What's in a name?

saluk on 2008/11/13 08:07 of Cenutry of the Fruitbat

We have a slew of pyweek games that were abandoned, and pyggy was the perfect opportunity for motivation to do what we have wanted to do so many times but couldn't muster up the energy - take a game to the next level. Our reasoning behind choosing "Up Up and Away" for pyggy, was that it both had a strong direction, as well as fell really short of what we had wanted.

Our other games, such as I dream of String in the last event, and Mech Revolution from the first one, basically reached their potential, if maybe missing out on things like polish, graphics, or game balance. Rather than polish a turd, we chose to mine deeper in a vein that came up empty hoping to find a gem. We'll have to see how it turns out.

Up Up and Away was fairly incomplete. Especially compared to the 5 full story-filled missions of mech revolution, and the mind-bogglingly difficult puzzles in the caverns of I Dream of String. Up Up and Away had 4 screens, and the gameplay consisted of clicking a few buttons and then watching people walk around (with my trademark SUPER ANNOYING walking sound that seems to be in every game) and hoping you made the right decisions. If you play a few times, you will quickly find a strategy to easily win every single game. And when doing so, it never really feels like you have a lot of control over the situation.

However, stylistically, we reached probably our highest point. The people are interesting to watch, and most of the graphics are pretty good. I'm still rather most proud of this game, and Don Blake is as well. So we are going to keep the style, and redesign the game, making it as game-like as possible while still keeping the simulation feel. Our main goals in improving on the original idea are to give the player as many ways to either improve or destroy the situation, and then just go crazy with the simulation itself.



Anyway, here is the link to the pyweek version: Up Up and Away
We need to do something about that title. It's just not representative. If anyone has any good ideas I wouldn't mind hearing them! If I can't think of a better name, I'll just have to leave it. As long as the rest of the game turns out OK...