Take the next step in releasing a game on Steam

The result I came up with in this DK30 is very different from what I thought I was going to work on. I was planning to code a bunch of new levels and features, but instead I spent all my time doing game design and contemplating the issues I had with the project.

On the one hand this feels like I didn’t meet my goals, because I didn’t actually do any concrete work on the project. However before I started this DK30 I really didn’t feel confident in the project, since I felt like I had some pretty big holes in my design. As such I wasn’t as motivated to get going and start working on it. Now I feel like I’ve patched those up nicely and as a result I feel a lot more confident and motivated.

So with that in mind I think this DK30 was a great success! I’m now truly ready to get started and see where this will take me. Now all I need is enough time to actually work on it, but that’s a problem for later.

Another issue that has been on my mind since the beginning of the project was the theme. The game jam version of the game doesn’t really have a good theme. Sure, the objects look like they belong from a technical perspective, but functionally you have dice rolling down a dirt path in between rocks and trees. It doesn’t necessarily make a whole lot of sense. Plus it doesn’t really give me inspiration for future levels or mechanics.

As such I went looking for a theme where I can still use the same mechanics, but where it makes more sense to combine them all. First I thought of a casino, since it makes sense for dice to be there. But then I couldn’t really figure out how the towers would work in there and why sentient dice were attacking to begin with. Then a good friend asked me why I am so bound on using actual dice to begin with. After all, you can still use random numbers without actually having dice in the game.

Based on that I came up with the theme you see below you. Virus defense inside of a computer! You are in charge of an anti-virus system and you’re placing towers in defense of the oncoming virus onslaught. Each virus releases a small bit of binary code which is similar to the dice rolls that I had in the game jam version. Plus in this case I can get away with using towers because it’s more of a virtual system, figurative towers kind of deal.

I’m quite excited about this theme, because I feel like it works to combine all of the elements I want and still make some sense. I’ve gathered a bit of a moodboard to inspire me further and wrote a few notes down that I might be able to use when working on it later.

Since the last update I’ve spent some time sitting down and thinking about ideas to tackle my big issue of combining RNG and Strategy into the same game. I’ve also just let it sit in the back of my mind for a while so I can passively digest any ideas that I came up with. Based on that approach I’ve come up with a few possible solutions, one of which I think will serve me very well and I want to implement.

In section 1 I’ve noted 2 possible solutions, neither of which really felt impactful enough. Sure, they might have lessened the effect of RNG, but not to the extent I was hoping to achieve. These solutions will as such not be implemented. In section 2 I started trying to identify some levers, but this ultimately didn’t really lead me to any new insights or solutions.

However section 4 is where I did start to have some more success. By flipping (part of) the concept on its head, I was able to come up with a rough solution that I think could work a lot better. This solution should give the player a lot of control over the output RNG and should make it a lot more strategic to work with dice compared to the original method. There’s some things about it that I most likely will change, such as I will probably abandon the whole Yahtzee component for a more simplified system. But the base idea still stands.

After some consideration, I’ve found that the biggest thing I’m running into is the dilemma of combining RNG and Strategy into a game. It worked fine for the gamejam version, but if I want to elevate the project to a new level, I need to make sure these elements work better together. Currently the player has no real control over the input or output of the RNG and just has to work around it. As such the strategy elements feel secondary to the RNG, which is the opposite of what I want.

Based on a very good video from GMTK titled How Game Designers Solved These 11 Problems, I made a list of approaches that I could take to design a solution. This starts with identifying the problem and seeing which approach could work for me and trying it out. I’m hoping that by making a framework for myself it’ll be easier to find a good solution and use it to establish a solid base upon which to move forward.