Friday, April 17, 2009

Phew, where did my week go?

This week has gone by so quickly! As the team nears closer and closer towards the alpha milestone, features are quickly beginning to get added to the game. I must say, things are looking quite good. We were lucky enough to have James from Sidhe in again. For all you budding game designers out there, James offered some great advice.

1. Make sure that when designing a game, have a FOCUSED idea of what is going to happen. This should be based almost entirely on the "gamer experience." This will help prioritize goals and features for the game.
2. Introduce the player to the important elements of the game gradually. The player experience should be enough to keep the player interested without boring them or overwhelming them.
3. The first ten minutes are critical. If the player is not hooked by then, then their is something wrong with the current design. It's better to have a game with a polished ten minutes of good solid play, than a game that is half-assed that lasts one hour.

These tips have come in handy this week, and with James's help, we were able to draft up a sample playthrough. As with all projects, the initial design can sometimes become inapplicable as the project evolves hence the need for a different sample play through description. Keep posted for how our game develops.

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