nerdcubed

The Greenlight Game - Part 1

Added 2016-09-18 02:53:41 +0000 UTC

Multi part post about making a game AS WE MAKE IT?! OK, here we go!

So, like I mentioned last week, I want to make a game for Greenlight. A short little game that we put less resources into so if we mess up it's ok. A $1 game.

First step is coming up with ideas. That's the easy bit. I sat around for a bit and came up with a few concepts that could work, then I narrowed them down to just two. A re-build of Systems Nominal and a short, clever choose your own adventure game. Let's have a look at these games.

1. Systems Nominal HD (As i keep calling it while giggling) would be a Unity based re-doing of Systems Nominal. Basically just like the game currently is but expanded an built upon. New art, new levels, new modes etc etc.

Pros: Well, we've built this game once so it's more of an advanced porting job than anything. The game was never released on steam so it'll find a new audience (The original has over 1000 paid downloads on humble even though it's explicitly free elsewhere.) and it should get us through greenlight nice and easily. (Also we'll update the humble one to the new version. Adding 90% more game is a hell of a patch. :p)

Cons: Well, it's a bit dull isn't it? I do like the game but it's something I already designed once. Also there's a possibility of coming across as a "one trick pony" kind of developer. It might be better suited as a random appearance a while down the game dev track.

2. The Choose Your Own Adventure Game would be a commentary on that very collection of words there. "Choose Your Own Adventure". That's not the case though is it. You never choose your own adventure. You choose your own path through an adventure. Imagine a game where you actually could choose your own adventure. How would that work?

Here's an idea. You're in a room. There's a stain in one corner and some cards in the other. Picked the stain? You're a detective solving a murder. The cards? You're a magician waiting to go on stage. Wildly different stories emerge depending on what you do. You truly choose your own adventure.

I played with this idea for a while and, while it seems kinda cool, it makes me ask a question. Where's the game? How do I add a game to this? Also how to I write all these possible combinations? This is supposed to be a small game dammit!

Well, after much notebook doodling and showers I came up with a neat way to keep it lighter on the writing, tie the stories together and THEN twist that even further for a neat ending. I don't want to talk about this just yet because it's full on spoilers but I think there's a memorable 15 minute game to be had here.

So. I guess I gotta go write this and make Rebecca do that art thing. More next week! (Probably, I mean we just started the whole house buying thing and oh god where did all my already non-existent free time go? Also most of this week we've been looking after our dog Regan because she had a tumor removed. She's doing good! Yay!)

Sing like nobody is listening.

- Dan x