Improve old gameplay concept, win a game

well, let's take it from the base

• the character is in the middle of the screen, and has 4 possible moves.

first add, a typical one, would be some kind of power up, an "special egg", let's say. more eggs, faster movement, slow time, etc

another way to modified it, why not adding "dual wielding"? using both hands instead of just 1, so the player could grab 2 eggs at the same time.
if you are thinking into a modern gameplay, for example, you could make the player use the 2 analog sticks of a joypad (or a combination of mouse+keyboard) each character hand (or basket, or what ever) would be controlled by each stck.

another add, would be multiplayer, both characters in the same screen, using power ups, and some "bump" button, to make the other player lose control, and drop their eggs.
you can make it a vs mode, or even co-op mode, where both players should sync their movements to avoid crash with each other.

one last idea, you can leave the "core" gameplay as is... grabbing the eggs, just in 4 directions, but you can mess with the enviorement, making your character dodge things, while he is trying to grab the eggs.
the player would focus in 2 tasks then, grabbing the eggs, and dodge the obstacles

that is with gameplay...

now, with the astethic part, you can 3D graphics, or 2D sprites, both could work well with this gameplay, if you implement a 3D ambiorment, you could add 8 directions instead of 4 (4 on the "back", and 4 on the "front")

This game is based on the gorgeous cartoon, if anyone interested - link.

A long time ago I had this console.

I had one of those consoles too, and it's not true that it got really hard. Above a certain level it didn't get any faster/harder and you could quite easily overfill the score counter (which afair counted only to 999).

Was fun while it lasted though :-). (and the batteries were hard to buy, instead of AA it used 2x of those 'coin' type batteries)

Ohh Myy Gosh! Nu Pagadi! ahahaha Is this the right time to feel old, or should I wait a couple of years? :D
There is NOTHING you can improve about this game, it's just perfect. :) A nicely wrapped box of Russia. :D :P

I'm too lazy to search for it, but there were another gametypes for this "console" :D :D. I had another one too (at some point), the octopus, the diver guy and the treasure. You had to collect the treasure while avoiding the hits of the octopus. It was much more fun then this. Take a look at it, too.

You can add a little twist with competitive co-op mode, where the second player plays as The Hare and controls the eggs. Of course, simply clicking the hens will be boring, but you can add QTE or even the rhythm game mechanics.

BTW, as of the original game mechanics: as far as I remember, when the Hare appears on screen you lose the full point for every missed egg (the egg is just thrown down), when he appears - you lose only half the point (the chicken hatches as the egg falls, so I guess it's just not the big deal by the game logic).

I already won a Bioshock Inifnite giveaway of yours! xD

It's 1:30 AM, so I'm not gonna check it out right now. I'm gonna go to bed.

Yeah, I think I have one of these lying around somewhere. The gameplay itself is very similar to old arcade racing games, e.g. Out Run. There’s even a version of this game with a racing theme. So, you could look at some modern arcade racers to see how the genre has progressed over the years. That’s what I would use as a source of inspiration.

By the way, did you know that this game is a clone of Nintendo EG-26 Egg?

add different levels

Hmmm.
The game looks simple. Very simple. I think you could think about making combos. And to make the game a little harder, I could imagine this as a multi-tasking game. While the player is catching eggs, there's always a random word above the wolf's head. The player has to type it, while catching eggs. And the names of the combo moves can be generated using the words typed in.

Hope I didn't make so many grammar mistakes.

Good luck with the game!

Maybe Level Ups or a Skill System with some kind of Currency where you can improve your stats. You could even earn money with it ;)

• Different difficulty modes maybe? Like easy with just 2 chickens, normal with 4 as seen in the game, hard with 6 and very hard with 8 for a bigger challenge

• Different types of birds (ones eggs might be slower, while others are coming down faster)

• Power-ups for combos (not sure what type of power-ups, might be speed up time, or even slow it down)

• Getting the bucket full on harder difficulties or even adding a "Hardcore" mode to all difficulty levels so you must empty your bucket somewhere while you're collecting the eggs (or even eat some of them which could lead to power-up or maybe inverse power-up and slow you down, etc.?)

• It definitely needs sounds, and an awesome soundtrack :D

• Customizable character, maybe even adding some kind of credit system to buy them and buy better bucket etc.

• Epic boss fights with huge chickens, or the chickens owners, the big bad farmer!

• Can't think of anything else for now, many others wrote the same ideas I had and I hope I didn't write down anyone else's ideas that I didn't noticed...:P

Needs more explosions, unicorns, rainbows and Chuck Norris. :D

1. Improve visuals, make different backgrounds and settings (like one is chicken in Russia, another - pinguins in the South Pole, third one - turkeys in Amerika etc.)

