Some Thoughts on Minimalism
-OR-
Why I Believe Less is More

I've had some time to think this over, and I think I have some good ideas here.

I'm currently making a game in a minimalist style. It began simply with me making my first set of pixel sprites for it, then finding that I liked them better solid black than colored in.

Then I started thinking: Most of the games that I love are simple ones.

I love Bejeweled, I love Tetris, I love Super Mario, heck, I love Pong!

Then I thought about the games that really disappointed me.

Command and Conquer, Oblivion, Half-Life 2, Metroid Prime.
I've played Second Life. I, like many people, quickly ran out of things to do.

This is interesting to me, because we often think that more features, more content, more open-ended gameplay make a game better.

I propose that this is not always the case.
Certainly, these are games that benefit from complexity. RPGs need to be complex, otherwise it deteriorates into "Press A until you win".

That said, even puzzle games can benefit from simple mechanics.

Complexity naturally arises from simply system. Chaos theory has shown this.

So perhaps we need to put... Less in our games.

Leave out all that is unneeded. Keep everything that is necessary, and discard everything else.

This is expressed in most engineering communities, the UNIX and hacker subcultures, and even as a principle of lifestyle by some religions.

Certainly Pong would have been worse off if it had all of the rules of ping-pong (Outs, Faults, etc.), Tetris would never have become a classic if it had items, and Super Mario Bros. would have seemed stupid if it had a shop between levels.

This is a philosophy I have been happy to see come forth from Pyweek. I've found that the best titles are often the ones that include the least.

In fact, it seems to spring naturally from having only a week to develop an entire game.

This makes me happy. It has given me a way to make fun games over a timeframe that I can work in.

I guess... It's something to think about. What we need to ask when designing... No, when making a decision is "What can we eliminate? What do I not need?"

---Akake

That was fast.

for some reason ie and google would not let me log in firefox seems to work.

Edit: Updated because I came to a terrible realization about what I'd gotten myself into

I have run into a roadblock with my third practice game.

For the record, my second was an eight-hour Robotron 2084 clone that can be found here.

My third practice game was going to be a fighting game, but the sprite count is starting to reveal what the time frame and overall size of the game would be.

Instead, it will be an experimental game, but I have not yet worked out what exactly it will be.

It's been a learning experience for me. X-D

---Akake

I've decided to call the first run done. It's not going anywhere fast. :-/

I've decided that, on my next run, I'll take two weeks and try to make something nice and polished.

I'm thinking of making a fighting game.

I dunno. I'll share more when I've figured things out.

---Akake

It doesn't look good for my first practice game. I... spent two days player Custom Robo.

Ah well, live and learn, am I right.

I'm debating about whether I want to continue with this run. It looks like I may have something of a demo, but it's not likely. If I do, it'll just be a little car driving around on the screen. Not very fun. :-P

----

I've learned something about myself, though.

I learned that my forte isn't crazy ideas, but solid code and reasonably well-polished gameplay.

That said, I also learned that I want to give genres other than side-scrollers a chance.

I think my next game will be a shoot-em-up. I like top-down shmups, and I think that's fertile ground for me. :-)

My thought is to challenge myself to develop something ambitious in a week.

I have a concept for my game, but I'll reveal it when I've got it fully articulated.

---Akake

I set out to have a demo by today, but alas, I've fallen behind.

Still, I'm near one. I have all the sprites I need for now, and I've almost gotten entities working.

I'm kind of disappointed, though. I was hoping to have something today.

Oh well. I guess I'll need to work harder tomorrow. :-)

I probably should have focused more on getting the demo running than fooling with data loaders and factories!

Still, I've got some foundations for what I need. I also have up to Friday morning to get it done, too!

---Akake

I've decided to make a platforming shoot-em-up.

I don't have a story yet, but I do have some ideas.

The player will be able to choose between a handful of characters. (At least two)
Each character will have different weapons. A couple of normal weapons, a sidearm, and possibly a heavy weapon.

I'm trying for a nice, fast pace and plenty of action.

I'm going to be implementing both (basic) pathfinding and hitscan weapons.

The hitscan weapons will be a good thing for me, I think. With them, I don't have to have loads of bullets flying through the air, slowing everything down.

The pathfinding will be tricky, but it will hopefully work well enough to provide a sense of the enemies being vaguely intelligent.

----

The real test for me, I think, will be whether I can stay interested in the project after the week is over.

In fact, I'm confident that I can get at least the code and sprites in place inside of a week, and probably a level editor and some levels.

The real test for me is the long term. I'd like to not have a repeat of the last Pyggy, where I got really excited, but then lazed out and got bored with my game.

Hopefully, I'll be able to stay interested in the game for at least a month.

----

In the end, I'm hoping for a game that will be presentable as a high-quality piece of software.

Or, I suppose, at least something I will work on for more than a week. ^o^

Well, it's that time again!

The month-long road to the compo, which will be traveled by way of four practice games.

The first of these will be a brawler made without a theme.

I'll give more details when I have something working. :-)

(As an aside, I'm curious about whether I could host my practice games on this site so that I have somewhere to share my work with the community)

So, practice run number zero begins.

Start Time: July 31, 9:00 AM Eastern US Time
End Time: August 7, 9:00 AM Eastern US Time