Not all ideas are great. Or perhaps, not all ideas work in a game setting. The process of coming up with a game to create can take many steps. Our team (named Curry) took multiple brainstorming sessions, prototype game builds, and a complete reset of our game.
Let me start at the beginning. For our brainstorming phase, each member came up with a few game ideas (about 3 each) that somehow could be related to a mobile game already on the market. Then we went over each of the ideas and decided which ones we enjoyed as well as which ones could be related to a popular published game with a similar mechanic. With this narrowed list, we then voted on a top 3 and fleshed them out more: researching various games and what made people want to download them. We then did the whole process a second time, having a total of 6 games to narrow down.
We were left with 3 possible games:
- A photo-capturing cryptic game with a mechanic similar to arcade shooters
- An idle fishing game where you capture fish to feed to a bigger one
- A bomb factory game where the player must match the bombs to the boxes, similar to a lot of matching games
The first game idea seemed to work the best for us, so we went ahead and started making an actual game. We had a problem, though, XP3 required us to make two test games of various mechanics.
Being so attached to the cryptid idea, we branched other gameplay off of that, so instead of just taking photos, the player would capture creatures to add to their zoo, which slowly earned them money. This turned the quick-tapping shooter game into more of an idle property management game.
After making both test builds, we realized that we had a tendency to over complicate things. None of us being too familiar with the mobile market beforehand, we were used to the complexity that came with console and PC gaming, whereas mobile player look for something easily digestible in a matter of minutes. Long story short, the complex idle/creature capturing game was canned, even though art and audio was made alongside it. Still favoring some kind of photo mechanic in our game, we leaned into the idea of the player as a bird watcher, where all they had to do was take photos of birds. While the thought was simple and the photo taking was mildly interesting, there was no gameplay substance to it. The player wasn’t encouraged to have a purpose.
After mulling it over, we decided to take the camera mechanic away as the main focus and put it on attracting birds (specifically for us, owls) to stop by and give you currency as they leave so you can buy more things that could attract more rare owls. It was during working on this new gameplay loop that we got rid of the cryptid idea. Just tapping on cryptids made the gameplay a little too easy, and the theme wasn’t popular on mobile, so it would have been a difficult game for players to catch on to.
So, production began on the owl collecting game. For the whole gameplay loop to function correctly we had to create a shop, inventory, a photo album, and a camera. We also had to create a lot of art and audio assets so it was both visually pleasing and made sense to the player. When designing the game, we tried to mimic what made other creature collecting (most famously Neko Atsume, the cat collecting game) interesting, and improve upon other parts, that included the layout of the menus. Within a week or so, we got a working game build up and running, aside from some minor glitches that came with the input differences on mobile and PC.
The results… It flopped… Terribly. Visually, it was good. Audio was pleasant and added solid feedback. Programming-wise it did what it was made to do. But unfortunately there was no game. Players didn’t quite understand what to do. Why did they need to attract owls? Where was the fun? Okay, I can put a hat on an owl and take a photo of them dancing, but what happens now? When testing the game, we decided not to add instructions, just to see if players would understand the game. Obviously that didn’t work out too well. It was difficult with our small test build to show players how we wanted them to play the game, and how the game could be enjoyable. With all the negative feedback and glaring design problems, we stepped back for a second. Should we keep working on this? It took a lot of assets just to get a small test build working, and it’s going to take exponentially more to get a full game out the door. No, we weren’t victims of the sunk cost fallacy, we dropped production on the game.
Where to next? We could go back into the brainstorming phase, but it’s over halfway through the internship and we need to have a rough draft on marketing materials done by… next week. We needed a game that was both easy to develop and didn’t require the production of a lot of assets (and something that people understood how to play). We looked out our previous brainstorm at the beginning of the internship and saw the bomb matching game. Matching was easy to understand, and all we had to do was create a single bomb icon and recolor it to make plentiful assets on a whim.
