Not my last game design

I learned a lot this semester in game design class.  I didn’t think I would learn a lot aside from maybe a new API but I definitely learned a lot in terms of how to design a game that invokes replay.  For my final project I decided to team up with 3 other people and tackle something a little bit more ambitious than what I could do on my own.

The most applicable lesson I learned was from the very first day of class. We learned how breaking down development of something into small iterations allows for creativity and redesign.  This approach gave our team the ability to make big decisions because we refused to get attached to mechanics or features.  If it didn’t work we scratched it and moved on.  The original design we had was of a space scavenger that would have to gather recourses, but as the game developed I realized the real game was trying to survive depleting resources from level to level.

During the space flight portion of the game you had a limited amount of fuel. So little fuel that it was very difficult to get to the next objective.  Once you got to the objective you were placed in a level with a limited amount of oxygen.  This would force the player to change gears.  One moment the player is carefully tapping the throttle of the spacecraft to conserve fuel.  The player could take as long as they like as long as they didn’t use up all their fuel. But once they reached a destination they suddenly had to rush through a platform style level before they ran out of Oxygen. 

This constant switching between speedrun and finesse style is what the game is really about.  Had I been fixated on my original design, I don’t think I would have discovered this mechanic and I can see myself expanding on the concept for mobile devices.  Finesse and speed run games seem to translate to the small touchscreen very well.  Now, all I have to do is figure a way to include micro transactions.