I've been looking for a way to make it clearer when someone 'gains a point' or 'kills an opponent' and TowerFall uses a set number of lives and reduces that value every kill rather than increasing an arbitrary number like I've been doing. This seems like a good system because It makes it clear how many kills are required for a win as well as putting a hard cap on the length of the game. TowerFall rewinds the killing blow and animates an extra 'tick' for the winning player to draw attention to the event and give the successful player an audiovisual reward for the kill. I'm going to attempt to implement something similar at some point.
TowerFall has a variants screen immediately after the game type selection screen. I've made something similar in my own game in an attempt to improve the longevity and polish. It also exists as a quick way for me to prototype different arrangements of stats and easily test those with players. I also intend to allow the players to toggle things like specific items, certain levels etc from the 'more' page.
In another attempt to increase the longevity of the game, I've implemented the beginning of an unlocks system where I can reward the player with cosmetic items and stages for achieving specific goals. Such as playing a certain number of games or pulling off a particular manoeuvre. This is a system 'Duck Game' and 'Super Smash Bros series' uses to improve audience retention over an extended period of time. I'd also like to reintroduce a single player adventure mode and ai controlled opponents at some point although that will be a stretch given what I've already set out to do. I've made a few small changes to the game itself with the death explosion becoming much more satisfying as a visual and auditory reward for successfully scoring a kill.
