The past few days, I played with 3d on the playdate. And while it was nice to learn about 4x4 matrices, it put me further away from what mattered: Design for gameplay.

Seeing the 3d object on screen was nice. Seeing the FPS crashing on real hardware was not. I may tinker with it on other hardwares like the PicoSystem or the Raspberry Pi Zero 2, given it’s what powering the upcoming GameCard, but for now, I won’t indulge.

I should keep my focus on designing the various gameplay sequences I want for my game. And it’s hard, as the most common approach on the Playdate, is to have one type of gameplay. But that’s not what I want, because I think about a story I want the player to experience, and what’s it entail. Sometimes, you may drive to a location, sometimes, you have to quietly infiltrate, be strategic about the dialogue option you’ll have to chose, and so on.

So design is important for each sequences and it put constraint on both what’s the playdate is capable, and what will be interesting for the player, gameplay-wise.

The story is set in a big city, and right now, I thinking really hard about what degree of liberty the player should be able to experience. If I listen to my perfectionist approach, I should allow every street to exist and appear as it, for the player to enjoy. But even I know that even if some will try to test the limits, actively hunting for the invisible wall, the locked door, most of the player won’t.

Maybe some incentive can be added to reinforce this behavior. I try to think of a more probabilistic way of experiencing the city for the player: You may be in some street that is credible, but not consistent upon returning. What this trashcan at this place 1h ago? Who can say? And more importantly, who cares?

Trying to think about how one can navigate a city where most of the element are not set in stone is a challenge in itself, but an interesting one.

Let’s not forget what I must focus on: What the player will do. I want driving gameplay, but I need a valid reason for the player to do so. I also must have a good way to represent it ingame. I pushed the limit with the way I did 3d, and must now find a compelling representation of the city, if the player is driving in it.

I’ll share more experiments I’m currently doing around those questions.

More about it later :)