Developer Blog #10: New Pivot

Project Locomoto
Sep 6, 2018 · 5 min read

After gathering a lot of feedback this past week on the full game loop demo, I’ve come to the conclusion that the game I’ve been working on for the past couple months, Cosmonote, at least in the direction that I’m going right now, fundamentally doesn’t work. This post will talk about the issues I’m facing and some of the new directions I’m thinking about taking this project.

So what didn’t work?

Cosmonote works as a rhythm game. A musical track is assigned to a bezier spline, and I populate climbing holds along the spline. As the music plays, a representational comet will travel along the spline, activating the holds along the way. The player is tasked to grab and climb along the holds, just as the music comet passes by. In doing so, the player will be on beat in pace with the song. The problem with this system is that the moment the player misses just one note, they fall behind completely, as the only way to catch up would be to climb twice as fast — this throws the player off rhythm, and imposes an undue amount of stress to their gameplay experience.

I’ve tried a number of remedies to the issue, all of which were of no avail.

  1. Slow-mo. My first attempt was slow down the pace of the song once the player has fallen behind. This implementation was the most successful among testers, as it kept up the momentum of the gameplay while giving the player an opportunity to catch up. Despite these qualities however, slow-mo still wasn’t enough. Players continued to exhibit frustration with missing beats, and still found that the game was too punishing, even when I tried lowering the threshold down to 10% normal speed.
  2. Progressive-pace. The song will pause if the player missed the beat, and will wait until the player has hit the beat to progress. In this way the player is not racing the pace of the song, but instead simply trying to match the rhythm of the song. If the player always grabs on beat, the song comes out clear and uninterrupted, but if the player fails to grab on beat, the song will come out broken and shoddy. Although this method was my personal favorite, as it gave very clear reward motivations for the players, it was received with almost unanimous disapproval. Players did not enjoy hearing the disjointed tunes, and it also made for a worse experience for spectators. On top of all of that, players still felt that the game was too punishing.
  3. Auto-skip. Should the player fall behind, they will be automatically bumped up to where they need to be to continue the song. Although this was the most recommended feature, it didn’t work out as the jumping disoriented players as to where they were. Players who performed poorly were jumping very often, and it made for a very disruptive experience for them.

New pivot direction possibilities

Despite pivoting toward a new direction, it’s a priority that the project remains complete-able within a few months. I am most likely abandoning the rhythm genre since my attempt to pair it with the climbing mechanic failed, and any other variation I do of the rhythm genre would simply be a lesser version of Beat Saber. So I’m keeping the space theme/aesthetic, as well as the climbing locomotion mechanic.

  1. Climbing-based platforming game.
    The most obvious pivot would be to simply remove the rhythm portion of the game. Climbing would be the core focus, and the game would be centered around players climbing, jumping, and dodging their way through levels. Multiplayer would be a more viable focus, as multiple players could race against or cooperate with one another as they complete the levels.
    The downside to this approach is that games of this genre are rather plentiful in the scene. “Climbey” and “To the Top” are some prominent examples that come to mind. If I were to enter this space I do not feel that the climbing mechanic in Cosmonote adds anything new. As a result I may feel this direction to be a bit derivative.
“To the Top” features fast and fluid multiplayer climbing challenges.
“Climbey” similarly features multiplayer climbing challenges.
  1. Climbing-based puzzle game.
    This was a very interesting and unique concept that was recommended to me by a friend. She described to me a VR game she tried named Land’s End, in which players connect dots in interesting patterns to complete levels. I haven’t seen a game like this be attempted using the VR climbing mechanic. The way the idea would work is that: a set of climbing holds are arrayed in front of the player. Each hold makes a musical note as the player climbs on it. At the beginning of the level, the player hears a short musical melody, and has to replicate that melody by climbing in a specific pattern along the holds. Later levels would offer increased difficulty in the form of mixing up hold positions and orientations. Multiplayer would also be possible as players would be tasked with harmonizing melodies.
    The problems I see with this direction is that the gameplay would be very slow paced, not really oriented towards the current VR market which tends to favor short, fast-paced arcade style shooters. I have difficulty imagining a meandering puzzler being very profitable.
Made by the creators of Monument Valley, hugely popular iOS title
Beautiful, somber visuals, optimized for mobile VR

Conclusion

This has got to be one of the lowest points in this project yet. There doesn’t seem to be an easy answer — each option has a few advantages to consider, and a lot of disadvantages to weigh. I’m really not sure what the future will hold and moral is low. But I’m not giving up. I’m going to delve a little bit into each option and see what rings the most true to playtesters. See you next week.

Project Locomoto

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XR development blog. Currently working on Homeward.

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