Projectiles in 2D platformers poorly designed #1 - Flip Witch

 This isn't a bad game; however a couple design issues with said weapon design on the projectile end. What makes the witch character a witch is the poorly designed ranged tool part of the witch's toolkit. If you like it that's fine but there are multiple design flaws to go over.

Speed

It's a fast moving projectile; however no build up, no changes in speed, nothing to nerf it in it's stronger forms. When Megaman powers up his charge shot the more powerful shots don't move faster with them being bigger and harder to move while the smallest shots are moving the fastest.

Here there is one speed and one form alone with having no real impact differences showing you in terms of the weight of the attack just being weightless.

Power

The attack is weak; very much weak to the point where going near an enemy is your worst bet if you want to actually fight with it being a softening up tool and unable to be used a zoner tool; even it's more powerful forms seem to be very weak; my guess easy mode this will be stronger so who knows.

Range

The range on this thing is busted; able to go across the map and that's fine but nothing interesting is done with it. The range being too good is bad and why is that? Simple; the map design allows you to hit enemies from a safe distance with being able to chip away at their health with little to no effort. The ability to chip away at a target's HP allows the player to safely play areas as a zoner and as thus earn rewards with little to no effort.

At that point; there is no reason to have a normal difficulty option if the only difference is, "oh this takes longer" and not that it's more difficult. The reason why this kind of range tool works in a game like Smash Bros series for Fox, Falco and Wolf is because you have opponents/ enemies that jump! You have opponents that dodge! The AI being simple and dumb is just, "meh" for these kind of moments!

Hit box

The hit box is a bit too big and I get it; star shape and all that but the hit box makes this way too effective as a projectile from small to large size with being able to smash into enemies with little to no issue.

Different charge positions

This is the one good thing I love about this weapon is the different movement states, (not counting transformations) where you can charge up the weapon and use it in an effective manner with it being able to be charged from crouching, jumping, etc. That is one positive I will say it has going for it.

Sound design

Besides the upgraded charge shot the sound design for the weapon lacks any "oomph" to it and I guess I should be glad it's not annoying at least.

What would I do to fix this?

1. Damage fall off so you can't just spam it from a distance.

2. Limit the amount you can fire off at a time.

3. Increase the power. If you combine the idea of damage fall off + increasing the power, you have a projectile weapon that stays weak/ does little to no damage when at too far of a range. However; a projectile that has a sweet spot for hitting enemies from and rewarding more risky play.

4. Limit the range of the bullet. The bullet needs a limited range; giving it too much range makes it way too effective for what it is with being able to be used from a far for far too long.

5. Make the sound design hit harder.

6. If none of these changes then at the very least smarter enemies when dealing with projectiles and instead of being able to hit them from outside the aggro zone and have them not react.

The combined changes would make the projectile into a risky zoner tool instead of a safe zoner tool.

Conclusion

The optimal playstyle with this weapon becomes a ranged play style with hitting an enemy from a far distance/ off screen makes things boring but the safest way to gain back HP without being too effective.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Psychological manipulation #2 Big numbers

 This is a fine balancing act for players but the goal of the matter is to keep going for the big numbers and keep the big numbers with them getting bigger, and bigger then you get the picture. With this not only having one set of numbers get bigger but having the other numbers get bigger as well. You need some form of system to keep the players wanting the numbers to get bigger. For idle clicker games you use the reset system to get the player coming back; with the MMORPG system you scale down those numbers in updates so you can keep numbers getting bigger or use the shared power system for the players to use. Personally I like using an XP reset system; once the XP hits max for the level, the XP subtracts from the XP cost bringing it down to 0 and as thus allowing that big number of XP to still feel big. Then you might be asking about the player leveling up which there is always the COD reset level system where once the level hits a big enough number you have it where the progress...
Read more

Power Creep

 Power creep can be both a good and a bad thing. With power creep you have it where players are being fed more powerful items or cards where they ditch old equipment for the new toys and make it so players will actually use it. On that same note you're trading the learning the items/ understanding how to make oneself more powerful through strats by relying on your given powerful new toys and making players throw them away again once more toys do show up. It's a useful investment strat for card games but does get boring for games where the only thing you have to look forward to is bigger more powerful numbers instead of different strats/ tactics you've never seen or used before with the bigger numbers feeling meaningless. Person experience; with Yu-Gi-Oh playing the rogue format was more fun even if I lost because I wasn't losing to the FTK format and actually scaled down in power with having fun seeing different strats/ tactics, that the limitations that were self impos...
Read more

Deck Size matters

 Small decks These kind of games make it where the game is being given a more consistent/ predictable strategy. The outcome being much more predictable but having it where players are dealing with mill and burn strats far too often making them busted. Large decks These kind of games make mill/ burn strats basically useless but have less reliance on consistent drawing what you want; however in a game where search abilities exist with the more search power the more options that open up and remove the down side of having a larger deck becomes.
Read more