Additionally, there’s also a fine line between skill-based obstacles and luck-based obstacles, and game maps typically needed a good balance of both of these to appeal to the most players. High-skilled players liked skill-based obstacles, whiole low-skilled players liked luck-based obstacles. We needed a good mix of both.
We had two other findings while conducting the user interviews. We realized that:
Hence, I concluded that having an exciting beginning and/or ending obstacle was the best solution to making the game more fun.
But what made an obstacle “exciting”? Remember, we have to bridge the gap between skill & luck to appeal to a broad range of player types. I realized that players felt like it was “fun” during high-velocity moments with high success rates - 1) being launched somewhere or 2) sliding somewhere. It needed to be slightly skill-based but not too difficult. For example, being launched somewhere - we made it so that the player needed to hit a target to be successful.
By implementing either an exciting start or end to the game maps, the “fun” rating of the maps skyrocketed.
See below videos of how we implemented the ending launcher for Jungle Map (top video) and the beginning launcher + slide for Laser Map (bottom video). I used Cinema 4D to make the 3D assets and implement them in Unity, then worked with our 3D artist to create textures for our 3D assets.
We had two other findings while conducting the user interviews. We realized that:
- It’s particularly frustrating when a player starts or ends a game on an obstacle they struggle with.
- A player remembers the ending of the game the most, This is their most lasting impession of each map level.
Hence, I concluded that having an exciting beginning and/or ending obstacle was the best solution to making the game more fun.
But what made an obstacle “exciting”? Remember, we have to bridge the gap between skill & luck to appeal to a broad range of player types. I realized that players felt like it was “fun” during high-velocity moments with high success rates - 1) being launched somewhere or 2) sliding somewhere. It needed to be slightly skill-based but not too difficult. For example, being launched somewhere - we made it so that the player needed to hit a target to be successful.
By implementing either an exciting start or end to the game maps, the “fun” rating of the maps skyrocketed.
See below videos of how we implemented the ending launcher for Jungle Map (top video) and the beginning launcher + slide for Laser Map (bottom video). I used Cinema 4D to make the 3D assets and implement them in Unity, then worked with our 3D artist to create textures for our 3D assets.