It’s hard to write about the progress of the prototype without giving away specifics, which, at this point, is not something I’m willing to do. However, I will give it my best shot and hope that I don’t confuse everyone.

I spent yesterday and this morning adding things to the prototype to make it more “game-like”. The stage I was at when I started yesterday was one where the core mechanic was implemented, but there was no game. I sat down and gave some thought to what needed to be done…

1) The player needs to be able to lose

This one was easy to implement, and so I tackled that first. I implemented my loss condition. At this point the game says “Game Over” and you are given the option to restart. Alright, it’s already looking more like a game.

2) The player needs a challenge

At that stage I was at yesterday, the player was free to do whatever he or she wanted and there was no real penalty for mistakes. There needed to be something in there that challenged the player, that forced him/her to make choices and face the consequences. This one was a little more tricky, and this is what I’ll probably be refining for the next few days (or the rest of the project). This is where the real meat of the game will come from. This is what will make the game fun.

3) The player needs to be able to plan ahead

Once I had a first pass at step 2, I realised that it was frustrating that I never knew what my next goal after the current goal would be. I was only able to plan for the current goal and never set myself up in a place to be in a good position for the next goal. So this morning I implemented a system that lets the player see what’s coming up next. This allows the player to make strategic plays that aren’t necessarily related to the current goal, but that allow for a deeper gameplay. This adds a level of complexity to the game for players who want to play at that deeper level.

At this point, I now have a game. I can play games and lose and see what’s fun. The game is definitely starting to get fun. What is causing the most trouble right now is good old step 2 up there. I’m trying to find a balance between making the game too easy and too hard. It needs to be easy enough for new players to get into the game, but difficult enough for experienced players to feel challenged. Ay, there’s the rub.

I think one of the big problems I’m having with the game is the input system. I started with keyboard control, because it was the easiest to implement and get running, but now I’m thinking that I really need to try the mouse for control and see if it feels better.

I also think I need to put in some basic animations. When game events happen they happen immediately, which is confusing. There’s no reward or pay-off for the user. Not only that, but you’re not quite sure if you’ve done something good or bad. I think I need to put some simple blinking animations in when things happen to provide more feedback when something important happens.

This is fun!

Owen

This entry was posted on Friday, August 22nd, 2008 at 11:42 am and is filed under Design, Technical. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.