#snaresnake

Learning how to use GDevelop

From personal experience and from my attempts with using GDevelop so far, it can take me quite a while to learn the basic ins and outs of a new software. 

After playing around a little bit with the software, I don’t think learning using trial and error will work with this one.

I’m going to follow some tutorials and read up on some resources so I can actually know what I’m doing before I try and make something of my own.

This need to fully learn how to use GDevelop will and has put back my expected date for a playable prototype of the snaresnake game, but from this I’ve realised that I made a mistake in thinking I would be able to understand how to use GDevelop straight away and then make something worthwhile. 

So there was a good take away here! Which is progress in my books. Learning is learning afterall.

The plan I’m going to put in place for prototyping

While GDevelop will produce a better and not to mention playable protoype of the game, I’m not very fluent in how to use it to create my visions yet. 

So, while I continue to learn the GDevelop systems, I will illustrate my concepts and ideas on paper. This paper prototyping will allow me to get my thoughts and aspirations down quickly and easily. 

Both forms of prototyping will come in handy for gathering feedback for improvement. 

The paper prototypes will help inform the GDevelop playble prototype and will help ensure time isn’t wasted on mechanics and ideas that playtesters said they wouldn’t understand or find fun in the game. And as the paper prototypes can be quickly changed or redone the concepts on them can be changed and reworked as feedback is being given about them. 

Within any platformer and especially games in the “Metroidvania” subgenre, the moment to moment gameplay needs a bit of extra attention. 

Metroidvania style games are often populated with long stretches of exploration and backtracking between story and action beats. 

This between time needs to be engaging. I believe one of the best ways to do this is to make the players’ interactions with the game fun itself, so that even without the story or the world or anything else the movement and avalible action would just feel excting and fun to perform. 

Giving the player an easy to understand/perform and versitile moveset will give them something fun to do in the moments between the action. 

One of my favourtie examples of having this increadlibly moment to moment gameplay is Nintendo’s Super Mario Odyssey. 

Odyssey lets it’s players take full advantage of Mario’s signature move: His jump. Odyssey is not a level-based game, its an open world experience, and it also involves a lot of traveling, exploring and just getting places. To make these moments as fun and enjoyable as possible they have given the player a variety of both easy and difficult to perform jumps, combos and movements in general.

[gif source: https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1335800-super-mario-odyssey]

Another favourite for feel good in game movement comes from Moon Studios, Ori and the Blind Forest. Running and jumping as Ori gives you a sense of freedom with just how light and fluid the character is. Every moment flows just right. 

[gif source: https://gifer.com/]

First Ideas

This idea comes from this silly and fun little what if question:

“What if a snake was also a drummer.“

Its a somewhat odd idea for a game, but thats not a bad thing. It means I can experiement and create my game, and its mechanics, around a theme: a snare drum.

The following elevator pitch outlines my intial thoughs and ideas for what I think the game should be. These ideas will most likely change and evolve with prototyping and playtesting, these posts will be under the tag #ideas and thoughts

The Elevator Pitch

Title of the game: Snare-ake/SnareSnake

“The player will take control of a drummer snake in this fast paced rougelite and/or metroidvaina plaformer. The game will borrow ideas of speed and thrill to play from the Sonic series of games. Featuring a high bpm soundtrack and non-serious art style and characters.”

Extra points: