Critical Analysis of Tectonic Shifting Device

Earlier this week I was given the chance to play a 2D sidescrolling game developed in unity by one of my fellow game dev students Rachel Fung. The Game was definately unfinished but a few refinements could really work to the advantage of the developer and It was actually really well made despite a few short comings.Technology(mechanics)the collisions, vector movement, and AI behavior were all definitely there. for a first attempt at creating something with unity I was quite impressed with the easy controls and simple use of vectors and force to propel the games dynamics. you could move left or right and you could jump onto platforms. super simple but effective :). another really cool dynamic was the ability to jump higher from the springs scattered strategically around the map, allowing you to reach furth platforms, or avoid enemies easier. Speaking of which the AI behavior was very limited. although as part of the overall design it seemed to work. One thing I couldn't help but notice was that none of the models had a mesh animation which could have helped with the immersion. The collision detection with the enemies needed to be improved upon as well, as it created a design flaw (which I will go into further detail about in a moment) but it could have easily been avoided by perhaps making the character bounce back when they hit an enemy or by giving the player invincibility for a few seconds to avoid some serious health drain frustration.Design(trigger and enemy placement)The game did have an addicting element to it. essentially you had jump over all the obstacles that spun around in space. The spinning  made it tricky to time jumping over them, which made it unpredictable, and in a way that was fun, I really liked the inclusion of the jump springs, they were located in well thought out locations that never seemed to brake the game and there were always pros and cons as they gave you a little extra time to think about where you had to land while in the air but you couldn't always predict where you were landing, this created some excellent player choices. There were also health potions scattered around the level, but some of them were placed in obscure locations so you wouldn't go out of your way necessarily to get them.I will also just point out that the inclusion of the "start here ->" and "END" graphics were nice feedback.ChallengeThis game was all about jumping. All of the platforms , enemies and even the jump springs were placed in locations that made sense, and required a good amount of thought from the player. there were even parts of the game where you didn't have time to think, you just had to jump and hope for the best, (not falling in a hole or on an enemy) and that wasn't necessarily bad. It added to the challenge and made the experience exciting.But there was one fatal flaw. colliding with the enemy objects for too long drained your health (and too long was pretty much instantly). This renders the Health potions scattered around the level almost useless, although I couldn't help but feel obligated to collect them for something of a personal achievement, since some of them were located in obscure locations that could potentially put you in more danger. This would make the game more like a one-hit-your-dead type dynamic akin to the earlier Nintendo side scroller games.(Ninja Gaiden)what I recommend for the futureBased on this flaw and my interpretation I would have made this game a point based collect-a-thon. where you see how far you can get through the level without getting touched. Perhaps instead of giving you health, the collectibles act as a multiplier for your over all score. But this is just based on the design flaw,that being said if the original designer wanted to stay true to the initial idea, and make it so your health didn't drain so quickly on impact (which I assume was the original intent) it would make attempting to reach the more risky locations for the health potions more worthwhile, and that would have also been pretty cool, but could potentially make the game less challenging. I also would have liked to see more ways to interact with the level like the springs except maybe something that boosts your  speed or makes you invincible. Some more interesting AI movements would also be nice without straying away from the "jump and pray you don't die" theme that actually made this game fun.the game also seemed to be lacking in user feedback , while I did mention that the "start" and "End" graphics were nice indications, maybe something more to point you in the right direction or to provide more info about your score / health other than just the debug log :P.