SUPERCRUISE 2

I thought the original SUPERCRUISE felt good, but didn't have enough substance. I couldn't sell it.

OpenFrameworks also had its own problems that made it difficult for me to implement certain quality of life features (different resolutions changable on runtime, borderless windows, easy screen stretching, etc) and the executable's ability to actually run was a bit finnicky. I switched to Unity.

Planes should shoot at you and not just ram into you. I didnt want enemy planes to just leisurely float by, hurling bullets at the player at the speed of a snowball. Planes move fast and bullets move fast so I wanted this game to be fast.

The warning indicators allow everything to move fast while still giving the player the time to react. It tries to, anyways. That's the core of the game.

The best way to test if a game is viable and fun is to make it and play it. And so, I teamed up with a friend to help me with the art and made a prototype.

SUPERCRUISE 2 Problems

It wasn't fun.

I sent it to a number of my friends who I trusted to give me honest feedback. They confirmed what I felt in my heart-- it was the sort of game where if you're asked if it's "good or bad," you might say, "well, it isn't awful." However, if the question was, "would you want to play more?" the answer would be a prompt "no."

I tried to think of a way to make it more fun. I thought that the main problem is that simply dodging is boring. The gameplay largely consisted of just staring at and trying to decipher the shot patterns. The player should be incentivized to destroy enemies and simply having a points system isn't enough to encourage that. I could make it so enemy planes circle back after they buzz past the player, but something like that just feels awkward (it's strange that the only player is moving in a straight line when nothing else is) and is hard to convey to the player (it isn't so obvious that the enemy coming from behind you is the same one that passed you from the front 30 seconds ago).

SUPERCRUISE 2 was fundamentally flawed. There was no other solution than to cut my losses-- I would never find this game fun.

SUPERCRUISE 3

I couldn't stand throwing away the art my friend drew for this game. I tried to visualize a game using his art that I would find fun. While showering, I came up with something, and the following video (work in progress!) is my attempt to bring that vision to life.

This video will change as I develop the game.