¶ Welcome & Introduction!
In this series we’ll be covering the breakdown of game design and what you need to understand when building for success.
We’ll be breaking down some of the thought processes behind the design of the game alongside Jop and shogun who’ll be covering some of the node systems inside the editor.
¶ Brief Project History
For some context, here's a brief backstory on how the project started.
I, Kevin, was asked to get somewhat familiar with the HypeHype editor in between my regular tasks.
Starting out, as with anything new, this was a little daunting, so I figured I’d begin, rather than using any of the premade templates, I’d get used to building something simple in the editor.
Right from the start it was very intuitive and was super fun. Whilst there’s thousands of 3d models available inside the asset library, for some random reason I decided to build some kind of garden planter.
By Day 3, I carried on experimenting building mostly custom props and felt I had a feel for things. Before long my planter had somehow evolved into a little map..
I continued building the map and I have to admit, got a little addicted and was loving the opportunity to get back to being creative again.
In a couple of weeks I ended up with quite a significant map and my plan was to create a multiplayer battle royaleThe map was big enough and I was creating decent areas to run, dodge, hide behind etc etc, it wasn’t great, but it seemed worthwhile enough to make use of my learning project.
As time was running out, I floated the idea to @jop who unfortunately informed me that, at that time, the multiplayer feature wasn't quite yet mature enough and we’d be unlikely to finish given our time restraints.
However, not to abandon the map, my little learning baby, I suggested we turn the map into a simple roguelike 1 player game, where each round would be different every time you played and we’d just kill a bunch of baddies. This could work!
I’ve played many roguelikes in the past and at their core they rely heavily on RNG ( random number generation ) on both the environment and equipment spawning. They also, well the best ones that is, have a lot, and I mean a lot of content and customisation. This was completely out of scope.
¶ Early Lessons
The game was never intended to be what it is. It got somewhat muddled in both game design and level design.
The style of game does not really resonate well with our current audience and doesn’t really satisfy the audience that enjoys this type of genre. It was a little half and half you could say.
This is a great example of why we’re encouraging you to really take your time before starting a new project and do some research first.
I definitely should have spent more time planning out what I wanted this game to be, but to be fair, along with the time restraints against us, there was never meant to be game at all.
But all is not lost of course, far from it!
Through many iterations over the next few weeks, and as you’ll see throughout this series, we turned things around.
¶ Summing Up
We wanted to share this short backstory on how this approach to building games can be problematic, there’s no better way to get started and gain momentum than just diving right in.
It gives us the opportunity to list out some of the ways we recommend you source your game ideas the right way.
Whilst the game is far from perfect, it’s still a short fun little experience.
In this series, we’ll be sharing some tips and techniques on the best way to get new game ideas and inspiration so you can do it the right way and not fall into the same situation.
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¶ Game Design Overview
Learn what game design is and what elements you need to consider when planning your game.
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¶ Related Topics
Watch Us Build Series Game Design Foundation How to Get Game Ideas Dopamine In Games Game Scope & Feature Creep Game Scope Example What is a Core Loop in Games Playtest and Pivot Core Loop Example How to Design Game Mechanics