Game Idea Research

 

In my previous blog, I gave 4 game ideas. I explained the idea of each game and what you would have to do to play properly. I also explained how I imagined the games to look and how players can fully enjoy the experience,  the two games that really stuck out to me were number 1 and number 3. I will be talking about game number 1.

For this game, I said that it would be similar to popular game flappy bird. The player would have to manoeuvre a plane between poles by keeping their finger in the screen and moving up or down. The aim of the game is to get as far as possible distance wise. I imagined this game to be on a simple background, blue skies with clouds, and dark grey tarmac for below. 

Here is a quick mock up I made of my game using photoshop

Here is a gif of flappy bird I found to show how the game can run - via GIPHY

I was also planning on having the speed increase as the game goes on. This differs from flappy bird because you don't have to keep tapping the screen so it'll work as your finger stays put, ie never leaves the screen. The gif above isn't how flappy bird usually runs but is how I plan on my game running. 

Perhaps every 500m the speed increases by about 15% or so. This will of course make the game harder as it goes on, seeing as the player will have to have better reflexes to the obstacles due to the higher speeds. 

Similar to flappy bird, there is no end to the game, the player simply keeps playing to beat their high score. There are no levels or phases. 

Game Mechanics

Game mechanics are basically what defines the game. This includes all the things set in place for the game to function properly for the player. This is an article that really helped me to understand game mechanics. 

A common problem games seem to have is that they remain one dimensional. This basically means that there is no depth to the game, It allows the player to lose interest pretty quickly. I initially thought that this could be a problem for my own game as there is only one objective. After thinking deeper into it though, I think my game because that's exactly what it's advertised as.

The problem with so-called "boring" games is that the players are lead to believe that the game will be so much better than it turns out to be. The game is advertised with all the bells and whistles and people are excited for all the fun they're going to have playing. When they start to play however, the player quickly realises how underwhelming the game is because they have been led to believe that it is something it isn't. 

I have described exactly what my game is, but if I was to change that and say:

"This game is exactly what you've been looking for! You will have hours of fun that feels like minutes! So many levels and exciting turns while playing! You don't want to miss out"

This would give the player a false sense of hope and they would be thoroughly disappointed. I have already said above: "There is no end to the game, the player simply keeps playing to beat their high score. There are no levels or phases." 

I feel as though this is an accurate representation of the game and the player has no false expectations of what the game is set to do.