Woah, woah—bombs? That’s the theme we want? What about some other ideas? Hats on raccoons? Too many assets. Mad-lib style word matching? Penguins with snow cones? Now hold on a second—that just might work. It’d be simple to create, need minimal assets that we can change programmatically, and the theme is fun and understandable enough so it won’t need a tutorial. With the idea in place, we set to work…and made the prototype in a day. With the mechanics set, we’re now in the process of importing art assets, audio, and a little of that design magic we call “juice” (mainly, particle effects and user interface animations). With production going a lot quicker and more smoothly, we’re hoping that any future flops are merely penguin related.
Thanks for reading!
By Jordan Dube
Team Curry consists of:
- Andrew Lobasso – Programmer
- Gaspare Spizzirri – Producer, Artist, Programmer
- Jordan Dube – Programmer, Designer
- Victoria Kelley – Designer, Artist
- Ben Lipkin – Audio Engineer
- Joseph Benson – Artist
» Read More
Coming up with a game concept can be just as mentally engaging as making a game. Here at Team Stir Fry, we experienced that firsthand. Steve, Matt, Jian, Annie, and I created several flowcharts and moodboards of random buzzwords and pictures before settling on a few to stick with. Space outlaws? Toy boats? The sky was the limit, but there were a good amount of concepts that we instantly agreed on. I honestly did not expect that the first two weeks would be just brainstorming, but it was a fun process.
Personally, as an aspiring game composer and audio designer, I started XP3 feeling overwhelmed. I have had years of musical experience, but I’m currently a newcomer to the game industry with only a basic knowledge of Unity. While the learning curve has been steep, I’m glad that my teammates are there to help me work through the more technical things.
For our tank-style arcade battle game dirty build, I tried to make the music silly and lighthearted using quirky synths, accordion, and banjo since our concepts included cats on roombas and a bear invading a campsite. I also made more of a dramatic orchestral track for our sci-fi version of the build. I searched through plenty of cat and bear sounds to make the game extra silly. My goal for this build is to have something fun that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Our other dirty build, an endless runner, was heavily inspired by musical concepts. We wanted lofi hip hop. We wanted synthwave. We wanted any kind of music that could be turned into a visual aesthetic. We were even considering turning this game into a rhythm game. Our concepts included a classroom desk, a bold neon aesthetic, and a pirate theme. The pirate theme idea actually came from one of my more orchestral background music tracks. I also created a bossa nova song featuring my own live flute playing as an option. Overall, it is possible that I got a little carried away with the excitement of making background music assets for this build.
As the dirty builds are being worked on, I have to adapt and update the audio assets constantly. Oh, the cat is using a lightsaber, not a laser gun. Oh, the music should probably feature a different scale if we want to evoke a certain setting. The game needs to sound like how it looks, and watching these games grow keeps me excited and on my toes. I’m looking forward to seeing where this project takes us!
By Margaret Patel, St. Michael’s College ’20
*Team picture, from top left: Annie Higgins (Art), Jian Liu (Programming), Margaret Patel (Audio), Matthew Peters (Design), and Steve Kreuger (Producer)
» Read More
As usual, we have a lot of fun stuff planned in the coming months! Please, save the dates important to you.
- 9/24/21 – Pre Game Challenge (location: virtual) registration opens
- 10/4-12/10/21 -XP3
- 11/8/21 -XP4 application opens*
- 11/20/21 – Pre Game Challenge (location: virtual)
- 12/22/21 – Game Challenge registration (location: tbd) opens
- 12/22/21 – XP4 application closes*
- 12/29/21 – SIP22 application opens
- 12/30/21 – XP4 selections*
- 1/24-4/8/22 – XP4*
- 3/21-25/22 – GDC*
- 3/21/22 – SIP22 application closes
- 3/28/22 – Game Challenge registration closes
- 3/28/22 – SIP22 decisions
- 4/1-4/2/22 – Game Challenge (location: tbd)
- 4/21-4/24/22 – PAX East*
- 5/17-20/22 – SIP (location: virtual) onboarding
- 5/21-8/14/22 – SIP (location: tbd)
* Maybe
In addition, we expect to finally begin to update our website and have changed Collab (fka LiveStudio) to DigiStudio going forward.
Revised: 12/22/21
» Read More
Mochi’s Dreamland, a free, fun 2-D platformer, is available for download now on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Help Mochi climb to the top of his dream tower to save his favorite toy mousy! Mind your aim or you just might find yourself back at the bottom!
