So doing some net mechanics, at first it was a challenge to convey any sort of depth, because well... the net wasn't actually in 3D space but in a seperate viewport, I wanted the avoid the net going into trees but decided to do it the more raw way.
So now it's in 3D space and it's more clear as to why you're missing the target. If you're too close, the net goes past, if you're too far it might not reach. Depth is hard! Maybe I'll force every player to wear 3D glasses...
It's at this point I devised a sort of transparent disc thingy that lights up when it detects the target. I borrowed the idea from Metal Gear Rising.
There definitely needs to be more of a gradient and showing the net path as opposed to the net pole's path. If I was a shader god I'd also make some edge highlights where the disc meets the mesh.
If I'm going to draw inspiration from MGR I might as well go RULES OF NATURE on this.
Did not plan on doing this, but maybe instead of merely walking and swinging you just stand in place while aiming and it goes into slowmo allowing you to angle your net and get an accurate swing. I'm not sure what the significance of being able to vary all your angles would be, but maybe I could account for whether or not the bug is actually going into the net instead of the back or sides, so the angle matters a lot more. There's also the question of control scheme, I forget what MGR's mouse/keyboard controls was for the slicing so I better go check.
It's worth mentioning that with a week of jamming left that I'm basically focusing on just one area and just one minigame (bug catching) so I figured I might as well go all in on this swinging mechanic.