Postmortem

Triumphs:

In my game, I think that I did well on my player feedback and really trying to get players to understand what is happening in the game. The one where it signifies levels is usually harder to understand, as instead of levels, player believe that it signifies incoming enemies. This is true as it does do this because in every level I either change or add enemies. Level 1 includes a slow bigger wasp that where they spawn slowly in order for you to get use to movement and how you play as the bee. Level 2 includes a smaller but slower wasp that was harder to get to which challenges you to use the dash. Level 3 includes both enemies from level 1 and 2, and Level 4 brings in a new enemy where it fly at you from the top. In Level 5, I included a boss where it starts at the edge of the playing field and slowly circles around you to get to the center (your hive). As it slowly gets closer it give the player time to collect honey to obtain a power up. As enemies and as the player gets destroyed I added a particle system that explode on hit, and when an enemy get to the beehive (which is the health for the player) it becomes a darker color, the camera shakes and there is a hit sound.  Once you obtain a power up there is a slowing effect on the enemies and there is also a vignette affect where you have time to aim and shoot.  

Stuggles:

The thing that I struggled the most on was the movement of the player. At first I had it moving in 4 cardinal directions using the left joystick and rotating using the right joystick. I had to playtest a lot in order for the player movement to feel right as using add force made it too difficult to move around. Since I wanted rotation to also effect the direction you move in, I took out moving left and right for only moving forwards and backwards using the left joystick, keeping rotation using the right joystick in the game. This still keeps a challenge in how the player moves in the game. I also had trouble with spawning honey as sometimes it would spawn two in one location, and when the player would pick it up, it 2 points would be added onto the power instead of just the 1 that I wanted. I also had struggles with the the levels. The levels in my game are based on time because I thought that would fit better for my game since invader bees will not wait for you. I also wanted it based on time because I wanted to make the attackers increase as gradually as possible. Since it was based on time, I had trouble timing how long a player needs in order to continue. If the timer took too long the levels felt like they were dragging, and if they were too short the player feels too overwhelmed with so many bees attacking at once. 

Next Steps:

For my next steps, I want to create more powerups for my player. I have one powerup in the game and since it requires 6 honey balls it more difficult to obtain. I originally had an idea where each honey ball was a powerup and the 6th one was the most powerful, but I just didn't have enough time to implement and test the idea out. I also want too add different states to the boss. As of now the boss is just slowly getting closer to the beehive but I want it to be more dynamic, like spawning enemies and moving onto different sides of the screen. I think it could also add much more incentive to use the spin attack because right now it feels pretty useless unless you choose to get as many enemies as close to you as possible and then use the attack, I think I should either take it out or find a reason for players to use it.