06 - Is That a Different Game?
Hey guys! As you can see there have been some changes, we should probably talk about…
So over the last couple of weeks, we’ve made a massive pivot towards the fantasy setting, basically dumping 65% of the work we had previously done. We touched on it briefly in the last blog regarding the potions but today we’re going to dive into all the details.
So now we’re basically in a fantasy setting running an alchemical assembly line of potions. The name of the game… wait that’s not quite right… the purpose of the game is simple. Orders come in for potions, a team of up to four players slaps them together and then finish the order… right? Well basically, Yes! But let’s talk about where the current complexity is coming from and what makes it interesting.
Color Mixing
So, we started with 3 basic colors Red/Blue/Green. The process was super simple
You take an empty vial
You fill that vial
You color the vial either R/G/B
You deliver the vial
To introduce more complexity and provide some interesting choices for our fabulous players I’ve added color mixing. Now the above process is the same BUT with an added 5th step. If you need Orange/Teal/Purple then you can do the following
Mix an additional color
Red / Blue = Purple
Red / Green = Orange
Green / Blue = Teal
Overall, it’s a simple addition but adds a lot of depth and a bit more balancing work and frankly, if by the time of release, you don’t feel like you did in the last 10 minutes of “The Martian” but basically for your entire playtime, I’ve done something horribly wrong. You know in retrospect few careers offer you the opportunity to agonize every detail of how to keep humans amped up over a prolonged period… I’m still pondering the moral and ethical implications of that…
We Added A Demon!
Or well to be more precise the group theorized a demon trouble maker to cause DEATH… well no, DESTRUCTION.. uhm probably not… DOOM… okay definitely not… more of a minor convenience if anything. The task was assigned to E and he went to work creating the most elaborate and adorable little trouble maker you can imagine. Well in fact you don’t have to just look at this adorable little bugger...
Order System
To make orders feel more complete I reworked the system to work entirely based on enums as opposed to passing around sprite refs because well that’s a bit clumsy. Which is more for us than the players but don’t worry guys I’ve got you covered, I ALSO added order cards with really nice and clear timer bars the countdown the remaining time as well as clearly displayer the type and number of what each order requires! I’m sure you will come to love it, and certainly not resent it in the slightest especially since as a NOT game designer I’ve not really fine tuned the timing values for orders yet…
Controller Support
Josh has been hard at work, no seriously I don’t know how the guy sleeps more than I do, adding complete controller support. With a bit of help me and him were able to put together a mouse of sorts that controllers can use to interface with well basically the entire game. It SOUNDS like a small thing but try playing a game with a controller when you can’t use the menus… sounds like the bad place built specifically for gamers to me.
Credits
What would a game be without an awesome credits sections to well credit all of those who put hard work into the project. Because after all it’s not like people have jobs or school or families that all have to lose some focus for a special project to come to life right? Who needs those things anyways… Li has clomping along putting together a credit scene and making passes on some of his older work trying to tie it all together.
Tutorial
Well our game is not exactly complex, but it is a bit strange and in my supremely vast life experience as a college student I’ve found that knowing how to play a game is usually conducive to actually playing a game so to that end Dorian is working on pushing out a tutorial to educate and inspire our new players… Demon optional, but he is adorable so…
Conclusion
So all in all lots of progress as you can see. The project is also coming to a close soon and with most of the core mechanics in the game we’re really turning our heads towards polishing something akin to a final product which might mean a less interesting dev blog in the future but don’t worry I promise an >= amount of sarcasm, and stupidity in my writing because by this point if you’ve not come to expect that already I’m at least a little bit concerned.
Until next time friends, gamers, nerds and all around cool people.