3.2 KiB
Doodle Game Concept
A game about using your finger/mouse to draw circles around moving game objects.
It works by instantiating an Area2D node with a polygon collision shape, and can probably
also be mildly modified to draw level geometry dynamically.
In either case, the challenge is taming an otherwise automatic system.
Objects move on their own. You only control the pencil pen.
CANCELED
A brief post-mortem.
What Went Wrong
It's had been a minute since I attempted a proper game jam, and while I could tell I was much more skilled this time around, my execution was what caused this fumble. I've been programming mostly websites (server-side and client-side), applications, and tooling. Games are a different, cross-disciplinary beast.
- Stick to the plan. The plan was visual metaphor to game ideas to game. I discarded all metaphor planning in favor of a novel UI, which has worked in the past but this time set me back.
- Too much emphasis on doing something differently, rather than well. Yes, most of my initial ideas were also built around by other developers and teams. No, that doesn't mean we'd be making the same game. Build games that interest you, that you want to play, and fit your scope. Doesn't matter if it's unique. This game isn't being presented to a general audience (yet)
- Core gameplay of mechanic was not considered enough before starting. Should have paper-prototyped it, would have likely found it more akin to Fruit Ninja than a Wario Ware game. It even had potential as a more narrative-focused word-finding game. The idea is not bad but it was not properly considered.
- Too much aesthetic, too soon. Focusing on the smaller details (theming, sprites, UI) before ironing out the large ones. This is a great little morale boost, but it is too much commitment too early on.
- Do some research, but try to isolate yourself from games. In my case, I could have benefited from researching gesture recognition ahead of time.
What Went Right
I don't think the initial approach was wrong, however I think I rushed into starting too soon. I initially just wrote down a bunch of visual metaphors for loops on paper and thought about each one in the context of a game. I had 8, with a nebulous mound of ideas using them. I went on to observe many other teams make games using some permutation of those same 8 metaphors.
- Spend time really considering the theme. As much as you can.
- Come up with many metaphors, not just one. It doesn't start with a game idea, necessarily, it starts with an analogy.
- Come up with game concepts for each before proceeding, and write them down somewhere. As many as you can, but don't spend too much time on dead ends. I did this, but I didn't write them down.
- I did pick the most inspiring mechanic, simply drawing a loop. It cut to the core in all the right ways and posited some interesting-for-me problems (gestural recognition)
Summary
Failure is part of the process. Be wrong, but learn in the wake of mistakes. I'd be happy with churning out just this summary over the span of the 3 days I spent working on this - but I also have a prototype to experience the reminder first-hand.
It was never about winning, really. It was about the experience.