Plans

We’ve officially begun preparations for our next game!

We’re back to the beginning with paper plans; there’s a lot to map out and a whole different way of doing it compared to the choose your own adventure style from our more recent games.

This time around it’s way more visual, a lot of mock-ups and screenshots. I’m using Miro for flowcharts and diagrams; it’s one of my favorite tools to use when planning out Game Designs.

Below as an example, are some of the simple plans I mocked up for Usagi Sekai - Bunny Shaman within Miro:

Many more example of Game Design for Usagi Sekai - Bunny Shaman can be found in our DLC Design book on Steam!

I’m currently doing similar style plans for the new game.

I like to have visual representations with notes attached for a simple example of a game feature. I will also have a bigger text description next to these plans with a lot more detail included. I will usually have a way more information than is needed so that we have a greater overall understanding of how everything ties together. It also helps to show every possible interaction or consequence that impacts any other in game feature.

As we’re in the beginning of the process right now, I am over scoping the plans with the intention to filtering out the best of the ideas and cutting out the excess to make the best possible version of the game. We still need to work out the actual logic to the inner workings of the game and test the limitations within that, so for now a lot of my planning may not function exactly as I imagine them right now.

The puzzle planning is currently taking the top priority, especially as it’s something we haven’t done before. I want to be meticulous and fool proof with the method and solution. There’s the important balance of not making the puzzles too hard or obscure with their answer, but also not too easy or boring.

It would be interesting to incorporate different levels of difficulty into the game, or to have a hint system in place. However, I’m trying to keep this game as diagetic as possible with as little hand holding or tutorials as possible, to really immerse the player into the game.

Overall this game should have less art assets for me to make, which is going to make me very happy. A lot of time was spend on Usagi Sekai - Bunny Shaman and The Trials series on the art. This time I can focus a lot more on gameplay and storytelling aspects. It will be potentially a longer and more technically complex game than we’ve done for a while, but we love a challenge!

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