Alphabet Shoot was created for the game makers toolkit jam 2018, where the theme was genre without mechanic (removing some mechanic that is typically a pillar of a game type). I created a typing game that does not rely on language familiarity (words and sentences) in the form of a top down shooter.

Game wise I wanted a somewhat frantic shmup styled game where you would need to change the pattern of your input depending on enemy/event. Of course in the case of a small game jam that was reduced to one section and weapon type.

My goal for this game was to use the keyboard but not as a input abstraction like in a game where you may use WASD for direction, and also not to write, so no “the quick brown fox….". The difficulty is really in just how fast you respond to seeing letters and touch type.

What worked well

Game Feel

The responsiveness of input and the graphics were the most commented on aspect. I don't think the graphics are anything special, I just wanted to keep them simple and read-able so everything is flat shaded, and there is some slight bloom.

I think what was most enjoyable was the immediate response to input. Pressing a key to one of the missiles in the air results in a laser being drawn that quickly pulses in width, followed by the missile popping into particles, with a slight screen shake. The ramp up from shooting a single missile to keeping up with a whole screen really goes almost overboard.

I was really happy that a fair amount of feedback actually picked up on that missiles get target codes based on where on screen they would be on keyboard (top left is Q, top right is P). It doesn't make the game really any easier knowing it, but it starts to help form a slight mental pattern as you play more.

What didn't work well

Difficulty

Typing speed, and touch typing skill are highly varied between players. This means that some people felt the game never got hard enough (it will cap out on how fast missiles spawn), others felt that it suddenly got crushing in difficulty.

Some players will just go until they get bored. Others become overwhelmed and immediately fail as taking 3 hits is game over, and there is no health replenishment or break when getting hit.

I anticipated this divergence in skill, but didn't have time to implement a way to handle it. I think going forward I would have the game analyze player performance and tune the rate of enemies based on it. Then it would be possible to push players of all skills to tense moments.

Of course this would also need tweaks so that getting overwhelmed isn't immediate failure. Perhaps a bomb item, or effect for getting hit, and the means to claw back control of the screen. This is definitely a place where I feel a lot of small changes could really make the game enjoyable for a much wider range of people.

Lessons Learned

When I set out I thought I was making a shoot-em-up, what I ended up with is almost closer to alphabet flash cards. I didn't even think about the fact that there is a real stage of learning a language where single characters of the alphabet are all that you are studying. I'm very happy that overall people who tried it enjoyed the input concept. If I can polish the tuning, I believe I can make a game that would be responsive to kids or learners just figuring out the alphabet, as well as oppositely to people looking to flex some touch typing.

I see a lot of potential in this concept and will probably explore it more in the future.