One tricky part of designing Witcheye was that the player is overpowered. Since you can fly anywhere you want, what's to stop you from just flying over all the enemies? The obvious way to address this was to give enemies a ton of dangerous projectiles. After all, that's what shoot 'em ups do, sometimes to hilarious/ecstatic extremes.
But I didn't want to make a shmup; I wanted to make something that felt like a platformer. Having a ton of projectiles flying around felt like a cheat, and like it would clutter up the simple, clean feel I was going for. There's definitely an appeal to the sensory-overload approach, but it wasn't what felt right here. Basically, I wanted about the same projectile density as Super Mario Bros. 3.
Working within that restraint forced me to be more creative about how enemies would threaten you. Many of them DO have projectiles, but they're generally quite simple ones that function almost more as melee attacks. At least until later in the game, there are few challenges with really complex "bullet hell" type patterns.
That also meant carefully designing level layouts to give enemies the advantage, funneling the player through tight areas where enemies without big fusillades of projectiles could still pose a threat. This is part of why the game is contained to horizontally scrolling levels: it's a way to keep the action tight and focused, with lots of forward momentum, and no incentive to just drift off in another direction.
But even with those design principles in place, you'd still have the temptation to just fly over a lot of the game without really interacting with the enemies, and that wouldn't be much fun.
Witcheye tries to address that in two ways. One, most levels contain locked rooms that require you to engage a set of enemies in order to win a key and a way out.
Witcheye tries to address that in two ways. One, most levels contain locked rooms that require you to engage a set of enemies in order to win a key and a way out.
Two, there are four collectible gems in each level, usually held by enemies (or as rewards for exploration). These are totally optional, though they're required to get the best ending, and if you miss one in a level, you'll get an empty slot and a dinky cowbell sound on the end-of-level wrap-up screen, instead of a satisfying slot-machine-y clatter.
Watching people play, I've found that almost everyone instinctively goes for the gems--or just for the simple fun of fighting the enemies, which makes its own satisfying set of sparks and sounds. If you don't, that's fine too! I'll always try to design in a way that allows a range of approaches. As always, the goal is to nudge the player gently in a general direction... without making them feel like they're being nudged.
Thanks for reading!
Watching people play, I've found that almost everyone instinctively goes for the gems--or just for the simple fun of fighting the enemies, which makes its own satisfying set of sparks and sounds. If you don't, that's fine too! I'll always try to design in a way that allows a range of approaches. As always, the goal is to nudge the player gently in a general direction... without making them feel like they're being nudged.
Thanks for reading!