Revisiting the Original Design of My First Game

Let me take you a few years back. The following short footage is a gameplay prototype that I was play testing with my family, friends, and classmates.

This was Alpha: Omnipresence in its early days. Not much of the core gameplay has changed for release except for one feature or mechanic (whatever you want to call it) that I regret taking out of the game.

I had a terrible implementation, got feedback, gave up on it, and it now lives in my head rent free. It's way overdue, so I've been planning and working on a pretty big update to bring back what I've always wanted my first game to be...

The Original Health System

Referencing the early prototype above, the original health system was represented by the green horizontal bar and it was time based. It drained every second of play and even more when the player gets hit by a projectile. Unfortunately, I don't have footage, but the only way a player could heal up was by picking up this sort of potion that spawns every X seconds somewhere in the planet.

I believed the design was great and it forced players to really roam the planet to look for it. This single game object added another layer of purpose to the goal of surviving as long as you can in the game. I think of it like the dots that Pacman has to eat. Can you imagine Pacman without the dots and your only goal was to survive from the ghosts? You could, but I don't think it would be as successful as it is.

I'm not saying that my game will now be such a success in the industry's standards, but Alpha was deprived of these dots. I felt successful publishing it, being that it was my first, but I wasn't completely happy with where I took the game's design. I didn't believe it enough.

I'm happy that I can make it right though :)

With the big update planned for the game, I will be embracing the original health system. The game will no longer be over when players get hit by X amount of projectiles. With the proper heal and damage values, this "new" system will bring more depth to Alpha.

Thank you for reading.

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