Candice the Anglerfish Postmortem

Candice the Anglerfish Postmortem

What went right

Since I have basically only just started learning C# programming and how to use Unity, what went right would have to include writing some scripts that actually work the way I wanted them to work. I still have a long way to go on that, but for now, at least I can write some code on my own.

Feedback on the beta version and my response:

“really similar to space invaders but good, in my opinions no difference between lvl1 and 2 at all”

“i enjoyed the game is simple but looks really good, for me it seems too similar from level to level. B”

This is fair, it is based on the idea of space shooters, but obviously not set in space. The differences between the levels is something I worked on later, really, after testing some more. I changed things up by using different backgrounds, changing the colors of the backgrounds, changing the music from one level to the next, and introducing new enemies periodically. I also made more types of paths that the enemies could take; in the beginning, I think I only had four paths. In the end there were at least 20 that I used, plus some enemies that took straight paths across the screen (giant squids). I also changed the size of some of the enemies.

“The controller is somehow slow and the motion does not synchronize with the animations. Other game mechanics could make the game a bit more fun, for example combo counter or something like that. Also, not very sure which fishes are enemies and which are need to be catch. Finally, Did you try to move the fish with the mouse instead? That could be an improvement to your current controller.”

I didn’t have this problem with the controls. This was the beta version and I had not synchronized the animations yet. What I changed was making the player have a bubble-blowing animations (pursing her lips rather than the open mouth animation) and using an animation event so that the vampire squid fired when it closes its tentacles.

The combo thing is a good idea which I have not implemented, but it’s something I could think about doing.

I have not tried to use the mouse, I was thinking more along the lines of making it tablet and phone-friendly, which would be more analogous to using a controller, I think.

As for not knowing which are food fish and not harmful to the player, I had already mentioned this on an information screen you can get to via the main menu. I understand that not everyone goes to those, but it’s also mentioned in the pre-level loading screen that you need to consume hatchetfish, and hatchetfish are present on this screen, so I thought it would be intuitive. I could still mark them somehow on that loading screen so people know for sure, I suppose.

“I really like this game, but just in my opinion the first level is too hard”

I also got feedback from friends on Facebook telling me it was too easy! I suppose this is an individual thing and would require a lot more testing. This was actually my major concern, the overall tuning of the levels’ difficulty from easier levels to harder levels.

Some changes I made to these things included changing the starting health from 600 down to 200. Usually, 200 is plenty, but when there are a lot of vampire squids on the screen shooting at you, it is very easy to lose 200 points or more right away.

In earlier levels, there was usually only one wave of enemies on screen at a time. In levels 10+ I changed this to sometimes have other things, like giant squids, appearing as well.

What went wrong

Time! It’s never on your side if you’re programming stuff. If I could do it over again, I would’ve given myself a bit more time for programming and working on graphics, maybe a few more enemies and more ocean junk (I had planned on a lot more pollution, such as tuna cans), and more time for testing and gathering feedback to make it a better overall experience.

I also would’ve taken the time to do some kind of logo for the start screen and promo materials, maybe worked on the main menu and other menu screens a little bit more. Of course more could also be done with the sound, but I thought the public domain/Creative Commons music and sounds were good enough for this small project.