#GameAWeek - Plod! (Week 5)
Idea
I’ve always had a thing for one button games since Flappy Bird. Jupiter Jump was another great one button game. I wanted to try making my own.
What went well
- I definitely felt less stressed out this week and ideas seemed to come more easily. This was huge.
- I quite enjoyed the final product this week. More so than the games from the previous two weeks.
What went wrong
- I had wanted to make a small RPG which teaches players Morse code. There doesn’t seem to be a dictionary data structure or a spell checker library, and I just gave up on the idea on Thursday night.
- Making a simple game like Plod! was well within my comfort zone, and I felt like I took the easy way out.
- As usual, I probably could’ve explored the concept a little further, but didn’t due to time constraints and laziness.
- The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth came out this week, and that’s a productivity killer if there ever was one.
What I learned
- Don’t have two things that do the same thing. Initially I set up the controls such that when you held down Spacebar, your circle would stop and expand until you released it. I thought it might add some interesting tension. (You can stop, but as you grow you’re more likely to get hit.) In the end I realized that players could achieve a similar stopping effect by simply changing directions repeatedly.
- There’s quite a lot you can do with just a single button. But sometimes it may be hard for the player to remember all of them.
Progress
Week 5: Plod! [Game]
Week 4: Repel [Game] [Blog]
Week 3: Chests [Game] [Blog]
Week 2: Smaller Than Infinity [Game] [Blog]
Week 1: Wrapped In Space [Game] [Blog]
