Level Demo - Spider Wars

I finally have a demo of my level design! This is for the first level of 'Spider Wars', so it focuses on getting the player used to the hazards and power-ups. I changed a couple of things from the initial design, most notably the arrangement of holes in the middle of the level to provide more of an obstacle. If you want to have a play, the link to download it is below.

Spider Wars: First Level Demo




Things I liked:

• Enemies - The wasps will chase you a little if you bump into them, and although the birds aim for you, it is possible to outrun their diving attack. The holes aren't too sensitive; you don't want a nimble spider topping into a hole the moment his legs touch the sides.

• Health - The constantly decreasing health adds challenge and tension to the simple shoot 'em up gameplay.

• Ending - It make not look like much, but getting that to work regardless of where Steve ends up on screen was a little tricky.

Things I think could be improved:

• Difficulty - Although it is the first level, the game is still a little too easy if you hold down CTRL and move around. there are a few things that could be implemented to counter this:

• Fire power - To make things a little more challenging, Steve could have a finite number of webs, rather than being able to shoot willy-nilly. This would force players to use their ammo carefully and try to dodge enemies more. The distance the web can travel could also be shortened.

• Checkpoints - If the player was sent back to a checkpoint rather than just respawning in the same place when they run out of health, this would make things a little trickier, too.

• Health - I think it might be nice to add a sound effect, such as a heartbeat, to accompany the dropping health. This would make it abundantly clear that there is a timer of sorts and add to the tension.

• Enemies - The holes could probably do with being a little more sensitive; you can get quite far over the edge before Steve will topple over.

Odd things:

• I couldn't use the SPACE button to fire. Apparently  some keyboards (mine included) do not recognise if more than one other key is pressed along with the space bar. When I tested the level, I found that if I moved diagonally up and left, SPACE wouldn't fire. Changing this to CTRL fixed the issue. The more you know...