Audience and Experience #5

Plug & Play

For this week, I played Plug & Play as it was one of the games that has inspired me to pursue the ‘Pinhead’ idea for this units hand-in, I feel that this game plays out with its transitions very close to how I would like for it to be in Pinhead, since there are abrupt cutaways from the scene, this is something that I want to use in my game.

It also is a good example of the use of drawn animation for its style and aesthetic, while my idea uses fine-liner to express more details than in Plug & Play, it is still a good example of how I want it to feel.

The usability of the mouse is also something I like about the game, although it is simple point/click/drag, it still encourages the player to explore the movements and possibilities, this is a mechanic that I want to explore myself in Pinhead.

The game is able to leave a lasting impression on the player since it strikes the perfect balance between weird and understandability for them, while during the moment, the scene might not make sense, later on, it becomes clearer, this is something that I would like to tackle as well.

Floating point Leviathan

This game was my choice out of the three. It was a very short game with very simple mechanics, what made it stand out was how unique it was, as the goal was clear to the player immediately, (this is also something that I want to make sure is clear for Pinhead when transitioning from scene to scene abruptly.) and because of this, it allows the player to enjoy the experience in a very short timeframe, the player is able to beat the game quickly.

I liked how the world becomes more and more blocky as the player hits the whale, and overall, it is a interesting idea that I would like to see explored further.

IndieCade

This was the read we had to read, the first half of the text explores the history of the festivals and outlining the earlier problems with the game industry. It also looks at the term Indie and its change over the years.

The second half the passage looks at the Indiecade’s festival specifically in relation to the history and how it evolved over the years to accommodate the change of indie as it itself changed its meaning.

Overall the reading was interesting as it shows how much goes into making a festival actually work.

GDD Progress

This week’s focus was around compiling the idea into a presentation to present to the rest of the class, this week I thought about what kind of game I wanted it to be mechanically, One game that caught my eye was Plug & Play as the art style for the game was what really stood out.

It made me consider if the concept of Pinhead could fit within that wacky surrealistic style of P&P, this is where the point-and-click mechanic emerged, and the ability for player’s to interact with Pinhead, for example, placing the audience member in the FPP of someone bullying Pinhead, I thought was an interesting take and places the player in a unique position often not seen within the indie games.

This made me consider a game where the player jumps around quite fluidly from scene to scene, through morph animation, with morph things could be interpreted in new and unique ways, this is something I want to accomplish in Pinhead.