We are in the very early stages of developing a side scrolling 2D running game for IOS. We are going to take the best of the best and put them all together to make the ultimate running game. What would you like to see in a running game if you were making it? What are your favorite features in other similar games? We welcome all feedback.
What do you think are some of the best currently out there? You could make a list and identify what makes each unique and why you think it was successful. People could then add to the list or comment on your assumptions. I think you will be more successful in getting usable feedback if you start with something concrete.
While not an endless runner, I really enjoyed the parkour elements in Mirror's Edge and how simply they were executed. Visual style is often significant in just getting the game noticed. Whether or not you played them at all, it's still easy to picture the colorful sketch-pad look of Tiny Wings. Or the minimalist but bleak and somehow threatening world of Canabalt. Or the colorful psychedelics of Robot Unicorn and Whale Trail. The 16bit graphics of the Hook Champ games. The chase-cam perspective and Indiana Jones-like setting of Temple Run. And etc. If you can get a gamer to see the game whenever they close their eyes, then you've done it right. And please give us something in which the challenge comes from intense speed and quick reactions. NOT a game where the challenge is memorization of gaps and obstacles.
I have a couple of suggestions 1) Randomly generated levels is a must. 2) Slow down and speed up power-ups. Let the player control the pace based on in game elements. 3) Stuff to collect thast unlocks different skins like Air supply 1-bit runner. Combine all those elements and I think you have a hit on your hands.
Here are some of what I consider the best running games. Trying to take elements from them and put them all in one. Diversion - daily bonuses, missions, unlockables, costumes Jetpack Joyride - missions and achievements, unlockables Dalton the Awesome! - weapon upgrades Run like Hell! Monster Dash There are more that the game will have inspiration from that is just what I have off the top of my head.
Here's the main gameplay axes that we explored for Don't Run With a Plasma Sword: -Combat with monsters having different gameplay characteristics -3 contextual buttons (jump, slide, attack also leading to double-jump, slide-attack, dash, dive) -XP gains leading to skills and appearance upgrades -A Story mode with checkpoints and boss fights -A rich and complex platform-like level design -In game power-ups and coin-like rewards Here's a few more interesting runners: Stylish Dash (missions, upgrades) Grim Joggers (Rich LD and multiple characters running) Canabalt (ambiance) Run! (unique controls and obstacles) Robot Unicorn Attack (nice implementation of dash skill) Hope this help, cheers!
Again this might be helpul, or not. Since people like a fixed progression and some people like a random one, here's what we did: We broke everything in small level design maps of 20 to 64 tiles in lenght and made a few hundreds of them. We categorized them by level of difficulty. In story mode, we run a fixed sequence of them, so that players can learn the level. In endless mode, we spawn maps randomly from a difficulty pool. This method allowed us to control easily the difficulty progression. So by using this approach, we managed to construct the 2 types of game modes from the same basic construction blocs.
introduce milestone achievements/badges. Jetpack Joyride does this very well. Eg: high-five 20 scientists , Run 5000 meters. Also make a side activity (thinking of a side dish right now lol ), like a slot machine at every death. Players LOVE this. Pay good attention to the graphics and audio of this side activity, some players treat the slot machines as the highlight of the game!
We have achievement ideas. Something like the slot machine on Jetpack Joyride is a good idea. Don't want to do the same thing but we'll try to come up with something similar.
