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I have created a platformer which currently has the features listed below. I would greatly appreciate any further ideas which I could implement! (I don't play a lot of games which is why I require help)

  • Walking/jumping/movement
  • player can shoot lasers
  • enemies also walk, fly, and shoot lasers
  • water (you can swim in this)
  • mud (slows you down on contact, and stops you from jumping)
  • ladders
  • damage when falling from a large height, unless falling into water
  • moving platforms
  • springboards (jumping on them shoot you into the air)
  • growing platforms (allow you to reach new places)
  • key and door system
  • gem and coin collection system
  • teleporting
  • turrets
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Launch it and get feedback. People will suggest features. If you get a LOT of players, you'll see trends quite quickly. – ashes999 Feb 24 '12 at 0:56

4 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Interesting and strategic AI behavior.

At all costs avoid the syndrome of enemies that run in a line toward the player weapon fire. Games where the player walking backward and firing is the winning strategy undermine any other cool things you might have put in.

Enemies should show some sense of self-preservation by means of: taking cover, keeping distance, holding back until sufficient numbers of team mates are available for an assault, coordinated use of different weapons systems, character support roles to heal the injured.

Some degree of AI unpredictability is also helpful to keep things interesting.

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up vote 7 down vote

Wow, that's already a huge list of features!

Personally I'd probably invest the time to build some interesting levels instead of adding more features to the game. When designing the levels you could highlight the features of your game by making some of them a key-part of the level.. so you might have a level that introduces water or moving platforms etc.

So instead of using all your features from level 1, you can introduce new features with upcoming levels which keeps the player motivated to discover new stuff as he moves on.

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Agreed. If you don't play a lot of games, maybe start playing a few successful ones and see how most of them use simple mechanics with clever level design. In my opinion you have enough basic features, and you should start focusing on the environment and enemy behaviour, shooting patterns, etc. and tune it to make the whole thing fun. – Sam Hocevar Mar 7 '11 at 17:50
up vote 2 down vote

Power-ups like:
- invisibility
- run faster
- teletransporting
- invulnerability

Weapons:
- grenades
- turrets
- pistols

Atmospheric effects:
- Rain ( the laser doesn't work )
- Wind ( you walk slowly )

Vehicles:
- cars
- tanks

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I like the wind idea. And the invulernability has given me the idea to add health powerups (which is similar). I also forgot that i already made turrets and teleporting already :P edited original post thanks. – user5925 Mar 7 '11 at 17:37
And remotely detonated bombs? Maybe with breakable walls. :P – momboco Mar 7 '11 at 17:59
up vote 0 down vote

Is this a commercial game?

I would say a really cool game idea would be a platformer where you battle other players, as magicians or something, and can add to the map and destroy objects on the map to hinder your opponent.

Other than that, just make an rpg, they are the good ol' fallback with lot's of features =)

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Gameplay ideas for a platformer: make an RPG. Brilliant. – Amplify91 Aug 5 '11 at 7:26
Can't tell if trolling, or just dumb... – ultifinitus Aug 6 '11 at 3:51

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