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Spy Trouble postmortem
December 19th, 2012 7:41 amAs many other people, I had some hard time thinking up my game idea this LD. In the end I decided to make a metroidvania platformer. I wanted it to get players to learn and master the controls and be able to do parkouresque awesome moves in the end. Here is how it went, and how I feel about this.
What was the plan?
To create a metroidvania style platformer taking place inside an evil scientists hi-tech lab that allows users to learn and master the controls and be able to execute cool moves inside.
What went right?
I have managed to tailor the game as intended and I was able to master it nearly perfectly.
What went wrong?
It appears that the players find the game really hard. It seems havign mastered the game, I had to require some external testing, that I had simply no time for during the LD. However, I keep telling myself they’re just lazy 
What was left out?
I had to cut down on few features. One of these is movable enemy robots, that I didn’t even start to work on. The other would be final boss. The environment of the game is pretty tight, so I am eventually glad that I did not stuff it with more obstacles. I also had grenade launchers ready and working, that I left out. I just thought it unnecessarily make the game harder. Also, enemies have HP and cool this hit-effect all ready, but I wanted the game to be as speedrunnable as possible so they are all one-hit-kills.
So, can you speedrun?
Sure! I decided to record a video of me speedrunning it to perhaps help players who might have trouble on the way! Here it is:
“It appears that the players find the game really hard.”
Yeah, I literally spent 30 minutes trying to work out how to wall jump.
It should be noted that I never did find out and gave up, so your lazy comment is also true
(I got to 0:08 in 30 mins)
I didn’t find it too difficult.
In my first attempt I wasn’t sure how to activate the buttons (the orange squares). For a couple of minutes I was trying to jump at them before realising that wasn’t working. Then I got to the room with the long horizontal forcefield. Somehow I managed to jump above it, but I lost all my health as I kept falling back down onto it from the room above. It trapped me!
On my second attempt, I got to the corridor with the 5 upward pointing guns, at which point I died. I forgot that I could have used the grenades.
I had spent about 10-15 minutes on the game thus far.
In my third and final attempt I managed to arm the bomb and escape. But after the cut-scene I couldn’t remember my way back to the bomb, and I took a wrong turning (by climbing up to the room where you get the grenades), and I ran out of time.
Gameplay: I’m not too fond of platformers, as they often feel bland to me. I was driven to play your game mostly by curiosity, as I was eager to see how the corridors all joined up, and what powerups might be available that helped me to get to new rooms.
Difficulty: I wouldn’t say the game is difficult at all, you just need to learn how to play it, (which took me about 15 minutes), and learn your way about (which is always easiest for the designer;)).
Controls: I found the wall jumping quite frustrating, and the keys (z/x/c) were a bit confusing at times, even though I got better at playing as I progressed.
Graphics: The graphics were pleasant, but I would have liked to have seen variations of the tileset, so that it’s not all green/grey. Reward my curiosity by showing me some new environments.
Sound: The music is okay, but sadly no sound effects, for forcefields, shooting, explosions, hurt, pickups, etc.