I hate how fast time moves, but at least it motivates me to get things done.
I've gotten the digital version of Decoys to a point I'm happy with. It's just a prototype of the base game, without Bonus Cards and the like, with really crappy "graphics" that are different colored blocks. But hey, it works! I took my own game rules and made a computer understand them. Bam. Go me. I've never been able to do that.
The reason I'm not moving forward with that digital version is that I'm preparing for the October-November Metatopia table-top game convention, which is focused on playtesting new games, where I'm going as a "professional" to have people playtest my game (so excited!!). That mainly means I'm trying to come up with a more interesting board, visually. I've got the pencil on white paper board that I've been using for all previous games, sure, but I want to bring something that will catch people's eyes. I know that people will be judging the mechanics more than the art so it shouldn't matter either way, but this will also be the first (and hopefully not last,) exposure Decoys gets and I want it to look and feel as good as it can. I'll be working on getting proper game assets as well, like the pieces and the cards and something to use for score grids. It's first day is Halloween, so I haven't got much time to get everything together. Wish me luck!
Meanwhile, after coming off the high of finishing a digital Decoys, I was looking for something else to program, just to do it! I decided to do something easy and quick, like a 2D platformer ala Mario or something. Well I had jumping mechanics and gravity in pretty quickly, and I had been playing a lot of Cellar Door Games' Rogue Legacy, so put in some shooting and close range attacks along with some enemy blocks. So now I have an action platformer shell and need to fill it with interesting AI and a cool core concept and yada yada yada... Well I was talking with some friends about it and we came up with the idea of a robot who crash lands on a strange planet and needs to collect his body parts to get back home. It would be a Metroid type game where you get new gameplay mechanics as you progress and re-explore old spaces with the new mechanics and gain access to new spaces using those new mechanics. Sounds a lot more difficult than my original plan, but it sounds like it could be a fun game. I want to dive into programming it, but I don't even have rules yet. I'm sure my friends and I will discuss that further at some point.
It's fun programming! It's fun coming up with new games and new mechanics and systems! I feel so geeky but I love it! Those things have been many a Saturday night for me. I really hope I won't have to do anything else someday soon... Anyway, wish me luck at Metatopia!
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