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DevLog
There are two of us in the group. Me and ZiXuanwang.
I was responsible for the code part of the game and she was responsible for the art part.
The game design was carried out by discussion.
First of all, our goal was to create a small game with a message and interesting mechanics.
In terms of getting the message across, we chose to go for an emotionally relevant message.
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First of all, from the very beginning, our goal was to make a game that conveys a message and has interesting mechanics.
In terms of conveying a message, we chose something that was emotionally relevant.
My initial idea was to create a game that was related to cognitive biases, possibly with a contrast of colors to reflect the sense of contrast. However, after about a week of trying to design it, nothing worked out in the end.
We then combined emotion-related factors and planned to make a game that would be related to the transfer of emotions between people.
“Our emotions are influenced by the people around us, while the atmosphere is also influencing our emotions”
This is basically the core idea of our game.
With this in mind, we have created several prototypes.
1
The ball is influenced by the change in the area
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Balls are influenced by changes in the region
Areas also change with the state of the balls.
Happy areas will score more points, while sad areas will lose points.
Whether each level is passed or not is finally determined by the player’s score.
2
Balls colliding with each other will change their state
Players can drag and drop the balls to move them. When the balls collide, they affect each other and change.
The goal is to make all the characters happy.
After playtesting we chose the first version. The second one is too limited and the drag operation is not very interesting. The first option has more strategic in terms of gameplay.
We then modified the game and added animations, sound effects, scores system, etc. to the prototype.
The final version.
Changes were made in the final version.
- UI
The target has been improved by placing it at the bottom of the table, with glowing effects to make it more noticeable to the player. - Changes to the winning mechanism
Changed from a score to a star rating, becoming more intuitive. - Adjustments to the layout
The three-game areas have been standardized to make the interface more concise.
Rather than rehashing the mechanics and gameplay of the final version of the game in the Devlog. Instead, I wanted to document some of the difficult design questions that I encountered. Many times it was just a case of skipping them or choosing another solution.
1. How to design a deep game?
- Personally, I think that perhaps a deep game that involves our own experiences is a better, simpler way to design. It is because of the personal experience that we have the ability to bring it out in the game so that the player can understand the message we want to convey.
- But how do you go about it when it is just an abstract concept? Cognitive biases, for example, have some psychological effects. How do we design them? It may be possible to look in the literature for ways to do this, perhaps in books such as Making Deep Games, or in the context of successful games such as WBWWB, where abstract relationships are represented in the game and the message is conveyed to the player.
2. What exactly is a prototype? How do you decide if a prototype works?
- My early understanding of a prototype was that it was simply a game that tested the mechanics without the artwork, sound effects, etc. If this was the case then would the prototype of Elden Ring be a bunch of boxes to run around in? Would it be fun if I had adventures in a box world like that? Maybe the World Of Worldcraft might have to be renamed World Of Boxcraft XD.
- I don’t think so, prototypes need to be tested by making the most important parts of the game’s mechanics at a minimal cost. For example, using simple models instead of high precision models, abstract colors instead of textures, etc. Every element in it should not lose its original meaning. The result of such a test may be more in line with what we expect the full version of the game to look like.
3. How to design a game with unique mechanics?
- Today there are already many game genres. We have FPS, RTS, RPG, etc. It’s difficult to innovate on top of the existing framework, I think. There is so much homogenization today that if our goal is to make a game with unique mechanics, then we should try to avoid that.
- We could combine certain mechanics, as in the Mexican pizza theory in Level Up, where good things always taste better together. However, I think this may result in a lack of uniqueness to achieve the goal.
- When we think about mechanics, we might want to consider existing mechanics as little as possible and instead approach the design more from an experienced perspective. What kind of experience do we want players to have when they play? What mechanics might be needed to create that experience?A design approach that starts with the experience may make it easier to design games with unique mechanics.