I just want to update you on what's happening with me and my video game designing and such and such.
Currently I am in a bit of a high work period.
I have the programming task which has been in my recent updates, which I'm still behind on. I'm going to try to dedicate 2 days a week to it until it's due. That should catch me up.
Clo
I am mainly focusing on a group project for college - where the project is to make a complete game. My group's game is called "Clo". It's a puzzle platforming game based on the idea of changing the seasons around you to manipulate puzzles within a level.
We ended up with this as our final prototype that we submitted to the industry:
http://www.mediafire.com/?7odlo2ka4ew59al (Also included is our pitch presentation)
Copyright blah blah.
We went in with high hopes as the teachers and students seemed to like it, but, it didn't actually perform so well. The judges did not think that the prototype was fun - but, those are the breaks!
Their main suggestion for improving it was "Add more mechanics" - which we were planning to do anyway, so it wasn't so bad!
Either way, we're still struggling through the prototype. During the holidays, the group programmers did a substantial amount of work, now it's just down to finishing it up, and resubmitting the prototype this week.
Hopefully it does well this time!
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Captain Catnip and Challenges
I have found I am starting to enjoy prototyping and implementation more than typing up long hypotheticals on game design.
It is much more effective to code up a mechanic, and test it - rather than typing up how you hope it will work, and then finding it doesn't.
Plus, it's something you can really show people, and it makes me feel happy because I am programming. I enjoy both programming AND design - I don't like to focus on just one.
Anyway, each week I try to set myself a design and/or programming challenge - a few weeks ago I made the game "Captain Catnip" - it was a 7 hour, 40 minute prototype made by just me - and it was mainly made to see how fast I could code a game in Unity, rather than as a big design show-off.
That said, it does give some insights into design - such as, why boids need a lot of work to be a fun game mechanic - and not just something pretty to watch.
Here's Captain Catnip. Copyright blah blah.
http://www.mediafire.com/?w4v80757boi4h77
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Digital Alchemy
My project for this last week of the holidays (as said, I spent the first week focusing on our prototype), has been to make a Forum Adventure game. I am making it with a friend from my high school, another aspiring game designer.
Forum Adventures require no programming, and are mainly a design exercise. Also heavy on writing.
In fact, the first games I ever made were forum adventures, so this is a nice "back to my roots" exercise.
Forum Adventures are a fun genre as they are limitless - you give players the situation, and players say what they want the characters to do. Players generate their own content, and running these is an amazing way to study players and how they wish to interact with the environments presented to them.
Click here to check our Forum Adventure named "Digital Alchemy".
My forum name is Level5Pidgey, and my friend (Shadowfred) helps out mainly with pictures and behind the scenes as we decide the plot and what happens to the player.
It starts slow, but, the most recent part of the story details the main backstory to the game, and one of the main mechanics which is crafting. Upcoming are stats, and battles.
So far the whole experience has been great - as said, studying players!
The biggest thing I've noticed are that, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
I used to operate under the idea that, if you subtly hint to a player what they should do - they will probably get the idea and take your bait, while not feeling forced into it - but, as I have found, sometimes they just want to pick up heart rate monitors and smack guards around with them.
As said, I'm learning a lot about players - and something I really want to try to work out, is a solid method for both offering players as much control over the game as possible - while still telling a linear story that you set out.
Will be interesting.
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Pokemon Universe Balance
Pokemon Universe is going great on the balance side. We have set up a testing server for members to test on, and they seem to be having fun with the balanced Pokemon metagame.
We seem to be 40% of the way through, so, cool!
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Game Design Pitch - A History of Asskicking
I held another AIE Game Design Comp - and I submitted this game idea.
I hope you like it.
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Challenges
Anyway, so, I will leave you with a list of challenges I wish to carry out in the future:
- Make an RTS in one day.
- Make an Escape-The-Room game in one day.
- Make a Single-Button game in one day. (Bring it on, Tiny Wings)
- Try to make a fighting game in one day.
These challenges are meant to challenge me design-wise, and programming-wise. So, I'm sure I will fail a couple of these, and many challenges I set for myself in the future. But that's okay, because I'll be learning from my mistakes and successes all the way.
If you have any suggestions for challenges, send a message or leave a comment.
