Week 4 Update (Indie Game Challenge)
Hey there! This post is part of an indie game project I made in August 2022. There’s a lot more ground to cover other than what’s covered in this post. So when you’re done reading, check out the full project here.
In my previous update, I stated that I had a fairly easy time creating that week’s indie game. I wanted to challenge myself for this final week and end with a game that had the potential to grow into something more than a prototype.
I was successful on both ends. But not in the way I was expecting. You see, this week’s indie game was a total disaster.
The goal was to create a clone of the original Donkey Kong arcade game with my own personal spin. So I began the development of Goodie Bandit. A game about a thief who steals baked goods.
The desired game elements
- A brief invulnerable state that allows the player to phase through traps
- Lasers that randomly sweep across the various walkways
- Fast paced gameplay that requires the player to combine quick thinking with quick reflexes
How it went
Terribly. When devising the game concept, I wanted to reinvent the original Donkey Kong’s mechanics. I took away the player’s ability to jump and replaced it with a “phase” mechanic. The player would have to use this ability to become briefly invulnerable to avoid death by the fast-moving lasers.
On paper this sounded like a great idea. In practice though, it was really boring. This was a revelation I came to early on in the game’s development. I briefly considered starting from scratch but decided to move forward with the project for two reasons:
- To avoid crunch time and burnout
- Because I wanted to document what it would be like to work on a bad game and see what lessons it would teach.
In hindsight, I’m glad I did. But I’ll go into more detail on that shortly.
Broken game design can’t be fixed without redoing the game entirely. But that is exactly what ended up being this week’s saving grace. I may not have been able to fix this game’s design, but I came up with some interesting ideas of how to make a better game that reuses some of the same concepts.
Even as I slogged through development, the gears in my head continued to turn. My first-hand experience making a bad game, gave me ideas for how to make a better game. This provided me with the motivation to push through development.
What I learned
- Making a bad game teaches you why it’s bad
- Making a bad game gives you ideas for better games
The game plan going forward
- Continue the one game a week challenge on my own
- Challenge myself to come up with more original game ideas. Even if the result is the next E.T. the Video Game
And that wraps up the final week of the project! It was the toughest yet in terms of staying focused, but I consider it to be the most valuable in terms of what I learned!
