Friday 20 November 2015

Dev log 2: Progress, NGDC showcase and Secret project!

Little Life: Adaptivity - progress

Web release:
The flash version of the game was sponsored and published in september. I published flash version for the following reasons:

  • The sponsorship money kept me funded.
  • Decent flash games go viral easily. So the game received a ton of feedback, very helpful for polishing.
  • I already have some fan base for my old games. It helped me a bit.

Steam release:







I'm going for steam greenlight for the game after I do more polish, add more levels and add full controller support to the game. You can follow the game here to get news about steam release.


NGDC Showcase:
I showcased the game at NGDC Pune on 6th and 7th November. The whole time I was there I couldn't take my eyes off of the players and the screen while they played the game. I learned a few things about game design, human behavior and even about myself ;) by observing them play.
The thing that excited me the most is - a few players were experimenting with the mechanics rather than completing the levels.
















Here are some of the things I learned:

  • I introduce the core mechanic of the game in level 2. A few people thought that the mechanic was a bug in level 2. This is because the mechanic is new and people have never seen it before in games. So I had to redesign the level four times.
  • Initial levels should be as short as possible so that the player can quickly get a taste of the core mechanic.
  • I should definitely make a premium Steam release with full controller support. The game was so much fun with the controller!

Finally the game was awarded Runner up Indie game of the year.


Working from Cafe:
I worked from cafe on a few days for a change. I drink Assam tea most of the time and Darjeeling tea sometime.

the ambience:
I liked the mild yellowish lighting of the place. It was very comfortable for my eyes. My boss at my previous company used to recommend yellow tint on computer screens and on papers too.
The acoustics of the place was nice. It can be felt when they play music with a low volume on the background. But most of the time I just put my headphones on, because the music they play get very repetitive. Sometimes I like to remove my headphones and allow the chit chatting of people to hit my ears.

the people:
The place doesn't get crowded during the weekdays. From what I've noticed, most people who come there are from tamil film industry: directors, singers, actors, etc. So basically I was surrounded by creative people. It kinda motivated me to be creative :).


Secret project!
I've been working on a secret game from september. It's a puzzle platformer with the narrative and the puzzles tied together.
Well, it's not exactly a secret because I already showed the game to a few people :D.
I'm very bad at keeping secrets ;). You will understand why it has to be a secret once the game is out.
So far, one iteration of the development is complete, gameplay wise.
On the second iteration, I have to expand the levels a little and replace the placeholder art with production art. I also have to work on the ui and menu.
Besides these, I have a good amount of work left in improving the engine. I need to move a lot of things around in the engine and make it cleaner.

Thank you for reading! Please let me know what you think about the post in the comments. You can follow me on fb or twitter to get updates on the progress.

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