The path of violence or peaceful, depends what message you want to tell.
Your enemies are cute, they are smiling, they are rounded, they do not look like they are bad. Example, Goomba from Mario universe, they look cute, but they have eyebrows in "V" and sharp teeth, that turn they some kind of bad guy or make us fill that way. Do you understand? Is the shape of the things that also tell stories. That is why I thought "maybe the developer does not want us to kill them", but you give us points to do that. Put something to turn them into bad guys.
The "Star-Attack" also depends how you want your players play your game. If you want that they have a limited resource to choose wisely when to use or smash the button to kill them all.
Mario when he is on Fire form, only two fireballs may be thrown at once. If you want the resource to be infinite, that is an example. If the stars are finite, maintain showing it in the HUD, if they are infinite, you do not need to show how many stars you have.
See, it is complicated. You can choose a bunch of things. The thing that I recommend is try to make the things consistent.
How your game runs on a cellphone, people play in a short period of time. So make it simple. The average of people who plays in their phones, does not play to think about the meaning of life or what is good or bad. On mobile, put something fun with a short core loop and ads between the game overs hahahahaha.
Just keep practicing and keep it simple.
Dear ootc, I'm thinking of restructuring the basic idea of the game. I think to prefer a non-violence game (as you can see from the enemies). I'm thinking of changing the mission from "get all gems and optionally kill the enemies" to "get all gems and SAVE your friends" (from enemies -> friends). Some friends will be in difficult situations, and to save them, Pinghetto will need to solve some elementary puzzle. It is my basic idea for now, but I need to think about it for some time. I'll update you about the progression ASAP. In the meantime, let me thank you so much for all your friendly support. It's very appreciated! ;)
PS: what do you think about this new idea?
I am glad I could help.
I like the idea to save a friend getting through the obstacles and puzzles.
You can focus on this ideia. Get "this" to save "that". It is a good loop and then you just can play around with it, when creating your levels.
Here are some videos that I think maybe will help you in this journey of game design:
Dear ootc, after thinking about it, I decided to try the "easier" route first (at least for the moment), making the enemies bad. I have reduced the enemy size (they seemed a little too big to me) and added more checkpoints to make the game easier. I am also working on a new look for the hero, and I plan to profoundly restructure all the levels (I want them to be very varied and, above all, very fun). I attach a screenshot where you can see the new enemies (the new look of the hero is not yet final). What do you say?
Wow. I like the changes. Now your enemies look bad and the game feel more fun too.
I do not think it is bad to go in the "easier" route.
We need to learn to walk before we can run.
I would like to ask you that if you have some time, play my game that I posted theses days. I want to know what you think about it. Please hit us with a reply on our post!
https://itch.io/t/963772/give-your-feedback-to-a-whacky-co-op-experience-availab...
Just done! ;)
PS: I ordered this book to improve my Game Designer skill:
https://www.amazon.com/Theory-Game-Design-Raph-Koster/dp/1449363210/ref=sr_1_1?_...
Do you know it?
