At my last update I said I was going to start writing a Game Design Document for Midnight Journey and I would also work on simple mobile games. I changed my mind a little bit on that. I change my mind all the time actually.

I did write on Midnight Journey and got some good insights on what to do next, but instead of thinking on mobile games to develop, I decided to prototype two old ideas and a new one. I didn’t have enough time for prototyping both old ideas so for this month I just have one of them.

Time spent on Game Development

I said I wouldn’t have a lot of time for doing this on my free time this month, so I started to log on a pomodoro app how much time I worked on game development.

That’s 33 Pomodoro Intervals, so it is something around 14 to 16 hours of work, it’s not much but I will try to improve and work more on it.

Ace Programmer

Background: So… I decided that I had to play more games, come on, a game developer/game designer should play games, right? Playing Games wasn’t something that I would do regularly in my daily life, so I’m trying to fit it in.

I decided to give a shot on Ace Attorney, I have been looking at this game for more than a year since I played Ghost Trick, both written by Shu Takumi. So I played the first one already and while I was playing it I came up with the idea of doing this Visual Novel/Adventure Puzzle Game related to programming.

The Game: Well, I already said it. It is a mix of a Visual Novel and a Puzzle Game, I spent a whole day doing a simple prototype, and you can play it here:

http://gueepo.itch.io/ace-programmer-0001

Just ignore the thumbnail.

I’m actually satisfied with this prototype and what the game could be, I’m just not sure if it would be fun for those who are not interested in programming. But that is something to think later on, my focus on the moment is on the next idea.

Ghost Game

Background: This idea is in my mind since 2015, actually both ideas. I merged the mechanics from a game into de story/purpose of other game. It is a game where near-death experience is the main topic, so I will try to show it on the mechanics and on the levels.

The Game: It is a puzzle game where you have 2 bodies, a human body and a ghost body. The human body can do some things and can’t do other things, the ghost body can do some things and can’t do other things. The idea is that you will need both of them to solve the puzzles while avoiding the enemies on the level!

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the screenshots above, you can see the main character and an enemy. The second screenshot shows the ghost body and the human body on the floor.

What to do: I want to focus on this game for the next month and maybe even finish it on August or September. I want to have just an introductory level (a tutorial) and 5 levels to play, that will be the game. For the next month: First of all, I want to have a real name for this game. I also want to figure out what exactly each body can and can’t do, so I can code it and start designing levels. Then I have to put together the art and simple background music to finish it.

Midnight Journey

… And finally! Midnight Journey, the reason why I created this blog afterall and the game I almost gave up for having a big scope.

It happens that all those things I was adding to the game, multiple enemies, level up system, npc’s, backstory, etc… They didn’t add anything to the game.

Going back to some old pieces of writing I found out my original intended experience for this game, and they were: 1. Creating a game that is hard, punish you for your mistakes and reward you for learning with them. 2. A game with a dark mood/ambient 3. I wanted the player the think that there is a story behind everything (maybe there is, maybe there isn’t). On top of these, I added a fourth one: 4. Have a minimalist feeling, the feeling that everything is meaningful.

With this is consideration, I removed every random enemy because they were going to be just something to keep the player busy for 5 more minutes, I removed every weapon variety, the starter weapon should be meaningful, it should be your one and only weapon, so I don’t have to program a weapon/armor change system and I don’t have to draw sprites for them. Every death is important, death will be the way to level up and it will be done automatically, so no stats, no level up interface for the player, maybe he won’t even know death works like a level up mechanism.

What do I have then? That’s still something to think, I have the main character and bosses, maybe the game will be just it, I actually think it would be interesting.

For the next month: Just think more and write more on it, I’m getting into something and I want to have a really good game design document for Midnight Journey, while I’m doing it my focus will be on the Ghost Game.

That’s it for this update! The next one is going to be somewhere between August 5 and August 12.