A Prototype

Dear Diary,


I am excited, I am motivated, and I think this idea might be cool, now if I could just figure out how actually make something happen where the player touches the screen!

There is something magical about an idea that is alive and working.  I find the struggle to learn how to write code to be both incredibly frustrating mostly, with moments of pure elation and reward when an obstacle is overcome.  The clarity that comes when you realize the solution that is going to work, you execute it, try and run your game and get an error!

Prototyping for me is trying to take one very small goal and researching, reading, watching tutorials, researching some more, coding, failing, coding, another tutorial, borrow a snippet of code, gain a better understanding, search for those new keywords, read more forums, type more code, ah-ha!

But once I found the solution to one problem there is always another one. Luckily there are so many problems to solve, if one stumps me for too long, I can research and solve a different one.

For the Prototype I focused on one goal which was to touch the screen and make the ball fly away from where you touch. The game was called Bounce Game. But I wanted it to have a more clever title. I called it:

A Rolling Stone.

I published it to the Android Market and to Kongregate.  And then I shared the start of my little dream.

The Idea

Dear Diary,
I want to create a game that is unique, innovative, easy to play, has potential to be loved, and easy enough for me to develop. Is it even possible to create something new and not derivative?

 I though a lot about what type of game I wanted to make. I spent a lot of time playing the "most popular" games trying to divine what makes a "hit" game.  I am not ashamed that I want to make something that has a potential for success, and the truth is successful games are popular because they have something. I boiled down my targets to a few "ingredients" for success.

Key Games: Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Cut the Rope

Physics - There is a life and unexpectedness physics brings to games.
One Touch - There are a lot of reasons for the power of one touch, the clearest is simplicity.
Cute - Games that are cute are approachable. They make players happy, and we need happy.
Bite Sized - Mobile games are consumed in incredibly short session times. They need to from start to success   fast.

So what was I going to do? I started to have this idea about a platforming game like mario, that could be played with one finger. I thought about a ball that I could juggle in the air, similar to a Hackey Sack. Players kinda kick the ball around the screen, bouncing it off walls, and try to get to the exit.  Players earn rewards for completing levels in the least ammount of "kicks"  And shockingly, the idea was ready. It fulfilled my core goals, and I think I could actually execute the programming required to make it work. Now I actually had to do the hard part. Start working on it!

The Spark

Dear Diary,
I have been making video games since 2002. I have been playing them most of my life. Yet I am now 32 and I feel like all the games I have made were created and forgotten. I wish I could make something for myself that would make me proud.

This sequence of thought has been brewing for years. But due to a rather rough past year, and some life events, I felt like I need to step up and start taking action. This combined with major changes in the game industry, mainly the advent of mobile games got me motivated. But now I needed a game idea.