Missing Game Design!

Real life has been pretty intense lately. PhD's take more time than you might think :P Unfortunately all I've been able to do lately is read about the wonderful world of game design. I like to browse RockPaperShotgun, Gamasutra and the Unity forums. Lots has been going on, and it's got me really wanting to explore facets of game design again in a more active manner.

I have to be realistic of course, as research takes up the majority of my time, and spending time with my wife/family also takes up pretty much the rest. But every so often I get a few hours of free time where I don't feel I have to relax, and I can instead try to get my skills going again.

I think to get myself back into the swing of things, I'm going to run through the Ludum Dare themes backwards and try to create small games with simple assets. This should help me explore several mechanics, genres, and game-play elements. At any rate, it looks like 'Evolution' is first up on the docket!

I spent the evening mulling over some ideas and coming up with a really crude Living Game-Design Document (Living meaning that I will continually update this file until I am happy with the first iteration of this prototype).

The game that I've settled on is a fairly simple one, but should provide an opportunity for me to delve into some deep gameplay. You can check out the GDD (click here). Essentially the game is an animal-based survival rogue-like. The player must survive (eat and avoid predators) while attempting to find mates to produce offspring. Each time the player produces offspring, they can 'evolve' their animal and either augment their animal's dietary choices, or upgrade a stat (speed/strength/health). As the player traverses the map they must find food (Hunger gauge will constantly be dropping), and avoid being eaten by predators. Where things get interesting however is that each stat increase will come with a tradeoff. Strength will make your animal bigger, and thus reduce your hiding chance, health will also make you bigger but reduce your speed. I haven't worked out all of the details yet, but I want this game to be difficult, on par with something akin to Binding of Isaac. We'll see how it turns out, if it turns into anything.

I plan on using simple tools to capture this game:

• Unity Free
• Rage Pixel (Unity Addon)
• BFXR (http://www.bfxr.net/ -- for sound effects)
• Graphics Gale Free (For quick pixel editing if I feel like working in an external app)

Well, time to learn some 3D Modelling: Enter Blender 3D

I had dabbled in 3D modelling years ago... and I do mean years ago (over 10 years). I've touched it here and there since that time, but I've never been very good. Instead I decided to pick up some programming talent, of which I've now got a decent competency... at least for making simple games in Unity. After seeing the entire SlenderMan phenomenon, I figured this would be a really cool and easy way to slip myself into some 3D modelling, by of course modelling SlenderMan himself.

Of course I had no idea where to start, so I picked up Blender, and then found a wonderful tutorial series on Youtube by David Ward -- "Tim". (Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5E8FF48D4DF5E566&feature=g-all-a ). I highly recommend this tutorial series to anyone getting started in character modelling. It's definitely made things like creating a mouth/ears a lot more logical. My skills are completely terrible, but so far the model is coming along decently well. I'm aiming for a slightly stylized version of SlenderMan, with sharp claw-like fingers, and really large sinister black lips/mouth. I'll try to put some concept art up eventually, but here's the current 3D sketch at the moment. Long way to go, but I'll post some updates as I figure out how to add a body and clothing details.

Angry … Gnomes??

The wife and I decided recently that it might be fun to work together on a project. She’s never done anything like this (and I’ve never finished anything….) so we figured it could be fun to explore what it really takes to make a game. The premise of this one is very simple. You are an old lady who must stop garden gnomes from stealing your plants…. with your garden hose. We wanted to put together a game that would work well on the web/mobile, so we’re really trying to simplify the control scheme, and the maintain a casual and fun game. It’s coming along well so far, more updates to follow! But for now… a link to a very early webplayer prototype. You can use the up/down arrows to move the hose. PS: Rage pixel pwns. :P (click the image below for the player)