Game Mechanics Gameplay Design

[Toxicosis]

Well, here I am...

Over time as I developed the prototype for a game, I started realizing that while I had an idea, I had very little clue of what to do with it. Thought it wouldn't happen to me, though we noobs get warned all the time not to try and make your dream game the first time around...

Spoiler: spoilered for specifics

So, I'm making a platformer where the player can get really, really big. Unfortunately, just altering the size of the player doesn't make for an interesting mechanic. I thought to emphasize the weight and mass by taking away the ability to jump at large sizes, and instead giving the ability to stomp or sweep, which felt really clever at the moment... but then something hit me.

At larger sizes, the player becomes slow and ponderous, which gives the player a good clue that they're big... but now I've got absolutely no idea what to do with it. I've got a big sprite that moves slowly and hits hard, but being unable to jump or climb it's restricted to movement in one dimension (plus crouching). That kills mobility, and in a platformer, that's kind of the point. And even after I fix this, assuming I can, there's no guarantee the gameplay will be as clever or interesting as I thought it would be. Which makes me .

I was wondering, has anyone had to deal with realizing your gameplay idea wasn't as fun and clever as it seemed when it popped in your head? More to the point, can you share any experiences or insights regarding how to design the gameplay?

 

[ConsolCWBY]

I was wondering, has anyone had to deal with realizing your gameplay idea wasn't as fun and clever as it seemed when it popped in your head? More to the point, can you share any experiences or insights regarding how to design the gameplay?

Tabletop - but the design paradigm is the same:
This happened to me when I attempted to design a post apocalyptic card game. The idea of creating a town, populating it and hiring mercenaries to defend or attack your opponent and destroy their settlements was cool. Unfortunately, it devolved into a mess - mathematically. The way the cards interplayed could be mathematically deduced within just a few turns, rendering the deckbuilding aspect pretty useless. That was my core mechanic. The second mechanic didn't fare too well either - set collection. Once a player realized which card combos were needed, it rendered the set collection of buildings into a frenzy of buying habitations and farms instead of bunkers, towers and the like. The whole game devolved into a mathy tit-for-tat. I thought using Dr. Knizia's theory of odd numbers would protect against this. I was wrong.
The thing I learned from this: Never assume well-trod mechanics will protect you, pretty much as you stated in your post. Nowadays, I concentrate on my never ending quest for the perfect 'RPG'. I stay away from cards. The mathematical complexity is beyond my abilities. Did you consider if the growth mechanic would be fun if used in another type of game other than a platformer? (The reason why I ask, is because I love monster movies - and miss old games like crush crumble and chomp!)

Not really videogame related - but still design related.

 

[Yal]

The idea kinda sounds like it'd be more suitable for a top-down game IMO. You can move along two axes, but being too big might restrict you from enter small corridors and stuff (or even squeeze between two buildings once you get HUGE). Being big makes your attacks stronger, but it also makes you a bigger target, so you need to be careful about not getting surrounded by enemies in a completely different way, especially if they have special effects like stunning you or dealing damage over time... and your size blocking access to some areas means your stealth and escape options get limited so that you might be forced into fighting your way through no matter if things go your way or not. Especially the 'bigger target' thing is pretty much downplayed in a platformer since you'll more or less only be able to be attacked from left and right... and a lot of the time only from one direction anyway because you cleared out all the enemies in the area you came from.

 

[RangerX]

If you think your main idea for the game doesn't work, try and analyse it more. Let me "think about it" with you and see where this goes. I invite you into my brain process!
So your game, what makes it NOT fun? what is precisely that doesn't work? You answered some of those questions yourself:

- Navigation gameplay is 80% of the fun in a platformer (at least a traditional one). Since the character is slow and not jumping, this aspect is ruined.

So basically the player needs to keep its jumping and agility intact. But being big needs to have a reason and feel clever. That's apparently what you want too. This is where I think there's a paradigm in GameDesign. At many moments, if only for inspiration, you take ideas and concepts from existing games. I know of a game where being big is cool and where you don't lose a tiny bit of agility while growing: Katamari Damacy.

It was fun because rolling up stuff in the beginning, small objects on the ground was slowing leading to rolling up cars, houses, cities and near the end of the game I was rolling up freaking continents and then the planet was just water!! This game ENTIRELY focused on making being big also being fun. Notice the core mechanics and rules didn't change throughout the game. I think its a key point!

Now if I take Katamary Damacy and a platformer, this automatically spaws in my brain a game that never existed and could be fun: What if at first you do platforming in "normal levels". Then you become bigger and the main parts of the levels are now level elements to jump on. Then you get even bigger and entire levels are now platforms for you to jump on? What if you become so big at some point that you are jumping from planets to planets??

 

[Toxicosis]

I did consider making it a topdown or 3D, but that'd render me even more clueless than before. I'd rather try to salvage the process in some other way, if possible- I really, really want to make this game. Eventually, I'm sure, I'll change my mind, but in the meantime I'll try and focus on other aspects.

Thanks for your advice, RangerX, GameDevYal, and for sharing your experience, ConsoleCWBY.

 

[gamedev4life]

Maybe when the player gets larger it can ledge grab and climb ledges, allowing it some vertices movement while still not jumping, and allow it to smash through obstacles; and redesign the rate of growth and max size while still increasing weight.

For "new" game ideas approach them from an experimental angle, treat it is wet clay, something that has yet to be formed, be flexible

 

[Yal]

Another interesting idea... the game could be recursive. When the player gets big enough, they get part of the level, and now you take control over another character that starts off small and grows. Maybe you can switch between the original player and the small player to bridge gaps, allowing the small player to climb on the big one to reach areas inaccessible otherwise. This could repeat a couple of times until all playable characters are big... I'm thinking something like Majora's Mask where the four giants need to stop the moon from crashing into the world and destroying it, and the friends you control has to help each other grow big to save the world in some way (like catching the moon, or surf on a tsunami, or something like that... but the moon probably is the most hands-on ending plus it looks cool).

 

[Toxicosis]

I like that idea, Yal- like in the Lost Vikings, swapping between characters to do puzzles. That was a game I really liked. And that's close to one of the fixes I juggled the idea of, gamedev4life.

Though I ought to admit I was hoping for something more about attitude and experience than ways to fix my game in particular (you know how possessive noobs can get... XP), I appreciate the input.