Characters
In Kodu Game Lab, the different bots do not all have the same abilities. Some can fly, some can swim and some can jump. The speed in which the characters can move is also different, our friend Kodu is much slower than the Biker Bot.
In some games changing character mid game may be required, when the player boards a boat to cross water.
Interesting games tend to have the characters develop during the game. They might gain additional skills or abilities in order to complete more complex game play. Increasing the skills over time will not only add to the sense of progression within the game but also makes it easier more the player to learn how to play the game. Sometimes these skills will be automatically added to character and sometimes the player might purchase extra skills or tools, predicting what will be needed for the upcoming tasks.
What happens when the characters die?
How many lives does a character get, does the character return to the start of the game or re-spawn at a previous checkpoint? Having a limited number of lives and forcing the player who has “lost” to re-start the game and then re-do easy parts of the game can make a game feel tedious. If completing the game, rather than say getting a high score, is the main objective then letting the player re-spawn an infinite number of times may be desirable to maximise fun.