Prototype v2.0
September 4th, 2008
I mentioned yesterday that I was having problems with the prototype; namely that it wasn’t really fun. For my first attempt at the prototype I was trying something new. I had thought that a new form of gameplay might be fun, but I tried it, and it wasn’t. Throughout the process of prototyping I was constantly taking notes of ideas as they popped into my head. I keep a notebook by my computer at all times, and one by my bed for those ‘just before you fall asleep’ moments of creative genius.
So earlier this week I started playing around with one of the ideas I had jotted down a couple of weeks ago. The gameplay mechanic isn’t quite as innovative as my original prototype, but it seemed like it should be fun. This mechanic is more loosely based on a match-3 style of play. That mechanic has been proved out time and time again, so I was convinced I could make the game fun this way. I was hesitant to adopt this mode of play as there are so many games out there that utilize a match-3 gameplay mechanic, but I figured that I was doing enough new with it, that it might be fun but also still innovative.
Yesterday after I wrote my post I sat down to get into the meat of the implementation for prototype v2.0. I had one of my most productive coding days to date and by the end of the day I had a new playable prototype. I even spent some time mucking about in Garage Band, recorded some sounds, and created a simple looping music track using the built-in music loops. I dropped the sounds into the game (man, was that easy with Playground) and all of a sudden I had a prototype with a completely different play experience.
Like I said, I was hesitant about creating a game based more around a match-3 type of play…but damn, was it fun! I couldn’t believe how much it changed the game, and how much more fun it made it. All of a sudden I’m having fun play testing it. I also feel like what I’m doing does feel fresh, so that’s promising. The last thing I want to do is release another Bejewelled onto the world (not that Bejewelled isn’t great, it’s just been done…a lot).
My biggest problem with the game now is that the end (loss) condition doesn’t make sense for the new mode of play. I’m going to have to give some thought about how the player will lose the game. I also need to give some thought as to how the difficulty should increase as the player progresses from level to level.
I think what I’m going to do next, though, is play with my artwork a little bit. This is a prototype, but it’s really ugly right now. I’d like to get it into a format that I can show a few friends and get some feedback on the game. Right now I think people would be so influenced by the appearance that it might be hard to get feedback on the gameplay.
Owen