Tater Dev: Player and World Interactions

In my previous post, I mentioned that the shape of Hot Potato's world plane and the controls are giving me some design headaches. It's a big problem to solve as the gameplay of Hot Potato depends on these two elements.

I'm going to be editing this on and off through out the week so come back and check it out.

The Problem:
Hot Potato's play mechanic is the player tilts the world and the ball moves according to the tilt's angle. By tilting the world, you're angling the ball so it falls onto objects to destroy them (score points). The tricky part is making this interesting and the solutions involve adjusting how player interaction is done.

Arguments on World Planes:

Notes:
The Rotating box(screen) is the easiest method to implement as it can work with multiple methods of level construction and 2D or 3D art. The player's view of the world isn't obstructed and game objects can be clearly identified. As movement is limited to left and right, the game might not be as entertaining.

Notes:
This rendition would make things more interesting as the player can tilt the world in more directions. This method can work with either manual level construction or procedural building generation. However the main issue with this method will be determining the maximum and minimum amounts of tilt the player can achieve and where the camera is positioned in relation to the ball.

Notes:
This curved shape would give the game an interesting look based on the camera's position. The amount of tilt and level of rotation is constrained by the world's shape. This world type would work best with procedural building generation.

Notes:
I once tried to explain this type of world plane to a friend using the 1st picture, instead it is best explained as being similar to some of the spherical levels found in the Ratchet and Clank series or Mario Galaxy.

Like the Cylindrical world, maintaining player interest will depend on the position of the camera. The camera position will determine the level of detail seen. Eg. A top down view will limit or negate the use of smaller objects such as crates. A zoomed in perspective would allow for more detail but can rotating and tilting a little disorientating for the player.

This method can work with building generation via scripts or manual placement. Manual placement would be dependant on the scale of the sphere, a larger sphere = more space to place objects.

GUI
Hot Potato has a minimalistic approach to GUI, it's a simple game and I see no need to make it complicated. The most important graphical interface the player will ever need is the ball. It's colour coded so you know just how much heat you're packing. If you need a refresher, it'll be in this previous post.

The menu will be acessed by pressing a keyboard button since trying to press an onscreen button would be a bad design choice for this game. Everything else is explained below: