"Inspired" by another game

Black Bobby The Hole started from the concept that I saw in another game. There, I said it!

That game had the player to be a colored ball, and he would increase in size once he'd collide with a smaller ball of the same color.

I liked it. I was hooked for several hours which is way more than I could say about most games. I'm just hard to please, but that's another story.

So yea, now I gave people an opportunity to call me an asshole and say that I clone games.

So I figured I could make it much better. Add a story, add some cool graphics and some more gameplay elements.

This took the form of the very first prototype with one map, the growing in size mechanic and 3 abilities which the player could use.

It did not entertain for long, just like a prostitute, it doesn't last (trust me...I KNOW....).

So onward into the journey of taking a piece of shit and sculpting it into an annoying monster.

DevLog #2 – About, controls and how it's different

Black Bobby The Hole is an arcade game with modern cartoony graphics in which Bobby, the black hole, must defend his home and solve the mystery of the cursing entity.

Right now there is one type, and that is an extremely fast movement towards the mouse cursor. The main reason behind this is that the control should never hinder people. When that happens, it's a problem.

As the project advances if there will be a demand I will implement a slower, more smooth movement towards the cursor, perhaps controller support as well.

And then we have the abilities which can be activated with keybinds.

A quick reminder about the first DevLog entry of this project: I saw a game, I liked it, made one of my own and started improving it.

The result will be something so different than the initial game that people won't be able to compare.

First thing's first: character customization

The main character is Bobby, a friendly black hole on a mission to get rid of invading asteroids.

In order to make him more human poor Bobby needed some eyes first. And that went to shit!

I made the eyes separate, and then struggled to sync them. Meanwhile Bobby was making these retarded faces:

Pretty damn funny until I had to spend an hour getting them to sync properly, and another hour to implement the (now) primitive animations.

More customizations included hats, skin color (yes, there is a pink here!) and trail that's left behind (kinda like an unicorn permanently farting).

At least now has a face and a personality, be that retarded or not.

DevLog #3 – Designing the story using articy:draft, part 1 out of 4

Black Bobby The Hole is a casual arcade game set in space with the main protagonist being a black hole.

Not a spaceship, not an alien...just a black hole...well sometimes different colors depending on his feelings.

The theme is similar to a lot of shoot'em up games, and a quick glance at the gameplay will reinforce that.

So apart from the fact that I replaced the usual spacecraft with a black hole, there is nothing too special about this game. Which is where the story comes in.

Most shoot'em up games have these serious stories about either enemies invading you or you invading them. Sure it's kinda the same thing here, but in a more funny lighthearted way.

The ultimate enemy is a thing called Fluffopath. He is also the one which sends small enemies towards Bobby.

Fluffopath is a cretin. He is an insulting troll that must be silenced.

So starting from that, I just added more silly to it.

This is the first story part of the game. It attempts to explain...things

I resorted to my game design tool of choice: articy:draft.

A sketch was already in my mind but it quickly dissipated as I was designing it since newer and better ideas came to mind. It's just so different to use pen and paper, or even worse, to just think of it - compared to when you actually have that visual cue you get from using a proper tool.

And the voice actor instructions which were gracefully carried out.

Next DevLog will be about the second part of the story with even more design workflow images! (I hope)