Developing an Interesting Gameplay Loop

Hello!

I wanted to talk about the challenges I faced when creating the gameplay loop of C:T1, as it has changed and evolved throughout the project and maybe sharing my ideas will help someone else with their own development decisions.

C:T1 was my first time making a game on my own, aside from help from Aaron who supplied all the weapon models and textures you see in game (thanks Aaron!), and so I had originally scaled back a lot of the gameplay elements present in the current 1.0.00 release. Originally, there was no upgrade shop and there was only supposed to be 10 waves before the final boss. However, I discovered that whilst I was playing and testing the game every single playthrough was almost the exact same. You would buy the pistol, then the auto rifle, then the shotgun and then the sniper. Sure, the player could choose to rearrange that order but it meant that in the endgame you would have the exact same equipment as anyone else, unless you really spent a lot on health packs. 

The addition of upgrades and how the player can only choose one of each pair added a much greater element of strategy. Does the player decide to max out the pistol? Or do they save up for the sniper to one tap any brute enemies? The player may die and think: "Perhaps if I'd bought the shotgun instead of the phantom blade upgrade I could have survived that..." and decide to play again.

Collectables may seem like an after thought, but I added them as a way to further mix up gameplay. Even if you have no interest in reading them, each pick up awards the player with bonus points. This can lead to lucky runs in which the player is given a chance advantage. There is also the standard collectables element - the player may decide to try collect them all, which gets the player interested in playing the game again. 

Balancing was crucial to ensuring the game was enjoyable and had variation. During development, the Shotgun and Auto Rifle struggled to find any use from players, with the knife bringing in points, the pistol being very powerful when upgraded and the sniper being the unparalleled solution to brute enemies. Steps were taken to bring the powerful weapons more in line: the knife now generates fatigue when being swung, the pistol upgrades were scaled back and base damage was reduced, and the sniper now slows and fatigues the player once it is fired, and has no crosshair without the "Steady Aim" upgrade. Aside from the sniper, I ensured that firing any weapon did not fatigue the player, which encouraged swapping weapons over using only one.

The enemies, particularly wave 5's Brute, needed careful attention. The stalkers set the standard of the game - slowly easing the player into understanding key mechanics: The enemies are faster than your walk speed, the enemies may sneak up behind you, keep an eye out for obstacles in the arena, etc. For experienced players, stalkers become a question of "how can I defeat them with my knife even at max fatigue?" in which the player may discover a quirk with how the AI moves around. Dwarves were simple enough to add, they simply check for a valid teleport position that isn't too close to the player and then teleport to it after they have seen the player for a set time. Dwarves add an element of unpredictability to the game in which the player must rely on sound cues to hear if dwarves have moved to a dangerous position. Rangers are sporadic, half of their grenades admittedly end up outside of the arena roof, however ignoring the rangers that are sat at the other end of the arena can end up costing the player health points from grenades landing nearby - encouraging the player to stun the rangers by getting close to them. The Brute is the main mini-boss. Most players do not get past wave 5 on their first attempt, which sets the atmosphere of the game. The Brute is introduced early so the player can develop ways of defeating them whilst being attacked by side enemies of only stalkers. After the wave 9 double Brute round, they do not appear again for 5 waves and will punish any player who got comfortable forgetting to check for any. Utilising the environment and high powered weapons is crucial for surviving a Brute.

"I got surrounded!" is a common way to die in C:T1, the ultimate punishment for failing to observe your surroundings and not having the shotgun or knife lunge ability. Invincibility frames are local to each enemy, meaning while one enemy cannot attack after hitting you, another still can. Whilst a lesser threat, the player needs to be forced into remembering that the Stalkers are still a threat despite their standard appearances.

Avenues for future expansion would be giving the enemies more drops, such as a reload power-up that reloads all weapons for free, or a health kit or energy drink. This helps add more variety to each playthrough as well as further rewarding the player for killing enemies. Player upgrades would be another area of development, such as upgrading sprint speed, unlocking a double jump, reducing movement fatigue, generating a shield that blocks the first hit of damage each wave, etc. This adds more strategy into the game and gives the player more choice. It is important to consider, however, that adding these features would create the need for increasing the base difficulty of the game, as well as increasing the points gained by the player in order to afford them alongside everything else.

I hope this provided valuable insight to my project, if you have any questions feel free to ask!