Platform game - allow starting from mid-game?

[MirekCz]

Hi,

I'm working on a platform game on mobile devices. It's almost finished but I have got some doubts regarding one option.

The game is divided into several levels. Each level takes about 5-20mins to complete (depends if you just run thru it or try to get everything possible).

We allow players to start from any level they already beat. It's allowed so you don't have to go over and over the first levels all the time when you die in 5th or 6th level.
But there's a major drawback. On easy mode it's very easy to go thru the whole game by just passing one level, starting over with all lives from there, going next level etc. If you're a good player you will finish whole game in about 1h this way and I'm afraid it might discourage some players from playing again / trying to beat highscores etc.

What's your view on it?
Should one allow starting from every level in platform game?

All answers and ideas are highly welcomed.

[whisperstorm]

seems like for a mobile game the goal is to let the player have fun. Having them play through the whole game on easy mode seems ok - I mean they chose easy because they just wanted to play something to pass the time, and feel like they've accomplished something.

Perhaps on other modes of the game you can unlock more levels?

Beat the game on easy mode unlocks some levels on normal mode, etc.

[Pallav Nawani]

To encourage players to play the game in one stretch, you can do things like:

(a) Reset the highscore to zero when the game is restarted,

(b) Keep tab on how many levels players had played in succession (without a restart) and give a big, increasing bonus on level end depending on how many levels the player has played in succession. The bonus could be an extra life, lots of points, or something else, like a trophy.

And of course, ensure that you remind the player that he/she gets extra credit for playing the game continuously.

(c) If you have a global high score table, you can keep tab on how many times the game was restarted before completion, and show it in the table etc.

Allow the players to play the way they want to, but reward them for playing them the game at a single stretch.

[Anthony Flack]

I've had to deal with this exact same problem, in developing my platform game.

Well, not exactly the same; I'm handling things a little differently. But it started out much more traditional; I ended up radically reworking it to deal with these problems.

First of all, my levels are only 2-3 minutes long, each. And there will be 80-100 of them in the end, so I figure that's about 3 or 4 hours of "straight through" gameplay, which should be enough.

I am allowing the player to play any previously unlocked level at any time. I've also scrapped lives entirely. You have one life, and you either finish the level or you don't. But you can retry as often as you like. So the most you will be set back is 2-3 minutes, if you fail. And while some of the levels will be quite hard, it isn't necessary to complete all of them. So if you do fail a level, you will usually have the option of playing a different one if you don't fancy diving back in and doing it again.

I maintain an overall score for the player, which is made up of all the "best run" scores they've achieved for every level. So you can always try to improve your overall score by replaying any level you like. It encourages replaying levels for score rather than progress, and it's quite fun to play the game this way - each level as its own little mini-game that you can fire up whenever you like.

Finally, there are secrets and unlockables tucked away everywhere to encourage people to go back.

I reckon it should keep most potential customers amused for the requisite 20 hours or so, without too much unwanted repetition. We'll see.

[Ste Pickford]

I maintain an overall score for the player, which is made up of all the "best run" scores they've achieved for every level. So you can always try to improve your overall score by replaying any level you like.

That's a nice idea, I don't think I've come across it before. Every time you play you are potentially improving your overall score, and there's no pressure to try and gain a big overall score in one sitting or with one life, coin-op style. Cool.