Games Prototyping

  So this is a 'Sticker Socket', this is where stickers are put for them to affect the real world. These act as a physical indicator for the player so that they know exactly where to put the sticker. Not a particularly exciting or interesting mechanic, but a necessary one. 

  So this'll be the main puzzle mechanic. Occasionally, when listening to a brain, a sticker will spawn. The sticker is the physical manifestation of that person's thoughts that can be attached to things in the real world in order to change them. So for example, a battery sticker could be put in a phone so that the phone turns on. As you can see in the crappy GIF, the player can click on the sticker to hold it and take it somewhere else.

  Ok, so this is how reading minds will work in this game. Once you enter Mind Mode, the player will be able to click on the brain in order to hear the thoughts that are going on inside that person's brain (an audio file will play). As you can see, the screen zooms in on the brain when you are listening to it, just as a nice little visual indication.

  So this is 'Mind Mode'. The player can hold 'M' on the keyboard to enter this mode, where the player can read minds. This, as you can see, is signified by the screen going all purple, along with other visual effects. It's hard to tell with the crappy GIF quality, but I think it looks pretty good!

  Apologies for the terrible quality of the GIF, but this is my basic movement. To put it simply, it's A and D on the keyboard to move left and right and the spacebar to jump. This isn't the plan for the full movement mechanics, but its a solid start that'll help me test other mechanics going forwards.

So, as with any project, I should have a plan. And my plan is quite simple. I'm going to make all of my mechanics for the game first and then I'll make levels with those previously created mechanics in mind. So this way, it's a bit future proofed as if a mechanic were to change from what I think it's going to be now, it wouldn't force me to change the levels to account for it as the levels haven't been created yet. So, I'll let you know about my mechanics as I make them!

 Having thought about it some more thought, I don't think that my original idea was within my capabilities as making an enemy Ai does sound quite complex, never mind making an enemy AI that's fun to play against. So, I scrapped the idea and came up with a new one: This is Stick It To The Man, a puzzle platformer in which the player reaches their own goals by reading the minds of other people and using that knowledge to try and coax certain reactions out of them. I thought that this would be a much easier base to work off of as there is no enemy AI involved whatsoever. Obviously I plan on making my own spin on the game, different art style, different sense of humour, different movement, etc.

 So in this project, I am to make a small game. That's about it. So my initial idea is thus: This is Bushido Ball. A game featured in UFO 50. In this game, you hit the ball and forth between you and an enemy AI. You score points by hitting the ball behind your opponent, first to 8 points wins. Despite being very simple, this game is very, very fun, so I thought I'd do something similar. My plan is to recreate this game, with a twist. It's a roguelike. So instead of scoring points, after you beat an opponent, you'll get stronger and this will continue until you die or beat the final boss. I thought that this would add the one thing that's missing in Bushido Ball: replay-ability. I look forward to sharing more about this in the future!