Matt Glanville

Rules of attraction - Switch ‘N’ Shoot design

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I’ve drawn a new sprite for the ‘Helper’ at the bottom of the screen.

The Helper is set up so that whenever you “switch ‘n’ shoot” it points in the new direction in which you will be moving. 

It actually conveys 2 pieces of information to the player:

1. Which direction the ship is now moving.
   
2. Whether or not the button is held / your finger is making contact with the touch screen (this is really useful on mobile).

 Like so…

(Ignore the row of dots; they indicate your weapon power.)

But I noticed that something felt a bit… not right. It was feeling like the ship was moving kind of wildly, and that changes were sudden and drastic.

I recalled an episode of Game Design Advance from way back in 2010, in which Osmos developer Andy Nealen explained how the feel of the game changed entirely when they made it so you had to click on the opposite side of your blob to the direction in which you wanted to move. It became a propulsion mechanic instead of an attraction.

I decided to try this technique, and simply mirrored the sprite graphic. The arrow now points in the opposite direction to your new movement.

Nealen was on the money, and the difference is immediately noticeable. It now feels like an opposing force has pushed you the other way. I think I much prefer the inverted style, but I’m curious what you think.

Normal or inverted? Which do you prefer?