Pipes!

I'd like to use the posts that are tagged under "Idea Iteration" to represent updates in a current game idea I'm working on. This presents a nice history of an idea to me! I can see where I was in a few months, or even years to come!

Posts that are tagged with "New Idea" represent the first mention of an idea that I'm usually throwing out.This post kinda merges "New Idea" and "Idea Iteration"

The idea I present first is my GAM300 Project, my team is Haniwa5-0 and the current game name is HaniWars. Honestly I don't really like the name of the game that much, so I'll probably change it later.


Idea Title:
Pipes! or Chi Flow

High Concept:
A strategy-puzzle game where the player plays both sides of a tower defense game:

• The first side is a strategy-puzzle Tower Defense, where the player utilizes chi as a resource to build and manage his towers. By mastering the flow of chi the player can maximize the strength of his towers. (Haniwa Mode)
• The other side is a strategy game where the player sends out and manages units to capture the base. It's up to the player to manage the numbers and the types of the units he's using. (Oni Mode or Minion Mode)

 Concept in-detail:
One thing to note, the Minion Mode parallels the Haniwa Mode, they use similar mechanics to grow. Because of this, at this stage Minion Mode is a bit undefined.

• Haniwa Mode requires the player to survive the waves of Oni. 
• Towers are used to attack incoming Oni. 
• Towers require chi to remain active, without it they lose animation. 
• Towers use the attributes of Chi to strengthen themselves
• Chi can be neutral or it can have attributes of the 5 Chinese elements
• Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, Earth
•  Towers can store Chi within themselves, if Chi is removed from towers, they won't stop being active immediately
• They'll use up their stored chi and slowly become less animated as they run out
• Chi is manipulated using "pipes"
• Players get pipes to manipulate flows of Chi from their sources
• Pipes can have many effects upon the Chi that flows into them
• Players are required to manipulate Chi in order to be successful at the game
• There may be Oni on more than one front and only one source of Chi, the player must then route the chi to the areas that need it.

Talked to Ben Ellinger about my GAM idea

Today I finally got my meeting with Ben Ellinger, for those that don't know, he's the design instructor for my GAM300 class. I was really meaning to talk to him for a while, but Ben's usually quite busy. After my team's presentations, Ben was actually excited by my idea. I'm not going to lie, it felt good, but it also made me focus my resolve, I had positive feedback, it was time to make sure I would be able to deliver. I already resolved to try my best to make all of my games as amazing as they can be within constraints, but it's always nice to see your effort rewarded!

I'll probably go into more detail about the history of this game idea in a later post, but for now I'll just put up a record of what happened in that history today.

After some setbacks, I finally got my meeting with Ben, he had told me to meet up with him about my idea after I presented them. I find it an integral part of my design process to talk about it with everyone who might be interested, get their feedback, criticisms and make my own judgments, but it was really time for me to look for experienced help. During this meeting I discussed the ideas I had for my game mechanic in more detail. I discussed both my Pipe and Syphon concepts with him, and we both agreed that the Pipe concept was better (I'll make sure to mention both of them in the history post). Ben told me that this idea was solid, he told me that it was something he'd be able to see as a real game being developed by a company. He also mentioned that it was time for me to stop conceptualizing and start iterating.

Some important lessons that came out of this meeting to me:

• I had many ideas for my game mechanic, but Ben told me to strip it to the bare essentials of the design. This was because there was no way for me to know the idea was fun until I played it, until I playtested it. There was no need to add content to the game, because content should arise from what's fun, and should support what's fun.
• I used an analogy: when you plant the seed of your idea, you don't know what kind of plant it will grow into, why would you put debris and fertilizers that might kill your plant over the top instead of watching and seeing what it grows into.
• It's a good thing to ask your peers, as sources of ideas and as people who will criticize your idea. As such the idea I mentioned to Ben was the result of this work.
• Paper playtesting is your friend! Ben mentioned that flash prototyping is cool, but can be a waste of code effort, why should you work on something that will not help your game? Paper can be run by you.
• For a real time strategy style game, the turns in the paper version can be used to represent on action during a game. One turn is used to either place units or move them.

My First Post

Hey all,

Just wanted to get out a first post about what's going to go into this blog. This is a blog about all of my practices and experiences into the murky waters that is Game Design.  As a person who wants to be a better designer, I believe it's incredibly important to get my ideas out in writing, into the physical world. It's also important for me to see the process to which I do design, to understand it more. It's always a good thing to keep a record of the past, especially with thoughts, because you can always return to these writings to not only see where you've been and where you've come from, but to also draw from the power of the past and your past thoughts.

You'll also see anything else design related I might have. Like reviews, and simple thoughts and bursts of inspiration.

The title of this blog, perhaps it will change, perhaps not, I'm actually rather attached to it. An artifex is an artificer, a crafter, an inventor, a master of his art, it is from latin and it is used describe craftsmen. We designers are craftsmen, we work hard to polish and make the best experiences possible. Drawing inspiration from my psychology class, I believe that designers are the crafters of the dreams that are called games. People are taught things through games, they're taught things through any game they play. As such games are the great medium for learning and teaching, not necessarily for formal education, but for morals, lessons, and inspirations of the truths of the world.

To those that know me, I'm a wordy person, I write a lot and explain a lot using analogies I appologize if that's not your cup of tea, but I'm grateful that you've at least gotten this far into my world.

To the craft of dreams,
Andrew