I want to do something different this time.

Cosmologicon on 2011/09/02 17:38 of Universe Factory 13

After thinking about what it means to be successful at Pyweek, I've decided not to try to make the game with the best ratings or most fun this time. I don't know how yet, but I want to mix things up. Some potential ideas:
  • As long as they don't overstay their welcome, I like those indie games with unclear goals that involve exploration and lateral thinking. They tend to be kind of artsy, but they don't have to be:
    http://www.ludomancy.com/games/today.php
  • Related to that, I really like when there's a secret hidden in plain sight. Maybe an object that you assumed was part of the decoration that turns out to relate to the gameplay somehow. Taken to the extreme, you can have 100 secrets hidden in a single room:
    http://www.kongregate.com/games/ArmorGames/achievement-unlocked
  • My favorite genre is the wide-open sandbox, but that requires a ton of content to really make it interesting. If I can come up with some creative way for that to exist, I would love to make a sandbox game.
  • On a different tack, I've been getting into the work of researcher Jane McGonigal, who champions games (including video games) for social and self improvement. I wonder what would happen if I tried to make a game that makes people better.

Anyway, those are just my initial thoughts. Of course whatever I make will follow from the theme. If I can't think of any way to do something different, I may fall back to a standard game. But we'll see!
Good luck to everyone!

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Comments

Martin on 2011/09/02 22:59:

I wholeheartedly support this approach to PyWeek and am very much looking forward to what you produce.

mauve on 2011/09/03 12:40:

I would like to develop the network stuff I did last time a bit more - maybe try for a more massively-multiplayer game, with a dedicated server. I've been using gevent for high performance web service calls at work. I could probably tackle a daemon that scales to a few dozen concurrent clients without much difficulty.

But it really depends what game ideas we come up with - the concept will always take precedence for me over the tools and techniques I'd like to play with.

Mat on 2011/09/04 10:20:

+1

That achievements unlocked game was great.
 
This time I really want to focus on making my game fun. The plan is to think more about level design and spend less time programming stuff.