Download game (1.58MB) ------------------------------ About: In this game you control the human character (Way) directly, and the raccoon character (Brandy) indirectly by using the four [Arrow keys]. There are three enemies: 1) Wolf 2) Yellow Bee 3) Red Bee If you go to the left past the second road sign, all three will spawn. The human has three attacks: 1) Punch 2) Stomping/kicking 3) Shooting a ki-ball The raccoon character has eight actions. 1) Healing (2 kinds) 2) Wild attack mode 3) Teleporting 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) The raccoon character can do actions 1 to 3 by default, if the conditions are met. Actions 4 to 8 are learned as it watches how the human character fights. When the human character dies, the raccoon will eventually forget the skills if the human doesn't keep up the fighting pattern. ----------------------------- My questions: 1) Since I coded the actions, I know how to issue each action. I want to know whether a player can identify the raccoon's actions 4 to 8 just by fighting. The only four keys used are the [Arrow keys]. 2) The second question is: do you think that the raccoon character is annoying? Would you rather fight without the raccoon? When I first added the raccoon, I allowed it to attack automatically. I thought that since the enemies may spawn from both sides, I would code the raccoon to attack the enemies behind the human character. But the resulting combat was annoying because if the raccoon is dependable in killing the enemies, then the raccoon essentially sucks out half of the combat. If the raccoon only kills the enemy sometimes, then these surprises annoy the player. If the raccoon fights the enemy in front of the human, the two characters would be competing for enemies to hit. So the problem I face was: How do I code the actions so that both characters are fighting, without making the situation like a competition. In this implementation, my solution is that the raccoon attacks at places and moments that the human cannot attack, and the raccoon does not attack automatically, but not to the point that the player has to manually control the raccoon's actions. 3) I don't plan to have health potions in the game. The raccoon can heal, but not in the common fashion. It is able to heal only if it is involved in the action. When the raccoon attacks, it gains points in its pink bar. When the pink bar is half full, it can heal. Similarly, I don't plan to have mana potions. The human character recharges his blue bar by attacking. In both cases, the rate of recharge is proportional to the intensity of the actions. The effect is that the player needs to know how to use the raccoon to attack in order to heal the human character during combat. What do you think about this model? 4) When you fight, what relation do you perceive between the human and the raccoon? thanks for inputs in advance. [Edited by - Wai on January 10, 2007 7:24:44 PM]