Gushing About: InFAMOUS

This week's is a short one, but it's what has been on my mind.

     I've been replaying a lot of InFamous lately. Actually, just the first game and the second one's demo since I don't have anything else from the series. I really love the superhero origin story feeling it gives me and I noticed how my goals to become more powerful and save the city from chaos fit the theme so well. I also noticed some parallels with with Unicorn Training's goal of becoming strong enough to beat a looming threat.

     The way it introduces new powers had me analyzing how when you're going through the game you'll find some aspect of combat or traversal cumbersome, then two missions later you get a power that makes that aspect a lot of fun and the game gains a rush of interest. You can really make a game feel new the whole way through by not showing all your offerings at once. I'll take that to heart when designing my own titles.

The Player-Character Connection In Unicorn Training

     Unicorn Training suddenly holds more meaning now. Thanks to the latest Sequelitis Video I've been thinking more about aligning player goals/desires with that of the in-game avatar. When the story matches with what the player wants to do there is an immediate connection. You can relate at least on that level to the character you're playing as and immersion is key to a good experience.

With my new plan of spreading the game into 2 parts I can create a story that matches my feelings as the creator, the player's desire to explore and fight, and Clover's desire to grow stronger and see the world.

Adventures in Equica: Unicorn Training (Unicorn Quest Redesign)

     After a lot of thinking, writing, sketching, and general reorganization of the mind I've settled on a game plan. I will rename my current project and call it Unicorn Training and call it's sequel Unicorn Quest. This first game will act as a prologue to my original idea.

   Making this smaller scale version of the game frees up a lot of possibilities for me while fulfilling the reason I wanted Unicorn Quest to exist in the first place. I'll have a cool RPG under my belt, I'll set the stage for a sequel that expands on the world I want to build, and I'll be able to make said sequel as my graduation project (hopefully with a budget allowing for a collaboration with a certain pixel artist I know of).

   The dragon RPG demo that was going to be my senior capstone project can now get pushed back so I can start it right after Unicorn Training (I can't start my other pony RPG until the first day of mobile gaming class). Then I'll have 2 really cool games to my name (and hopefully an income above my current zero) before starting the two biggest RPGs in my head.

   The problem of scope does not come from hardware limitations but from my desire to be done faster. I've learned so much from getting this far that I really want to start over with my improvements in mind. The improvements are so time consuming and dramatic that I might as well just make a new game, so why not just split my project in 2? One to release now and another for me to do in class senior year. I'll have more time to work on it then and I don't feel my current direction will do the idea justice.

See everything I wrote in my messy design document so far below the break.

Scrapped: Interactive Battle Terrain (Items in Grass)

     I wanted to have things like cutable grass, smashable boulders, and other debris on the battlefield. Then looking at that section of the GDD now, it's pretty pointless. Enemies already have a chance to spawn hearts and more frequent health drops decreases the value of cupcakes, decreasing the value of gems. Plus, I hadn't thought of a way to make such obstacles blend well with the environment or planned out an algorithm to randomize their locations on he battlefield.

     Now that I think about it this was a feature that just felt like a nice fit because Zelda had it and Zelda inspired this game. The truth is it works well there and not here so I'm dumping the idea to save a chunk of time. I can find other ways to make the environments feel more lively and there doesn't need to be any more item dropping objects in the game.

     There will still be interesting elements in every battle scene (lava, moving pillars, walls, etc.) but the enemies will be the main interactive/randomized elements. As a producer/manager of this project it seems like a very logical cut.