourself actually have to get to safety not to get caught in the blast. (safety could mean the carrier?)
5-About REMOTE CONTROL and mines! Would be nice if there where some kind of mines, with an equivalent payload to the normal bomb, so you could lay out a cluster of mines if you have to.
-Feels like I have written many posts about "super" weapons now, To ad replay value it would maybe be nice if it only was possible to pick one super powerful gun in the start of a new game
0-Or it could be Green Attack! would be super awesome with lasers, or something :p
0-So you see, I love turrets, and ofc I do think there should be cheap turrets in Red Conquest to, would be cool to deploy those things protecting resources, harvesters and bases, though they need to have a button for self destruction. or extremely slow movement, (not firing while moving)
0-About a Blue Defence third wave. How about having a new special ability, Fighters! Just deploying automated fighters for a limited time. They could possibly fire at the same place as he normal planet gun.
I'm sure most if these ideas wont work, but hey, I i think BIG when I brainstorm about Catinabox games. If you guys find something good that would work, then im al happy.
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