Play the "Don't Drown" Game

I haven't made any changes to Ahab's Revenge in a while, but I had a breakthrough idea that was so easy to implement and obvious that I've been kicking myself for not thinking of it sooner.

The awkward, incongruous "3 strikes, you're out" system is gone. Ahab doesn't have "lives" anymore. What you have instead is a slowly decreasing oxygen supply. This makes sense thematically, since Ahab is underwater. When you're in the coral, your oxygen supply decreases much more rapidly, because it's...er... smothering you, or something. Okay, it doesn't make 100% sense, but this is fantasy, and I think this approach is a lot more intuitive than having the coral steal a life.

The scoring now makes more sense. You can't just camp out on the first level and destroy coral for eternity to get the high score, since you're now on a timer, and your score after killing Moby is now bigger depending on how much oxygen you had left when you finished.

And finally, a new power-up has been added. It, rather predictably, gives you a small oxygen boost.

Try it out:

AHAB'S REVENGE: OXYGEN EDITION

As usual, tell me what you think. Really, do not hesitate to leave a comment if you feel that there are balance issues; it's always incredibly helpful. Another question: do you think it would be too frustrating to lose a bit of oxygen when a whale hits Ahab?

nathan

AHAB'S REVENGE NEEDS A TIME LIMIT.

...

Why didn't I think of this before?

nathan