2. Make analog basket movement

3. Add more trays

4. Change tray shape to some fancy curved one

5. Make it possible for eggs to be launched flying in some random manner (like slingshot apparatus on the end of some trays) and make it possible to catch them on a fly

6. Workout some collision physics in case two eggs launched from different trays collide in the air

That's it for now. Good luck with the game :)

UPD after reading some other replys: Add some stats like Basket size, Basket speed, Health (amount of eggs missed before loosing), plus maybe some cosmetics unlocked after scoring specified amount of eggs (100, 250, 1000 etc.)

There also might be random level generation from the set of trays of different shape.

Experience per egg. Gaining levels (need more level or you have to stay in the position more time to get the egg). Hats for the wolf. DLC of silver and golden eggs that grant more exp.

Free movement, i.e. pressing one of the four buttons is not enough, you must move the wolf and control the basket position independently. When you're close enough to the rut (or whatever it is the eggs are rolling down), there's some kind of magnet snap so that you don't lose eggs when you're not pixel-perfect accurate. Of course all this calls for 3D and some kind of perspecitve view.

The eggs can't fall randomly, because then it would be impossible not to lose some (the original game is timed so it is possible to catch all eggs if you're fast enough), so maybe some kind of rhythm mechanic.

More levels or moving ruts. Different layouts to keep things interesting. Timing has to be adjusted to account for character travel time between positions.

I think it would benefit from eggs that rolled smoothly (rather than in jerks) so you could set a random speed for each egg. This would mean the player has to really be aware of their surroundings

4 chickens + 4 keys + Music = Rythmn Game

Heh, I used to love this game way back in 90s. Although I am sad PC graphics are worse (it was based on popular cartoon series, and the characters in hand held series actually looked like cartoon ones, a bit less so in that flash). What I'd change? Hmm. Maybe 6 chutes, 3 per side? Better hit detection (it's easy to lose egg even when it looks it should connect), fluider animation (more "fames" of egg rolling to give you better idea of it's speed), also, a bit of variance in eggs (say, move valuable egg/coin slightly faster than normal). What else? Maybe some pseudo-electronic music to help you catch the rhythm? I seem to recall original had some. Hmm. Maybe the bunny could act as a difficulty setting like he did in cartoons? With harder mode, bunny could try to distract you, speed up eggs, or slowed them to disrupt the flow (thought not to the point of not being doable). I need to think a bit more on this!

Segesting you art styles: patapon

or this one for a retro feel
also make sure the player feel he can make it, in that flash version i was trying to cash 2 eggs at the same time and it was impossible

Animations would be nice. Also, egg falling speed should be faster on one side.Some kind of achievements, maybe a giant chicken king would appear and some fireworks would blow in background. :D
My suggestion is that you build a basic game first, then give it away to some close people for some feedback and improve the game as time passes.

hmm looking this generations taste I would say give the chickens guns and you have to dodge the bullets, also don't forget the hats and trading cards.

Name: ChickenField Vietnam

but if you don't like this idea you can just make some powerups, also money so you can buy max health, more chanche of getting powerups+ longer powerups

Ann eggxample for name: the name of the game this is based of

-Background
-More playable character
-Menu
-Switchable old school <--> modern theme.
-Soundtrack
-(maybe power ups,leveling system)

• at least 1 block wider ground to step left and right
• three chickens on each side (1-1 on each side at level 1)
• positive and negative powerups (speed, soft basket to catch from lower positon, mirror mode, night mode with 1 sec lightnings)
• split screen challenge for 2 players
• game modes (fast, timed, endless, zombie - catch a brain)
• unlockable costumes

Wolf's Breakfast for name

Make it have more guns. Rename the main character to Ramirez.

Done.

Rework essentially from the ground up. The core gameplay aspect of catching eggs and the core creative theme of a wolf with a basket catching eggs as they fall from a hen is fine, otherwise the gameplay is too retrograded to be saved by a small upgrade. Instead, imagine either a mobile game or a very simplistic flash game in which the player moves the wolf in a locked area platformer, with the first level involving the same four chickens at the tops of the screen. Jumping provides increased swiftness in reaching the falling eggs and allows the play to move quicker to the next one (as the wolf has to wait less time to catch them). Further levels would increase difficulty by adding more chickens and perhaps different obstacles the wolf has to avoid. As time goes further, certain eggs will grant necessary power ups to give the wolf better speed/obstacle clearing/short-timed invincibility.