Power Laser

Power Laser, a game for the 'SDL' assignment by Dmitry Portnoy, with some code help for drawing circles from http://steinsoft.net.

Instructions

Click the mouse to create a laser at the mouse’s location and let go to remove the laser. The laser will try to absorb any balls of energy it comes in contact with. At first, the laser will only be able to absorb bright green energy, but for every 15 points of energy the laser gains, it will be able to absorb a  slightly redder form of energy. The color of the laser and the color of the energy meter will match the most reddish form of energy that can be absorbed. Every energy ball successfully absorbed will add 2 points of energy and every energy ball that cannot be absorbed will remove 5 points of energy.

Goal

I wanted to create a small and addictive game that was easy for someone to learn.

Method

 I came up with the idea of a laser absorbing energy and thought it would be pretty simple and addictive. I initially wanted to add obstacles for the laser such that if some energy was behind an obstacle, the laser could not absorb it until the energy came out into the open. After making a prototype, I decided that obstacles would not add much to the gameplay and that nearby energy that the laser could not yet absorb already added enough difficulty.

I also experimented with changing the speed and spawn rate of the energy until I found a combination I liked and one that wasn’t too hard. I also had to make the colors of the energy different enough that the player could tell them apart. Initially, the two greenest balls of energy were nearly identical and I had to try out a few different color combinations before I could easily tell them apart.

Novelty

While the idea of “growing” by consuming something is not new to games (for example Spore), this game adds an arcade element and the new need for a twitch finger. It also adds some strategy since the player has to determine the best time to use the laser.

Results

I think the game is addictive and fairly easy to pick up. However, it has a very bad difficulty curve. The game is fairly challenging when the player can only consume bright green energy, but once he can consume more types of energy, he can very quickly get to the point where he can consume everything. I would increase the energy gap required to consume the yellowish and red energy. It would also be interesting to add some form of energy that the player can never consume, thereby always keeping some element of risk to using the laser.

I would also like to add levels to the game and have a set amount of energy per level. On higher levels, the ratio of red to green energy could be higher and energy could move faster on average. The player could then measure his success based on how many levels he beat.