Escape! (continued)

Continued development has finally brought the game to a state where many sections are fully playable, interconnected and interacting.

The screenshots show the 4 levels of the game, the top down views and two of the challenges in the first person mode.

The game’s purpose is not to win any awards for it’s visual design but to build skill in using the authoring tool Director MX 2004.
Right now the development is focused on play testing and balancing.

Some challenges are harder than others within the same level, some have a random element and others are static and repeatable. To avoid getting the player stuck the player often has a choice of which path to take. One path will be easier than the other but it will also be longer. If the player hasn’t picked up an item he will need to complete a challenge he receives a hint that should point him into the right direction so he won’t be stuck somewhere without knowing that the necessary item is in another part of the map.

As the player progresses towards the end of the game the challenges become more difficult but whenever he dies he is respawned close to the point where he died so he’s not punished by having to repeat lengthy parts of the game.

The game has gone trough an iterative process from drawings on paper to prototypes on screen and the final combination of all game assets. For instance the prototype of a game I discussed previously, the jump and run side scrolling game, provided some of the core mechanics that were implemented in this game.
The drawings on paper were detailed enough to be used as a storyboard for all parts of the game, the digital prototypes were evaluated, the layout often adjusted and then passed on to each person responsible for the visual design of a particular area.
During play testing several problems have been identified and parts of the game have already been refined and retested. As all the parts of the game are combined new, unpredictable problems arise and have to be solved.

Although the game is simple it is fun to play and would best be targeted at hand held devices that have an arrow pad (or similarly arranged buttons) and a touch screen.