Hi, so I'm looking for feedback on this project: https://locksteparcade.itch.io/lockstep-arcade
It's a collection of 3 games (currently), built around a shared lobby and network platform.
The games run in the browser and can be played without any signup (if you go into credentials setup and select 'connect as guest').
One of the games (Serpents) is designed to work on phones, and if you load the arcade on a phone you should get a custom simplified version of the UI that enables you to play just this game.
The games all used the same underlying multiplayer networking model, which is that the simulation runs deterministically on each client, with only a very small amount of data sent over the network (key player inputs), and with a delay between user actions and their effect on shared game state integrated fundamentally into each game by design.
The games are:
- Neon Swarm: A retake on the classic "Lemmings" puzzle-strategy game, reimagined for competitive and cooperative multiplayer! Guide your lemmings from start to exit, managing limited resources and competing against up to 3 other players.
- Pilots: Fast paced battles between spaceships in a top down view with smooth inertial movement, based on target locking and homing missiles.
- Serpents: Combination of the classic 'Snake' game with inertial (asteroids style) movement.
Neon Swarm is the most developed,with a number of tutorial levels that teach some of the basic game mechanics.
I'm a bit divided about where to take this from here. It's kind of just a hobby project at the moment, and a way for me to play around with some game mechanics and a networking model I find interesting, but I need to get people actually playing the games to stay motivated, and I like the idea of doing 'market-lead' development, getting feedback, and making something that people actually find enjoyable and interesting to play.
I think that there is a basic problem for multiplayer gaming in particular, which is that it is much easier to get one person to randomly click on your game and play it than it is to get more than one person to get organised and try something like this together.
Some different paths I could take with this:
- Double down on mobile support, as started with the Serpents game. In this direction it could be good to try and make something targetted at groups of people that are already together and in the same room, and make it as easy as possible for the group of people to get connected and playing something multiplayer in this kind of situation.
- Build up the single player side of these games (e.g. by developing more of a campaign mode for Neon Swarm), as a way to get people interested and playing that, with multiplayer gaming then something that can follow on from that.
- Bring stuff like the high score tables more front and centre, setting things up so that people can see high score changes as soon as the game finished, comparisons with friend's high scores, and so on
Anyway, questions welcome and any feedback appreciated!