Bridge Crossing Minigame - Looking for Feedback

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#1

http://www.zarkonnen.com/ropebridge/screenshot.png

A Java applet minigame for crossing a bridge. I’m not totally convinced of it as it feels a bit awkward, so feedback on how to make it work better would be brilliant. :slight_smile:

The aim is to cross the bridge and not fall down. You can move forward, jump, and crucially, shift your weight to avoid treading too heavily on damaged boards.

The idea behind this is that there’s lots of games where you go on an adventure: delving into a dungeon, crossing wide wastelands, etc. In historical reality, there have been lots of these adventures. The main challenge was usually the terrain (cliffs, rivers, forests to get lost in, caves that branch again and again) and the chance of accident (breaking a leg, being bitten by a snake, losing your equipment).

But in games about adventures, the main challenge tends to be monsters that want to eat you. We all know RPGs have an unfortunate tendency to reduce some combination of a hack-and-slash, navigating dialogue trees, and jumping puzzles. But there’s so much more to an adventure! So many other perils! LoTR is a classic story of an adventure, and there is very little fighting for the adventurers in it.

It’s not all clear-cut, of course: in game history there were games that centered more on other perils, like Pitfall!

But anyway, I tried to make a list of all the activities that an adventure might actually involve. One of the classic ones is crossing a rickety bridge, so I thought I’d try making that into a game.

#2

Managed to cross every time by just going straight forward. Had to shift-reload to reset the boards. Maybe make it slippery so if you go too fast you could slip and slam through the boards. Not sure how you’d represent that with footprints tho :confused:

Last game I can think of that had an epic adventure feel that had hardly any combat in it was Shadow of the Colossus. Sure your job was killing the titular Colossi, but it was basically a game about climbing and holding on for dear life.

#3

That’s just the first level. The second level has a board missing, which means you have to jump.

So feedback item #1: actually label the levels as LEVEL 1, LEVEL 2, etc. :slight_smile:

#4

Level 3 is unbeatable AFAIK…

#5

Try shifting your weight so that your footsteps become softer. The color of your “feet” changes to indicate how much weight you’re putting on them. :slight_smile:

#6

I too got stuck on level 3. I think you need to introduce the weight shifting mechanic in a much simpler level where only weight shifting is needed (no jumping), then a couple of levels like that before you start to combine the two.

#7

Yeah, I think the difficulty curve is kind of wall-like. I will rework that shortly, and also introduce the concepts one by one instead of just in a massive info screen.

#8

I made it through and liked it. Very original concept! Push it forward.
The model is a bit dirty though. I has two separate modes - fast paced, when you need to run and jump and slow paced when you use the ability to put your weight on one leg. I felt that they somewhat contradict each other.