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[Devlog] The game that wants to die (temporary title)

A topic by Savvy Community created Nov 07, 2021 Views: 163 Replies: 2
Viewing posts 1 to 3
Submitted

Hey there!

We're a bunch of french people making games together sometimes! We believe in collective game design, innovative concepts and having fun while making games. We're also very lazy and created a sort of methodology for making the best games we can in limited time spans without crunch. We always spend a lot of time talking about the game we want to make, and then make prototypes we test A LOT.

Some of us aren't available during the work days, so we set up a schedule allowing everyone's involvement and collectively make decisions during 90 minutes-discord meetings in the evening. We keep meeting reports and production debriefs updated so that anyone can join the process while not having followed some sessions. 

This is our planning for the month:


It's the end of the first week, so we figured it's about time for a first Devlog!


NOV 1 - JAM LAUNCH - 90 min

We discussed the changes we wanted to make in this jam's methodology. 
- It was decided that this jam would be entirely online and that we wouldn't have to physically meet.
- Enabling asynchronous work during the production time was defined as a priority, we'll set up tools to allow that.
- Everyone present defined and shared their personal goals in participating in this jam.
- We decided to take the Game Off Jam's theme "BUG" and join both jams.


NOV 2 - GD #1 - 90 min

The purpose of this meeting was to explore the theme philosophically:
- We spent the entire meeting freely talking about the theme ("BUG"), what topics were linked to it and what we thought were interesting directions-to-explore. We shared ideas, opinions and references in order to constitute a shared vision of the theme.


NOV 4 - GD #2 - 90 min

The purpose of this meeting was to find innovative, cool game ideas together:
- We created questions-to-be-answered-with-ideas based on our directions-to-explore, selected the best ones and then exchanged game concept ideas through a brain-storming-like process. We took note of the ones that echoed us most.


NOV 5 - GD #3 - Entire Day

The purpose of this day was to choose the game concept for this jam:
- We continued co-designing game ideas.
- We voted repeatedly for the ideas we preferred / were most innovative, until only two remained.
- We started exploring what game would come out of the two concepts remaining, and then chose one! The concept of the game: The game wants to die. As a player you will have to gradually unplug every system of it: art, graphics, physics, A.I, sound, etc.. until you remove its game loop.
- We continued exploring what we wanted the game to be, and defined some aspects of it but couldn't reach an consensus on everything: global scenario, ending, CCC, etc.


NOV 7 - GD #4 - 90 min

The purpose of this meeting was to agree on the game concept and prepare the production effort of the following days:
- We defined everything we need to begin the development of the game.
      - The game will be a side-scroller with the avatar in the center of the screen, the game will start as a sort of escape game until its environment and behavior begin to change due to the player achieving goals. Some other points (camera, graphics) will be decided at the beginning of development.
      - The game loop will look like : knowing the goal > moving and find clues > getting to the goal > interact / unplug a system > the world changes, allowing one to see the next goal.
- We exchanged our respective availability for the following days in order to set meeting timings.

HostSubmitted(+1)

It's such a cool devlog, it's so nice to see your organization and all I'm glad you're so thorough :D Thanks for participating :)

Submitted

Thanks Tim :) we’re glad to be here!

It’s the end of WEEK #2, which means that we have produced a prototype and are ready to playtest it! Everything is going as planned, we had our first 3 days of production as a team of 4 people (programming, 2D graph, 3D graph, prod lead/integration) with 1 person intervened on Narrative Design and 1 person on Q.A.

Here’s the prototype: https://savvy-community.itch.io/game-24


NOV 8 - DEV-1 #1 - Entire Day

- We decided what would be the setting of the game: We play a stage manager, starting a new job in a theater located in a strange universe (where every character looks like a ghost and hovers)
- We worked out a scenario : First we’re asked to complete several usual tasks regarding the closing of the theater post-performance, then the game starts asking for tasks that have an impact on its existence (unplug the animations, disable the colliders, revert to placeholders, etc). Each action  unlocks
- We went for a Art Direction light and warm, similar to the depictions of the Dia de Los Muertos in Mexico. We went for a mix of 3D and 2D because of the skillsets of our participants.
- We chose what would be our first prototype: 7 tasks to complete (2 among them are “usual” tasks), 5 components to disable (animations, graphics, colliders, environment, game-loop)
- We created the level design of the environment: the world is to be separated in 2 parts (backstage and audience room) with only one way to pass from one to the other.
- We designed the character and illustrated it.
- We set up our dev environment, git repo and project management tools (google docs, sheets, gitlab).


NOV 9 - DEV-1 #2 - Entire Day

- We created a 3D mockup of the environment using Unity boxes only.
- We created 2D & 3D props to populate our environment.
- We created most of the game’s behaviour code-wise (triggering events, mass-component impacting, UI instructions).
- We worked on the scenario (how it would be delivered) and wrote the dialogues.


NOV 10 - DEV-1 #3 - Entire Day

- We kept creating 2D & 3D props and integrated them into the game, replacing boxes.
- We created 2D assets for characters animations.
- We integrated the behaviours within the environment and implemented the scenario,
- We tested internally, exported in WebGL, corrected some bugs and polished some aspects of the game.
- We edited the itch.io page quickly and added screenshots.


NOV 12 - PROTO REVIEW - 60min

- We presented and discussed the game’s first prototype.
- We decided what we wanted to test and how to do so (what aspects to interrogate, who to test them with, what tool to gather answers).
- We created questions for a google form to be set in the itch.io page of the game.