So I've been working on this game Monstinder for a few weeks now and it's nearing completion. I need to finish it by November 5th so I can enter it a Rensselaer Games Showcase, a game development competition on my campus.

Here is a link to the latest build:

https://keyboardkommander.itch.io/monstinder

The game is currently being developed in unity by myself (the programmer), Justin Beurgi the lead artist and Enrico Pattuci the supporting artist.

The core of the gameplay is a procedurally generated puzzle matching gameplay.

Here's the title scree, you can see that it's meant to be a bit minimalist.

Here's the character creation screen where the player makes there monster out of monster parts. I wanted to keep character customization as simple as possible which is why I streamlined it to three choices at a time.

This is the main gameplay screen where you find good matches for your monster. Basically the types your monster consists of has to not conflict with the types of your potential match for their to be a match. The key here is speed. As you get better and better you should be able to more quickly scan the types of the monsters and determine if they will be a good match or not.

Finally here is the tournament screen. At the end of each level you try to find true love. Here you must sort through all your accumulated matches to find out which one is the perfect fit. Again the goal here is simplicity so you only pick the best match out of two at each step until there is only left.

All the gameplay systems are in place so going forward I will be focusing on polishing and juicing the game as well as fixing a few bugs and adding new monster types.

I've been streaming development of this game alongside my other projects on my twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/keyboardkommander

The following is some feedback from one of the play testers. Still trying to make heads or tails of it:

My opinion is subjective tho

Games that I think people find fun/addictive have a motivation for the user to want to succeed:
Types of motivation:
1) SUPERIORITY/VALIDATION

• Challenges that look/feel simple but actually hard so player is left feeling frustrated of their own failure and have a need to succeed next time to validate their expectations. People value intelligence/knowledge so games that challenge their strategic skills or whatever thinking thing is involved in their brain will want to succeed in a game that tests those skills. Tetris/Diner Dash/ over cooked/brain academy have a time limit that makes player feels their success and skill is based on how quickly they can complete a large number of tasks while also decision making and sacrifices on what would lead to a better result.

ex 1) Dating Sims/ANy simulations i find are the most fun/successful are the ones that have player options that (mostly)reflect on logical and expected output based on reality/real world and lets people test their skills on how well they can interact with the characters in the game. Give the player the illusion that they are slick and manipulative and understand people in a deeper level when they really are jsut talking to an anime girl and they probably read a walkthru to make the right choice.

ex 2) Pokemon GO people intend to play it for "childhood" but because it is a widespread popularity, respect and pride is associated with how high level you are, how many rare pokemon you have, and how hard u work because now your stats are visible by people. Its now a power thing.
->TLDR: KNOWLEDGE = POWER/RESPECT. PEOPLE ARE POWERHUNGRY.

2) PERSONAL ATTACHMENT/INTERESTS:

• Going back to Dating sims, there is a difference between Sakura Swim Club(SSC) and Clannad. SSC is ****. It has nice art and good colors but only reason to play is based on curiosity of the fan service. Anime is seen as unrealistic but if you give the characters realistic(somewhat) personalities or something that kinda reflects on the logic of the real world knowledge, it breaks the mentality that they are playing a dumb game and make them feel personally attached to this fake world that they can put themselves. (maybe escapism??) People find games to be emotional or hits them close because they can actually feel the gravity of what is happening in the game. Could be happy, sad, etc. Everyone finds the first 10 minutes of the movie "UP" is sad because we see the maincharacter's whole life and we understand how it caused a build up of why and how he became a sad old man (empathy).
  • FAN SERVICE/SATISFYING A SPECIFIC POPULATION OF PEOPLE -> People also want to play games because there is something that reflects on their own personal interests/pursuit (is fanservice the right word?) or intrigues them. Nintendogs is not challenge based, its made in the thought of people who would have an interests in pets, or keeping a dog. Dogs are cute. Make something blind people can play and find fun. Add characters that are not the typical troupe of what we see in most games. EVeryone knows representation is important but when you are actually not the group taht is being disregarded, you lose the emotional component to fully understand why and do not fully value it. Just know that people do cry and breakdown when they see themselves finally represented in something as simple as watching that seasame street video of loving your own naturally grown hair or that Fresh Off The Boat scene where you see the kid being made fun of for bringing ethnic food. (this is a breeze through cuz i don't want to over write but i can help u put yourselves in their shoes to feel a little bit of what they are getting at)
• SUCK PEOPLE INTO YOUR GAME. People usually say reading is like a journey in your mind. Good writing takes a player into your game. Good Music/sound can draw you in and make you not feel like you are in the comfort of your own room, but actually in the game. People who get too scared in horror games turn down the music because it sets the atmosphere too much. People like to buy games for good art but it is based on their false expectation that good art == good game. The idea of Good art = good taste, good tastes = class/superiority, class/superioty = power, people are assholes. JUst t don't make a too unappealing game because people won't take it seriously because they are assholes. 28 days later and Abzu sucked me in and gave me feels from sound.

3) INTRIGUEMENT (idk if this is the same as personal attachment/interests):
Hot Date is a dating sim where u are going out with a dog. People are intrigued by the idea of why there is a dating sim with dogs.

• CONTRADICTIONS -> Hatoful boyfriend dating sim was created as an april fools joke but people are so bewildered by dating pigeons. Also the mentality that pigeons are seen as dirty flying rats but then presented as a love interests(someone that we see the opposite of dirty rats) is contradicting. We see pigeons in a negative stigma therefore we do not acknowledge them as intelligent animals(which they are, doves are dumb) and as the game progresses, the plot becomes dark and the idea of animals we see as inferior are capable of deep thought capable of planned murder and personal trauma is ironic and is exceeding our expectations of what they are capable of. If you see people that talk about this game, you can tell they aren't talking in a serious tone, but they are laughing and smiling about how "weird" this game is despite how there is murder involved because they find the irony to be humorous.
• GAMES THAT ARE SEEN AS UNIQUE AND ONE OF A KIND BECAUSE THEY ARE TRYING SOMETHING NEW THAT SEPERATES THEM FROM. Examples: Ghsot trick gameplay (just watch the IGN video) Everyone hopped on No Man's SKy because they thought the idea of a infinite universe was cool Games with a defined color palette and art style

Edit: she sent me a follow up message: so like I also forgot to add for the superior/validation thing is that thinking games are also mentally stimulating which is why they are fun. Straight out saying we only play things because we are conceited is too ***ish sounding and narrow-minded