Claw/Pick-Up Minigame

On Thursday, Sam and I were prototyping out the claw/pick-up minigame. I finished up a bit of the minigame today, so I uploaded it to the Box.net account.

http://www.box.net/shared/dnnahu3jjegnkripsos0

Just download the file and run it on your computer. It should work without fiddling.

I know that there's something missing/boring about the game-play, so feel free to make suggestions or critiques.
Maybe there should be a timer countdown?

Oh, it's not using any kind of artwork either. I just put those graphics in to test the concept out.

Nice initiative, getting that game done and what have you. If we knock out a game every other week, this will be a breeze.

Feedback:

1) After you grab a sphere, it turns black and still gets in the way for some reason.
2) Make the game more difficult. How?
a) Add some type of uncertainty? Make the claw deviate from the selected path just a bit.
b) Hold down mouse to build power? That way you won't know how far it goes.
c) More rapidly moving targets? Maybe not have them bounce of the side of the screen, but actually pass through it
3) The claw should physically drag the object back to the origin.
4) The claw could move more naturally? As in, accelerate and decelerate, instead of a constant speed.
5) Crosshairs for the mouse.
6) Horizontal guideline for the mouse.

Below is what I've had in mind. Feel free to discuss/criticize these ideas.

Is the laser guide supposed to go through the meteors?

Uh, no. It's supposed to stop on a meteor I suppose.

Judson wrote:Uh, no. It's supposed to stop on a meteor I suppose.

Ok and when it comes to mechanics, Im not sure if its been fixed but the meteors spin too fast win you hit them.

I like the idea for the power bar as well

Believe it or not, I recall the power bar idea being Chris's...

I meant the color scheme not the actual implementation of a power bar

I think that to make it more difficult there should be bad things you can pick up also. Such as meteors or other worthless things that will take a long time to reel in and make you lose a lot of time. I also think a timer should be added. Oh and another possible way to make this difficult would be to use a power bar but if you give it too much power for close things it will push them away? If y'all could do that.

Those are good ideas. So how 'bout it Andrew? Can you do that?

• I love the idea of the power bar; it should be relatively simple to implement.
  
• As for the claw, maybe it could be stationary on the side, but rotate towards the direction of the cursor? And when you click, the claw shoots out towards the cursor?
  
• I'll have to check out the constantly moving asteroids; that might be a bit more complicated. Maybe when a asteroids goes off the screen, it gets reset to the top but speeding downwards?
  
• I also like the idea of objects that slow down your claw speed; that would give a bit more incentive to avoid non-money objects.
  
• I'm still trying to process exactly how to have the asteroid retract with the claw. I think I just need to test it out and see what happens.

I'll start working on these suggestions and will report back with my findings either on Thursday or earlier, depending on how long it takes to program.

Sounds good. I have an idea for positive and negative items. Something to avoid would be a radioactive asteroid, like in the game SuperStardust. Anyway, I'm still learning through tutorials on Maya, so it will be a while before I can get a finished product to you.

P.S. I like you bullets.