Plan
Brainstorm
Idea List #1
Question | Genre | Action |
---|---|---|
… | … | … |
10 - 20 entries.
Idea List #2
Describe a memorable moment (5s) | What excites me? | How is it challenging? (Difficulty tuning) | Features to be implemented | Visual style | Does it fit the scope? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
… | … | … | … | … | … |
less than 10 entries.
Idea List #3
What does 30s of gameplay looks like? | What are the controls? | How are you going to code the game’s rules? | What aspect ratio fits the game the best? | What’s the win/failure condition? |
---|---|---|---|---|
… | … | … | … | … |
Development
First Playable
Your toy is your foundation, so think of what you can combine and experiment with it.
- Inputs
- Core Mechanic
- Core Interactions
- Win/Defeat Condition
Gameplay
- Mechanics
- Interactions
- Progression
- Tweaking
Is there anything about feature X which is distracting or broken?
-
Yes - Prioritize it.
-
No - Move on to the next feature.
Visuals
- UI
- Art
- Form follows function
- Animations
Bugs
- Game Breaking //stops game from working
- Drop everything, fix immediately
- Annoying //distracts the player
- Fix before moving on to the next feature
- Looks bad //player will notice
- Fix if you get time
- Reproduction steps
- What is this step doing
- Look for
- Doing wrong thing
- Doing additional things
- Not doing anything
- Fix the code
- Test
Content
-
Analyze every action parameter and experiment with it
-
Always have a minimum and maximum for each challenge
-
Let challenge define the game’s flow
UX Improvement
- See your game as a big OCR loop with micro OCR loops inside
- Objective - Challenge - Reward
- Reward immediately EVERY positive or intended behavior
- Failures must have a cost
- Feedback tables to help with interactions
SIGN (FORM) | FEEDBACK DURING ACTION | FEEDBACK SUCCESSFUL | FEEDBACK UNSUCCESSFUL | |
---|---|---|---|---|
UI | … | … | … | … |
VFX | … | … | … | … |
AUDIO | … | … | … | … |
ANIMATION | … | … | … | … |
CAMERA | … | … | … | … |
Extra
- Store page
- Saving systems
- Scene transitions
- Scenery variation
- In-game Tutorial