Hello folks,
I finally finished my first minigame last month. Well, or at least, I call it ‘finished’ since I don’t want to develop it into a full fledge game. Vius, maybe a little backstory and not your excuses. Right.
Hmmm… where do I start?
Where do I get the game idea? Well, I saw a lot of video game designers started by imitating games they like… and to me, it was Pepsiman. I had a PlayStation one when I was around eight years old. Pepsiman is among the first games that I tried. It brought me so much joy. It’s so easy to learn and challenging enough for eight years old Julivius. I thought of several games actually besides Pepsiman, but other games seem a bit too complicated to be my first game. In particular, I really like the idea of remaking the third level of the first stage.
The core mechanic is quite straightforward. The player could go left, go right, and jump. He has to avoid a number of obstacles until some point to win. It was not that hard to program the general mechanic. What was hard however is to nail other important parts. I didn’t expect how the player jump (for example, airtime, the animation, and how high the player jump) could change the gameplay experience. Other than that, the UI, sound effects, particle effects, and winning/losing notification are also as important as the core mechanic. I think I spent more time polishing these aspects compared to the core mechanics.
Are you too lazy to come up with a creative name for your game? Yes, next question.
What went well? I nailed the general concept of it. You can see visually how the game represents Pepsiman. The particle effect and the ambiance improved the game vibes. Oh, also, I randomized object location instead of using a fixed layout. Players cannot memorize the layout as I did back then.
What went wrong? Pass. What can be improved? Improving the UI. In Pepsiman, if you look closely to the top right of the screen, we can see how far Pepsiman has run and how far is it to finish. The prototype has no cue at all about it. At the end of the level, Pepsiman also has a cutscene to show that he has escaped the huge Pepsi can. I didn’t make that so the win didn’t feel that impactful. Worst of all, people who never play Pepsiman wouldn’t get what’s the purpose or the rules of the game. I think that are the main three components that I’m critically missing in Drunkenman.
Do you have anything to show us visually more than a screenshot? Good question, I actually did. I learned how to record my screen to do that.
So, you‘re done with developing this game, are you currently working on another game? Yes, and it’s more serious now because I plan to play it with a real audience (publishing it too probably). My current organization allows me to develop serious games and fortunately, the current workload also permits me to develop them.
Anyway, you can support my organization to support me… or for a better Southeast Asia. Let me know if you’re interested to know more about where I work.
Alright, I gotta go. Stay healthy, stay sane, and stay awesome.
Sincerely,
Your nerdy neighbor
Julivius