Level Types Explanations

Rogue like -

Brief explanation of what the phases could be like for a rogue like playthrough of the game

Each phase lasts for a minute and would comprise around 1 to 3 waves of enemies spawning.

After completing 2 phases players progress to the next planet and that is a new checkpoint which gets unlocked for them (If players die in a phase before unlocking the next planet they can resume at the start of the phase they played at the latest unlocked planet).

This way players would need to play for a minimum of 60 minutes straight to unlock all 30 planets.

Each planet would introduce new obstacles and mechanics to keep things fresh.

Players can choose which planet they want to play from in a rogue like manner in the main menu.

Survival -

Upon tapping on a planet players can choose which manner they want to play that planet (through a menu pop up).

The options could include -

1. Resume (The rogue like playthrough)
2. Survival (Can only be played on most recently unlocked planet)
3. Plunder
4. Timed

Survival lets players play with the all the mechanics and obstacles introduced to them till that planet for as long as they can survive.

As time passes in survival mode, the speed of the obstacles slowly increases and players will eventually be killed.

This mode can be used by players to compete with themselves to get higher scores each time.

Note - Powerups purchased in one mode never carry over to any other mode unless explicitly specified. In each mode players must earn enough materials and purchase them as usual.

Plunder

Similar to survival the player plays until death on a planet of their choosing with whichever obstacles have been active on that planet. For example if it is the 2nd planet and so far the players had only been introduced to the three kinds of moons and terrestrial asteroids then those are the only obstacles they will face on that planet for the entire duration of the match. The same concept applies to survival mode matches as well.

The only difference is that in this mode players have access to all the powerups they have unlocked in the rogue like mode.

This would let players grind, collect powerups and perform a lot better in plunder than they could in survival (which is a mode for them to just test their raw skill and freshly obtained resource management).

While survival mode could have leaderboards for players to compare their highscores, correct word streaks, etc. Plunder is for players to farm for the main in game currency - "Star Dust"

Star Dust allows players to upgrade their ships / unlock new ships (depending on whichever version of the ship mechanic is decided upon).

Timed

A mode where players need to play on a planet for a set amount of time in order to unlock Star Dust. While the initial time required to win the round may be small like 2 minutes. After each playthrough the time required to survive a "Timed" match on that planet would keep increasing (3 minutes, 4 minutes, etc.) but so do the rewards in Star Dust (10 Star Dust, 15 Star Dust, etc.).

Since players are bound to die at some point in modes such as Survival and Plunder I decided that a mode where players have a target to work towards would also be necessary to provide some sense of winning and satisfaction.