You know how it is — the creative spark, the flow state, the momentum — it’s an awesome feeling.  Then comes the first snag.

Tying down the major gameplay elements and setting the art styles has been a challenge. We were at this point heading for uncharted territory in both areas, where a lot of changes were made and ideas discarded because they didn’t serve the vision.

 The “Asteroids”-style of gameplay seems to follow a very basic formula for the player: Shoot stuff, turn and move away when there’s incoming danger, repeat. It’s good for a slower type of gameplay but if we are to make it faster, the turning takes time and the gameplay loses momentum — it makes the ship feel unwieldy especially when evading enemy bullets. 

To address that issue, we had to take an idea from other games and introduce a dodge function, which essentially enables a change in direction on the fly using the second joystick. It allows the player to aim and shoot and still dodge incoming danger.

It does make it feel less like “Asteroids” but in working through this hurdle, it seems like we may have discovered for ourselves a new type of space combat gameplay. /B

(For a more detailed explanation of this mechanic, check out our previous devlog, Burtprint #2!)