A Better Archero

The game Archero on mobile devices got me really irked. The first time I saw this game was when Pewdiepie got sponsored by the company that made it. He showed how "Kool" and "Special" the game is. Now please note the games core idea and game-play loop are phenomenal. There is only one part about this game that I despise that get's in the way of the actual game. They have an "energy" system in the game where you have to spend 5 energy to play and you can have a max of 20. After you run out you either pay money to keep playing or wait an hour. First of all I fail to see the use of this system from a game design perspective. The only purpose I see it having is trying to use a bit of a Skinner Box technique to drive someone to keep playing while also making money off of it. There were some other instances in the game that I was told about by a friend who played it even with that ploy implemented. So I thought I'd just make my own version.

I was going to change the story and redo the game-play just a bit to make it more interesting. The system in Archero was that you were an archer wandering through rooms, when you stopped moving you shot at any enemy that was nearest. Each time you went through a room you got a random ability that made it easier. Getting a new, ability randomly at that, only when you went through to another room was the main bit I didn't like. So I decided to make it more like an upgrading game. You would play as a robot that could upgrade it's systems as you wandered around killing other robots to steal the energy they had. Once you had enough energy saved up you could buy a new upgrade slot to insert into your robot. Each one would be unique, powerful and have a requirement before you get it. Some just being an energy cost to start off. Slowly building up a sort of tree of upgrades as you wandered through different areas that have certain enemies of varying abilities. It would almost act as sort of a soft Metroidvania game not explicitly disallowing you to go to certain areas without a given ability. Just softly locking you out because of your current skill level or abilities you have. As I have it now this is what it looks and functions like.

Currently I don't have all that much time to expand on it. I do however have a very large checklist of mechanics and systems I want implemented for the full version. Until I get enough time or passion to finish this it'll just remain as a fun bullet hell sandbox for me.