Archive for September, 2008
Getting the Creative Juices Flowing
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
I’ve decided to attempt an experiment in order to generate ideas and foster creativity. Every working day I am going to attempt to write down one idea for something related to a game. It might be a gameplay mechanic, a game theme, a concept, an artistic style, or an idea for how to use sound. The idea is that at the end of my game cycle, I should have a book or document full of ideas for my next game. It may also help me brainstorm ideas to improve my current game. Who knows what I’ll come up with? That’s half the fun…
Owen
Design Docs?
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008
I’ve decided to write up a design document for my game. I’m not sure that it’s entirely needed, but part of doing this game is discovering what works for me as a game designer and programmer. At this point, since there’s only myself working on the game, there doesn’t seem to be a direct need for a design doc. However, at some point in the future I will be hiring artists, musicians and sound people to work on those parts of the game. I think it will help if I can give them a document that explains the whole intended game experience. I also think that it will help me to solidify some of the designs I’ve been rolling around in my head.
I have ideas for various game modes and different styles of play, and I’d like to get them all into one place. I’ve also been playing other similar games out there and I’ve been taking lots of notes on them. I’d like everything in a single document somewhere that can live and grow with the game.
But, “a-ha!” you say. “I’ve worked on games before and the claim is always made that the design docs will be living documents, but they rarely are.” Well, ok, so there is a part of me that realises at some point I’ll stop updating them, but I’m going to do my best. It would be nice to have those documents reflect the progress of the game.
The other thing that I really think this will help with is scheduling. I’m quite happy with my prototype and I’ve decided to move forward with that idea. However, at this point, most of my ideas all scattered all over the place and I’d like to start scheduling out the work. The design doc will help me to make a list of all the features in the game and what kinds of user interface requirements I’m going to have. From this I should be able to come up with a rough schedule for the game and determine whether or not I can finish it in the time-frame I had originally set out for myself. It will also allow me to prioritize work based on what I need to have finished before I can hire an artist or a sound designer. I don’t know why, but I love this stuff. Hooray for spreadsheets!
Owen
A Return to Work
Monday, September 8th, 2008
I was out of town on Friday and all weekend at my brother’s wedding (congrats bro!), so I haven’t been able to play the prototype for the past three days. Playing it again today, I think it was good to take a break from it. I’m able to see it in a different light after stepping away for a while.
One of things I most noticed about playing it today is that I really enjoyed it. I think I’m on to a solid path with the gameplay now. I suspect the main game mode for the game will end up being very similar to what I’ve got now.
The other thing that became very clear today (and that I had hinted at last week) was that I need to change the end condition for the game. The game ends around the same point every time I play it and the loss of the game feels out of my control. I think it’s better if the player feels like they had control over whether or not they lose. The games that frustrate me most are the ones that feel like there was no way to avoid losing, and that’s what the prototype feels like right now. The game becomes nearly impossible around level 7. I want it to feel like there’s always a chance that the game could continue; I don’t want it to feel like it’s inevitable that you’ll lose at level 7. Maybe it’s just a matter of adjusting my tuning variables that ramp up the difficulty, but it feels like a deeper problem right now. I think the mechanic I’m using to increase difficulty is broken.
I’ve been playing a lot of Geometry Wars: Evolved 2 over the last week or so. I’m completely hooked on that game. I really enjoyed the first GW:E, but this one is brilliant (mmmm…them Geoms is so tasty! Tasty, tasty Geoms.) GW:E2 does what I’m talking about to a tee. In that game, it becomes really really difficult to keep progressing. You’ll get to a point where there are dozens (or hundreds?) of enemies on the screen at one time, but no matter how hard it gets, I always feel like if I just practiced a little more, I might get a little bit further. I haven’t hit a point where I feel like it’s impossible to progress in the game. That’s what I want my game to feel like. The question is: how?
Owen
Prototype v2.0
Thursday, 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
A Few Things
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
I wanted to mention a few things today:
Cliff Harris (who I wrote about in my last post) wrote an article for Spong about having what it takes to become a successful indie developer:
- The Truth Behind Indie Games (www.spong.com)
It’s an interesting read. I think he comes off a little pessimistic about the industry, but maybe that’s OK, maybe that’s just realistic. I know what I’m getting myself into here. I’ve worked in the games industry for nearly 5 years now, so I know how hard it is to make a game, even when you’ve got a large team of people working on it. I also knew all the different roles I would have to play when I set out to do this on my own. So I think I have what it takes to be successful…provided I can get a game done at some point.
I spent this morning doing my bookkeeping for August. I’ve created a giant spreadsheet to track business expenses and income (which I’ll hopefully have someday) and today I went through all my receipts and entered them in. I know this sounds boring, but I love spreadsheets. I’ve always loved numbers. When I was a kid I loved collecting baseball cards mostly so I could study the stats on the back and memorize the data. It’s probably a good thing I became a programmer. I found it funny that I was doing that this morning and then read Cliff’s article about the need to wear many hats when running your own company.
I also briefly wanted to mention this:
- Ottawa Slashes Grants for New Media (www.theglobeandmail.com)
The Canadian Governement will be ceasing its funding for the Canada New Media Fund via Telefilm. The fund allocates $14.5M a year to help develop products in the new media space (i.e. video games, interactive media, internet media). The government has just said it won’t renew its funding as of March 31st, 2009, the start of their fiscal year. The government has said that it is no longer funding these “inefficient” programs and that some may be replaced. However, they haven’t said whether this fund will be replaced with something new or better. At this point, those of us in the “new media” industry need to let the government know that this kind of funding is important for the development of this kind of culture in Canada. I’m trying to find more information on who we need to write to and I’ll post more information once I have it available.
Finally, an update on the prototype. I’ve spent quite a while playing what I have done so far, and I’ll be honest: I’m not entirely happy with it. I still think the idea is solid, but I don’t think the method of play I’ve chosen is going to work. I was trying to do something new with the gameplay that I thought would lend itself well to the game concept, but it’s not really working out.
The problem is this: the game falls into the same pattern every time I play it. In a puzzle game it’s obvious that the game is going to play in a similar way each time, but you need enough variation in the starting conditions that it feels new every time. The problem I’m having is that the game feels the same every time I play it. I had a few friends over to my place on the weekend, and while I was hesitant about showing the prototype in it’s currently (very) ugly aesthetic state, I wanted to watch how they played it. What I found what that they all ended up playing it the same way. While it’s fun for the first two or three times you play the game, after the fourth of fifth time, you realise there’s nothing new to it. At that point, the game becomes boring.
So, like I said, I think that the core game mechanic is good, but the gameplay method needs to change. I’ve got a few ideas I want to try out, but they’re going to involve some pretty major overhauls of the prototype. I’ve banched off the current version in my source control system so that I’ll have it for reference. But now it’s time to scrap a bunch of the code and start reworking the structure of the game. Hooray for prototyping!
Owen