Asymmetric Combat

Once I had decided upon this fundamental asymmetry, it seemed natural to extend it to the combat system. Sure, both sides would be shooting at each other, but they didn't have to be shooting with the same weapons. Again, I'm rather pleased with the asymmetric system I came up with. The monster's gun, in keeping with its poor AI, simply shot as fast as it could. Because there was only one missile per player, I could show only one missile in flight at any given instant, so the rule was simple: Neither side could fire a shot while a bullet from its gun was still in flight. At close ranges, then, players could machine-gun each other, but at great distances, shots were few and far between.

Since this was imposed upon me by graphic constraints, I decided to run with the idea and build it into the game design. The monster would shoot bullets with small, fixed destructive value; its best tactic was to get close to the player. Accordingly, the human's best tactic should be to engage the monster from great distances.

I therefore established the simple rule that the destructive power of the human's bullet increased with the distance it traveled. I then extended the rule to give the player even richer tactical considerations: The destructive power of his bullet was proportional to the amount of time between pressing the button down and the bullet's impact. The player did not simply push the trigger button to shoot at the monster; he pressed and held it down and the bullet began building up strength, accompanied by the sound of an ominously rising tone. When he released the trigger button, the bullet would fire. This could not go on forever; when the bullet reached its maximum strength, it automatically fired. There was no need to aim in this game; bullets automatically traveled directly toward their target.

The result was completely original gameplay: the player was constantly in flight from the monster; should the monster ever get really close to the player, its machine gun fire would quickly end the game. The player had to keep his distance, but also had to shoot back, so he would start building a bullet, get it up to maximum strength, and then jump out into the open to let loose a devastating shot. If the monster was where he expected, the trick worked. If not, the player was in trouble.