Categorisation of Weapons

Due to the large amount of weapons in the game I have decided to categorise them to make game play easier.

To have so much in a scroll menu, I think, will just be confusing. To avoid this problem, a player can only carry one weapon from each of the categories listed below.

Fists and melee weapons:

 

• brass knuckles
• knife
• night stick
• baseball bat
• shovel
• katana

Pistols:

• 9mm
• silenced 9mm
• desert eagle

SMG’s:

• tec-9
• micro MP5
• MP5

Shotguns:

• shotgun
• sawn-off shotgun
• combat shot gun

Long Rifles:

• rifle
• sniper rifle

Assault Rifles:

• Kalashnikov (AK-47)
• M4

Heavy Weapons:

• mini-gun
• rocket launcher
• heat seeking RPG

Projectiles: 

• tear gas
• Molotov cocktails
• grenades
• satchels (with detonator)

Special:

• fire extinguisher
• chainsaw
• flame thrower

Zooming In and Out of the Map

One aspect of my application which I have not mentioned is the interactive zoom.

This works just like the iPhone’s safari, pushing 2 fingers/thumbs away from the screen to zoom out,  as if your opening the screen. Likewise, the reverse action zooms into the screen.

The is no limit to the boundaries of a map, it can be made large and complex to suite the user’s desire.  So, in order to create larger map boundaries, zooming out is needed. Zooming in allows users make their map precise as they want.

This will also be used in game-play, to see the size of the map, where players can go, and where other player are located.

Addition – Game Style

I put forward the change of player icons to the users in my focus group (from a few weeks back).

All accepted the change, preferring the improved ‘dot’ icons to the previous ‘arrows’.  One of the users answered my email with a very good idea. He proposed that the game could be played without seeing any other player icons accept your own as shown below.

During the development of my application,  I had the problem that when playing, what happens if one player goes indoors, blocking out the signal of the GPS. I solved this dilemma with a time limit function; those whose signal is blocked would have 5 seconds to get within range of GPS or will begin to gradually loose life. From this I game to a different style of game play – indoors, where player movement cannot be detected, forcing users to rely on their line of sight for game play.

However, this same style of game play outdoors means that the game would be much harder. For this reason i have decided to include this game style to my application. It will become one of the game play options available in the application.

When setting up a game, you begin with the map, setting boundaries and optional obstacles. The next step is choosing the style i.e. whether or not you want to see other player on the map. Then you can choose the game mode e.g. teams, capture flags, etc. Finally the host who created the game allows users to join, as in LAN gaming.

I strongly believe that this additional game style would increase the activity of game play, as there is a much greater element of surprise.

Change – Player icons

In the final stage of the development of my application, I have been looking to perfect its design.

One change that I have wanted to make is the player icons. Each player is represented as an arrow, but i feel that this makes the game too easy. It would be hard to get anywhere in the game if you can see the exact direction of each player in the game. For example, If you are following a player to attack and this player sees you coming to him/her, they would just move further and further away.

The change from arrows to points (shown above) makes game play slightly harder, as even though you can see the direction the players are moving in, you do not know which direction they are facing. 

Shots fired from opponents can still be seen. The icon of each player on their own iPhone screen also still appears as an arrow to show in which direction they can attack.