Bad UI sketches and biting the bullet

Caligari on 2013/09/03 01:58 of Violet Hippo

I didn't manage to get back into the game as I wanted yesterday, perhaps the initial enthusiasm ran its course and exhaustion set it, or perhaps I knew I was wrangling with important and hard decisions about the task resolution mechanics which will underpin the gameplay and was trying to avoid them.

I spent lots of time kicking mechanics back and forth during the day, but wasn't willing to commit anything to the design document. By the end of the day the rest of the team needed something tangible from me, so I turned to some ui sketches.

Boy am I not an artist. I can visualize things, but I'm pretty much unable to reflect those images on paper. I tried using some iPad drawing software, but I think you probably have to be me in order to make real sense of it all. :)

Having broken my reticence to add to the design by putting in the ui sketches and describing them, I was able to turn my attention to the task resolution mechanics and put down a starting point. As we don't have much time, I think we'll have to end up staying with these unless they really don't work (which I'm fairly certain isn't the case).

Working through the mechanics further broke up the logjam in my mind and I found a definite in-game condition we will need for the the 'endgame'; I've been trusting that I can find these triggers as we need them, but getting this one in place really helps to understand what the player is going to be doing throughout the game (what the end goal is, specifically, and why).

So, today I want to test the task resolution mechanics, clearly define the needed ui screens for the whole game, and resolve some of the final parts of the mechanics (really just reflections of the game state).