Nathan’s Game Dev Blog Part 4 – Adventure ii

The final part in my Flappy Bird Clone article series is being put on hold for a few days while I finish up the details.  In its stead I will publish some of my thoughts on designing my next game, Adventure ii (pronounced “eee”).  Hope you enjoy it!  ~Nathan

My Flappy Bird Clone is close to done, but writing the process is going to take a while, so here are my initial thoughts on my next game.  I will say for now that they last bits of polish involved a lot of modifications to my existing structure, which underscores the value of spending time thinking through your game.  Suffice it to say that although the last bits of polish I put on the game added maybe 3 additional hours, there was a fair bit of running around updating and modifying earlier work to accommodate things like the animation changing when Mario jump/flaps, keeping the high score from game to game, etc.  this underscored for me the importance of planning, so I began thinking about my next game.  Here are some of those thoughts.

Before I start talking about where I am, I want to say that I am surprised at the creative process. I started working on my second game, Adventure ii, by drawing a very small 3×3 grid in which the player could move relatively freely. I think started drawing paths between the 9 rooms, trying to find ways to limit movement and create challenges for the player. I wound up with 5 paths that are generally separate from each other but overlap on the grid.

This led me to the next question, which was “how do I create a challenge for each of these paths?” So I came up with 5 goals, one for each path, and to add challenge I made the goals somewhat dependent on one another. I chose a shield, sword, spell, ring, and a key to be the items at the end of each path. I wanted the player to be able to explore, but I don’t want to craft an experience where the player can get any item in any order, partly because I wouldn’t be able to control the experience, but mostly because it is HARD to create an open path that still introduces challenges that scale up as each item is collected. I will do something like that for my first ‘real’ game, but I think coming up with ways to make the paths generally open while still preventing the player from completing a given path without the right pre-requisites is a small design challenge that I should go through.

So I made the order of collection as follows: shield > spell > ring > sword > key. The idea is that you need all previous items to get the next one. Since each path is accessible from the beginning, I have to create increasingly difficult challenges for each of the paths. For example, if the player is going to try to get the sword first, there should be a barrier for players who have nothing, another barrier for players who have only the shield, and a third barrier for players who have the shield and spell but not the ring. I want players to be able to explore the world, and see the challenges ahead, while limiting their ability to complete goals out of order.

This led to a lot of rock/paper/scissors style experimentation. I first settled on characteristics of the items, then I built challenges that each item can overcome, while still being vulnerable to other challenges.

Starting with the items, I went with a standard fantasy style trope. The shield can block projectiles. The spell can enchant certain enemies, preventing attack. The ring allows the player to run, and therefore jump over wider holes and get through slow terrain more quickly. The sword allows the player to defend himself. And the key grants access to the win condition.

Next, I came up with enemies, one for each of the items. Goblins will shoot projectiles at the player. Birds and Bees will attack the player (regardless of barriers like walls or the shield), and follow the player attacking for a certain period of time. The statues will chase the player relentlessly and will kill the player in one hit. Zombies will chase the player relentlessly.

Each enemy has certain weaknesses as well. Goblins will run away if you get close to them. Birds and Bees are susceptible to the spell, and will help the player by attacking other enemies. Statues cannot traverse over gaps or holes. Zombies are slow, and can be killed by birds, bees, or the sword.

At this point, the design became about placing challenges in a proper order such that a player could make it at least partially down a path before succumbing to enemies with weaknesses he could not exploit. The most difficult was the sword, which was going to be the last item players can get. I chose this because most games start with a sword, or offensive item. I wanted players to have to explore while feeling somewhat exposed.

Ok, that’s about it for now.  Next week I’ll finish up my discussion on my Flappy Bird clone, then hopefully begin the nuts and bolts of Adventure ii.