Idea
Inspired by a few of the more popular casual games out at the moment, I was curious to see what kind of experience I could create if I only allowed the players to perform one type of action. I settled on a simple mechanic based on your reaction speed and ability to make two things be the same size. I had some larger visions for this game when the week started, but I de-scoped until it was just one shape that you filled up over and over again.
After creating the core mechanic of the game and the basic loop, I realized that I didn’t actually find the game to be very fun. I then decided – what better way to make something fun than to add a little friendly competition to it! I salvaged an old leaderboard system that I had in another game that I worked on last year, plugged it into this week’s game, and POOF instant success (well, after 4 hours of refactoring and debugging an issue that only seemed to happen on the web build).
What went right
I was able to de-scope a lot of extra ideas earlier in the week. Also, the addition of the leaderboards at the last minute was a great last minute boost to the fun aspect of the game.
What went wrong
AGAIN, I learn the lesson of playtest. I didn’t post the game at all until Sunday night, and while I was sleeping I got a lot of really great feedback. Because of my self-imposed rule that I don’t work on any of the game a week after their week is up (at least not as part of game a week), I don’t know when/if I’ll be able to test some of these suggestions out.
What I learned
Competition is fun, and I need to really start posting a version of the current week’s game by Saturday at the latest.
I like the game, I think it can definitely be interestingly expanded. Other shapes, moving shapes, time pressure. But hey, you mentioned the de-scoping and what I’suggesting is the opposite of it so, who knows? The one thing I missed was a way to compete with myself, a record-keeping mechanism so I know when I have really bested my previous efforts. 🙂 Cheers and what a cool challenge you’ve taken to yourself.