Posted December 31, 2022 by shuffle8
It's been a looooong time since posted anything here or anywhere really. One of the reasons for that was because I've been working on this game while still having a day job and having life stuff in between. The other reason was due to the fact that I really didn't feel comfortable with the idea of the game. In fact, I didn't feel like I had any idea what I was doing with the game.
I started the game by exploring different mechanics which seemed interesting in theory but none of them felt like they were doing anything interesting. Even after coming up with new game mechanic ideas with a friend I felt like something was still lacking although I really got excited at first. I didn't know what was wrong with game but something didn't feel right and I got less and less motivated to continue working on the project as the days went by.
Then came a very productive and teaching weekend with some great friends who made me realize a few things:
Well. after that weekend the wheels in my brain started turning again and I began to sketch some new ideas, wrote the overall story(will be shared soon in the page description) and actually got some ideas for core mechanics of the game. First of all, I decided to change the punching behavior and build around that the rest of the mechanics the player could interact with. The punch now becomes a separate object as soon as it's released and with a push of a button the player can call it back, opening some interesting game mechanic opportunities. I also came up with a structure that will allow me to stay focused but still keep thinking on how to make the game even more interesting without going too crazy, keeping things manageable.
For the MVP part of the game , I came up with 4 main mechanics that would work with Punchy's new fist behavior.
With the new fist behavior there's a meaning to the direction of the fist. Therefore I made this breakable mechanic which can be set to break from any direction or a specific one.
This one also responds to direction of fist, however it launches the fist further in the relevant direction.
It also has a variation in which it can be moved as soon as a switch is pressed.
This mechanic doesn’t directly interact with the fist but I decided to use it not only as a lift but also as a bridge and/or door.
The great thing about these mechanics is that now I can tie them with the world of the story and replace their sprites with something that makes more sense in Punchy's world.
That's it for this entry. I hope I wasn't too confusing and that you like what you see :)