The mobile game, originally known as Dream Pop, was created during the summer 2021 MassDigi XP2 internship program by Jacob Siegel, Camden Gamlin, Nathan Moura, Kiria Bentley, Kshitij Gajapure, Melanie Thibodeau and Greg Bonini.
Watch the trailer here and download Mochi’s Dreamland today for iOS and Android!
» Read More
Teddy Pop, a free, fun match-3 bubble pop game, is available for download now on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Become Georgie the Teddy Bear, here to protect children’s dreams from nightmares!
The mobile game, originally known as Dream Pop, was created during the summer 2021 MassDigi XP2 internship program by Hannah Kim, Taylor Feld, Liam Day, Xiao Fan, David Wu and Greg Bonini.
Watch the trailer here and download Teddy Pop today for iOS and Android!
» Read More
Crustacean Frustration, a free, fun brick-breaker game, is available for download now on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Have you had it up to HERE with humans messing up the natural environment? Get your sweet revenge with Crustacean Frustration, a charming game where you play as a crab finally fed up with rowdy, littering spring breakers.
The mobile game was created during the summer 2021 MassDigi XP2 internship program by Robert Marzec, Stanley Zheng, James Nunes, Mya Labrecque, Jay Lam, Jeff Katz and Greg Bonini.
Watch the trailer here and download Crustacean Frustration today for iOS and Android!
» Read More
Clock Out!!, a free, fun arcade-style fighting game, is available for download now on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Unpaid intern fights bosses – literally!! Wreak havoc, cause chaos, climb the corporate ladder and fight the system!
The mobile game was created during the 2021 MassDigi Summer Innovation Program (SIP) by students Connie McGinnis from RIT, Daniel Narvaez from Parsons – The New School, Georgia Liu from Brown, Miquel Sans Cornet from WPI, Nicole Strubinski from RISD, Tristan Sistare from Becker–>Clark and Calvin Tillman from Berklee.
Watch the trailer here and download Clock Out!! today for iOS and Android!
» Read More
House Haunters, a free, fun turn-based strategy game, is available for download now on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Hunting ghosts in haunted houses for profit!
Battle your way through haunted houses to make a quick buck in House Haunters. Rid each house of the ghosts haunting the furniture, sell the property, and fight through the neighborhood!
The mobile game was created during the 2021 MassDigi Summer Innovation Program (SIP) by students Jen Bourke from NYU, Brandon DeLuso from Becker–>Clark, Brandon Mallory from Becker–>Clark, Liam Cristello from Northeastern, Shirley Liu from Swarthmore, Matthew Spahl from UMass Amherts and Calvin Tillman from Berklee.
Watch the trailer here and download House Haunters today for iOS and Android!
» Read More
Bewitching Boba, a free, fun and magical idle game, is available for download now on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Tap to watch your boba fall!
In Bewitching Boba, use your witch powers to magically create boba and run your shop! Tap to generate drinks and watch your sales rise!
The mobile game was created during the 2021 MassDigi Summer Innovation Program (SIP) by students Jack Hill from Becker–>Clark, Darren Chen from Temple, Mikey Schubert from Becker–>Clark, Dorothy Zhang from RISD, Sarah Madar from Becker –>Clark, Niko Olivo from Northeastern and Calvin Tillman from Berklee.
Watch the trailer here and download Bewitching Boba today for iOS and Android!
» Read More
Trials of Midnight, a free, fun and deck-building game, is available for download now on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Play as a nightmare trying to escape from a child’s dream world!
In this deck-building, roguelike, you take on the role of Midnight, a lost nightmare trying to escape a child’s dream world. With minions at your disposal, battle your way through legions of dream protectors.
The mobile game was created during the 2021 MassDigi Summer Innovation Program (SIP) by students Courtney Manbeck from Cornell, Dylan Valev from WPI, Justin Gaborit from Becker–>WPI, Frank Liu from RISD, Mac Li from SVA, Fergus Ferguson from Tufts and Calvin Tillman from Berklee.
Watch the trailer here and download Trials of Midnight today for iOS and Android!
» Read More