Posted October 05, 2023 by sebasfrdly
This week I pitched a game to my classmates in the hopes of securing a team and an idea. I pitched a farming simulator where you grow and sell aliens. As soon as I did my presentation my professor asked me "so what is your hook" I explained how cool the narrative and the art would be but then I realized that it doesn't really make my game any different than another farming sim with nice art and a cool story. I needed to find a hook, something more than a setting, something my players can see and interact with.
With a hook-less game and a semester that showed no signs of slowing down, I got back to the drawing board and started thinking about what could make the game more interesting. Then it hit me, gene-splicing. "What the hell is that," I hear you ask. In this game, (don't tell my team) you'll also be taking the crops (aliens) that you grow and fusing them together so that they become bigger and more disgusting looking aliens. That conveniently sell for a lot more money. I think this is gonna feed into the "no ethical consumption" type message that I am trying to push for in this game. Anyways, I think that might be a new starting off point. I guess the lesson I learned is that: beauty and story are important hooks to a game, but to set myself apart, I need an interesting mechanic that people will love to engage with.