The more I polish games, the more a lack of reasonable visual design bothers me, even in prototypes. Having a grey bar in place of some kind of skybox is rather a shame . . . .
Category: Games
Poll Results
Sorry for the late update–a business dinner ran into the evening.
Jay’s comment on the last post combines with offline polling to put the baby dragon theme in a dead heat with the ancient dragon concept. At this early prototype stage those two are mechanically identical, so playing as a dragon it is!
Of course, just over 24 hours into this new prototype you play as a Unity primitive carefully avoiding another Unity primitive. So it goes in the realm of rapid iteration. 😉
A Less Fraught Election
Getting tired of vicious campaigning and elections that might change the fate of the post-war order? Take a break by voting on this low-stakes thesis prototype theme!
Which of these do you like best?
- You are a dragonslaying knight. Unfortunately, you are woefully unprepared. You must dig through the dragon’s hoard for power-ups, while the dragon gets angrier and angrier.
- You are a dragon. After thousands of years, you are decidedly bored. You are giving a dragonslaying knight power-ups from your hoard, so that the knight will spur you on to regain your old flying, firebreathing ways.
- You are a baby dragon whose parents have decided that it’s time for you to leave the nest. They have asked a local knight to stop by and pretend to chase you so that you’ll learn to fly and breathe fire.
The Latest Round
I would’ve liked to put up the latest thesis concept, but in testing it proved . . . unsatisfactory. As a result, I’ve scrapped it, with a few more lessons learned noted down.
Fortunately, in talking with a recent Game Center graduate I’ve come up with something new that I think has promise. It takes some of the things I’ve discovered about, for example, the “juice” thrill of powering up, and puts them into a context that I expect will be more workable. We’ll see how it goes.
25th Hour Projects: The Game of Waltzing
Games about movement are everywhere: most wargames, vehicle racing games, arguably even games like Pandemic. Their success makes it all the more surprising that we haven’t made more games about other kinds of movement. For example, wouldn’t a game about waltzing be neat?
Think about it. You have to act in coordination with your partner, but you’re not allowed to talk (we’re in a competition, after all!). Right there, the theme provides a strong justification for a co-op without the risk of a dominant player.
Furthermore, the actions being taken are tense moment-to-moment. Each step has to be perfect, or disaster could strike. As in Pandemic, no one can afford a wasted move.
Dance is a universal human activity, yet–like so many universal human activities–games have yet to explore it in any serious way. I hope we see that rectified soon. Maybe I’ve even got an iron in the fire along these lines . . . .
Portfolio Update: Nosedive
I’m happy to be able to add Nosedive, one of the games I contributed to here at the Game Center, to my portfolio. Nosedive is among the designs I’m proudest to have been involved with; I’ve been playing tactical maneuver games for a long time, and I feel that this is very much a worthy addition to the genre.
Promoting Pawns 3
Some further improvements, both to playability and to the clarity of the rules. Unfortunately, the end game is still pretty grim. 😉 The lack of uncertainty in this abstract game causes players to circle around each other, waiting for a moment of unintended weakness that isn’t coming.
Promoting Pawns 2
As I work on this prototype I can hear Eric Zimmerman, one of my professors, commenting that the game feels “too tight.” That’s almost certainly the case, and I’m pretty sure that the endgame is awful. However, interesting dynamics can emerge whereby one player will back up to let the other progress, which makes this game feel less like a weird chess variant and more like some kind of honorable duel.
There’s something interesting here, if I can find it . . . .
It Begins
The End-of-Year Show’s closing means the opening of a new process: thesis! I’ve already started prototyping, and I expect that process to continue throughout the summer.
The latest concept–as yet nameless–is an abstract game loosely inspired by NBA Jam. Its rules fit easily on two pages, and you can play with the checkers set you probably have lying around. 😉
End-of-Year Show Wrap-Up
Thanks to everyone who came out to the NYU Game Center’s End-of-Year Show! I was proud to have the opportunity to show off Nosedive and Peregrine. Nosedive was very well received. Peregrine–which I like to describe as a survival game where you’re probably going to survive, or as a game that explores the space between Banished and Panoramical–has always been for a specific audience, and people looking for a meditative experience really enjoyed it.
I am now thoroughly exhausted from the big end-of-semester push (which lasted more or less the entire duration of the semester 😉 ). Fortunately, I’m definitely in the right career: I’m looking to relax by making some games!
The Law of Game Design 