Apocalypse Cow - What Do I Do Now?
One of the things I discovered watching a new player try out Apocalypse Cow recently was that the suspected need of some kind of an arrow pointing the way to the next (or nearest) goal was going to be required.

While the project began with some of the same gameplay as the classic arcade game Choplifter, I quickly expanded on it to include a number of different mission types and sub-goals to be achieved during the course of a mission. Much of the time they aren't strictly linear, and the interior maps usually have some minor branches in them.

The end result? In spite of the text dialog explaining what the player needs to do, it's easy to ignore or forget, and get completely lost or confused as to what you are supposed to do. So --- I'm adding the goal arrow to lead the way. It won't be there for every mission, and in some maps you may still have to hunt down the routes to get to wherre the arrow is pointing, but for the most part it should help you know what you can do next.

My concern is that it might encourage some linearity where it isn't strictly required. But I guess a player who doesn't like the linearity will figure out that they can ignore the arrow and do their own thing anyway, so long as they achieve the mission's objectives (which are usually pretty simple --- like protect an outhouse in the middle of the arctic for five minutes, which is for some reason the target of a massive bovine onslaught).

The other thing I discovered by taking a step back and looking at the "complete" alpha was a deficiency in the humor department. There's a zillion shooters and arcade action games out there (even some humorous ones), and many of them look very nice. What Apocalypse Cow has going for it is its style (such as it is) and humor. I've been pretty head-down worrying about gameplay for many moons now, trying to keep the gameplay fresh and interesting across all of nearly two-dozen levels, so I've been neglecting the goofiness that's going to make shooting down the evil Bovino Moosolini so fun.

So once I get those last "blinding suck" elements crossed off the list, I'm going to be having some REAL fun with the game. The kind of fun that made me excited to do it in the first place. Bizarre, off-the-wall, good-ol'-fashioned stupid fun with more puns, juvenile humor, fun exploding cow particles, and some visual jokes.

I can't wait! How's THAT for motivation to fix bugs?

Labels: Apocalypse Cow, Game Design, productivity

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 9:10 AM (Permalink)