Sum of Parts

The game’s assets are building up now and the more you add the more like a ‘proper’ game it seems to be.  What was initially a one screen prototype has evolved to something with a menu screen and ‘win’ screen, and with each addition it feels more like a game.

Last night the sound effects were added into the main game screen, and what a difference.  It makes you think that those developers who spend hours and hours getting sounds just right aren’t wasting time after all.  It’s the age-old thing that you often don’t seem to notice something until it’s no longer there.

So, with the editor in a useable state – and soon to be pumping out the XML our game needs – and the sonix and graphix coming along, we are making progress.

Fleshing out the game

We’ve been debating how the actual game will flow, and we think this is the final set-up.  Basically, the main single-player game will consist of 5 zones, each offering 20 levels.  When you start the game, you’ll be able to start from any already completed zone and work onwards, and each zone will serve a playlist of 10 levels selected at random from that zone’s pack of 20.  You’ll have a set time limit to beat each of the 10 levels, do so and you’re through to the next zone.

Every level you complete will be added to your list of levels which you will be able to practice in a seperate menu.  We say practice, but in reality this will be used to obtain ’stars’ which will be awarded for beating a level in the minimal number of moves, and for beating the levels in a set time limit.  Think ‘challenge rooms’ in Portal, but with less portals.  We’ve not really discussed the two player mode yet, still working on the prototype of the game and devising levels.

We think the control scheme will either be a mix of the twin analog sticks (one to move the select rows, the other to scroll the bars) or movement with the d-pad and then hold the A button (with the d-pad) to scroll.  We’ll maybe offer both and let the user decide, then fight between us which method should be the default.  On the subject of levels, here’s an example:

The grid on the left is the target, and the grid on the right is how the balls will be presented to the player at the start of the level.  This can be beaten in just 6 moves, and very quickly, so the ‘practice’ stars will be 6 moves and something like 3 seconds.  We’re aiming to get a prototype of the game running with the 360 controller by the end of the week.  The screen below can be beaten in 8 moves.

ThirtySix – we’ve started

So, it’s been a couple of weeks of mock-ups, name changes and even core mechanic switch-a-roos, but we think we’re now happy with the basic idea of the game.  Essentially, it’s going to be a 6×6 grid of balls that can be shifted horizontally and vertically, with the aim being to match the main grid with a smaller grid off to the left.

Think picross, but simpler, and more colourful. There’ll be lots of levels, a random mode, time trials, leaderboards and (hopefully) some kind of two player battle, whether that’s local or over Live we’ve yet to decide. The art-style is almost there, but we’ve yet to decide on final graphics, and there’s zero work on the sound effects and music at this stage.

So, welcome to our little developers diary.