I find that I spend a lot of time considering whether it’s going to be easier to create a 2D or a 3D game. I know it’s easy enough for me to generate static 2D assets. I don’t have a ton of experience 3D modeling but I imagine it would be easier to rig up in-game interactions, physics, and animations for a 3D asset as opposed to having to draw all of that shit out as sprite sheets. I’ve definitely done more 2D work but it’s always been out of convenience and time. I don’t consider myself an artist. I can create functional, simple art assets when needed but I am neither quick nor particularly consistent when it comes to design. The hurdle to overcome with 3D modeling is getting comfortable with the tool set and that only comes with time, a limited resource for most of us. Regardless, both options require that I learn a new skill set so I am going with the one I have more experience with: 2D.
I have to work within the constraints of what I am capable of or what I can learn easily. That art constraint very quickly translates into a constraint on the actual game mechanics. For instance, if you don’t have experience drawing 2D animation states, it’s less feasible to have a game with many visual moving parts that interact with each other. This may sway you toward something like a card-based game with static assets as opposed to something with animating sprites. With each change or concession you may get further from the original vision and therefore less invested in the idea altogether. I know what that feels like and I want to avoid that.
What is my goal?
I’ve spent many hours creating assets for game ideas that I was working on far too early in the development process — one can only get so excited about making a gray cube move around on screen — only to not use half of them when I abandon the idea all together. If I had just instead spent that time coding, I may not have been so quick to scrap the project. I think part of the reason that I tend to jump the gun on creating the art is that, because I don’t consider myself an artist, I feel the need to prove to myself that I can execute on the visuals that I have in my head. Until I am able to do so, I only allow myself to be partially invested in the project. The first project that I am going to work on is intended to address this gap by setting the following goals:
- Become more familiar with my tools to bolster confidence and increase my efficiency
- Define a consistent design or artistic theme and execute
- Learn basic animation processes, flows, and terminology so I can identify what types of game mechanics are more or less difficult to implement
- Create a mechanically simple but fully realized game
These goals aren’t that difficult to achieve but that’s the idea: this is about formalizing my process little by little, honing my tools, and exploring a little at the same time. I’m not going to become an artist but that’s not what I’m going for here. What I need to do is get to a point where I can make functional art in an efficient enough manner that I can realize my ideas and get back to the development side of things. I’m not going to be able to gray-box it until the end, I know that much about myself, so I need to work with and around those tendencies.
I have a goal, now I need an idea
So many times I have sat down and told myself that I need a simple idea so I can make a simple game. Usually what I do is try to think of a mechanic in a game that I really liked and see if there is a way that it could stand on its own or get distilled down in some manner. I can manage to get that far and I’ve come up with what I feel are some pretty compelling concepts. The problem that creeps in at this point is that a clean simple idea is often ripe with potential. When I get excited about an idea, I want to see what I can do to punch it up, flesh it out, or ‘Yes, and…’ it.
Simple dungeon crawler? Needs weapons and armor.
Gear is the focus here so might as well add a crafting system.
You’ll need components to craft with. Going to need to learn recipes too.
Probably need rarity levels for the components.
Some components are hard to find or grind so you’ll need a shop to buy what you don’t have. Now we need currency.
You’ll need a reason to continue to engage with this crafting system so how about durability?
I hate it when weapons break. How about an “unbreaking” enchantment. Need an enchanter…
The scope of the project all too easily blows up and gets well beyond what I set out for in the first place. So my solution? Solicit an idea from my 4-year-old daughter.
From the Mind of a Child
My daughter Aria is very clever. She likes to tell stories. She likes to tell stories everyday. She likes to tell stories everyday about the things that she likes. It would not be an exaggeration to say that every story involves at least two of the following things that she likes: cupcakes, unicorns, princesses, dragons, Halloween, bears, flying, fire, and some kind of monster. I knew what I was getting into. The following quotes are paraphrased but as true to the original message as I can manage.
Idea #1: Pineapple Pac-man
A floating pineapple on a blue board gets all the blue rings but suddenly there is a pink ghost trying to get the rings too and then it turns into a blue ghost and then it gets all the rings
-Aria
A little context: My wife and I had recently made up a spooky story about a floating pineapple for our kids so I was prepared for the pineapple to make an appearance at some point. As far as the overt Pac-Man reference, my brother-in-law gifted me his old Sega Genesys and I had booted up Ms. Pac-Man and Sonic 2 for the kids.
Regardless, what we have here is either a Pac-Man clone or a simple platformer.
Idea #2: Balloon Tapper
A smiley balloon with arms is celebrating a balloon party with so many balloons and he’s making cake for everyone because they ran out and everyone wants more cake
– Aria
The first thing I thought of was Tapper. She’s never played it so I know she’s not ripping off Midway.
Idea #3: Fairy Uni-Kart
A fairy riding a unicorn and a ballerina comes and then there is all of the fairies and they have a big race at the rainbow slide
– Aria
My kids love Mario Kart. Not so much the playing but they love picking levels and using Bullet Bill power ups. What we have here is a classic fairy unicorn kart racer.
One last thing: When I sat down with my daughter I had my notebook and pen and we sat at our dining room table. I told her I was going to take some notes so she asked for a piece of paper and a pen so she could do so as well. When we were all done she handed me her piece of paper and said ‘Here dad, you can have my notes too cause they’ll help you’. I wanted to make sure I included them here.
The Fruit Gets the Nod
A Tapper clone would be a pretty safe endeavor from a development perspective but it’s not something I feel any excitement about playing again with a new coat of paint. The kart racer has a lot going on and is just a bit more than I was looking at taking on for a first project. Floating pineapple it is.
I think I’m going to lean away from the Pac-man aspects here and go with more of a simple platformer. I know, I know, after all of this I come at you with a 2D platformer but again, that’s kind of the point: they are easy to cut your teeth on but can be incredible when they are done well. Platformers are a really accessible starting point and there is a wide breadth of resources out there to rely on. That will allow me more time to focus on the art.
The next step is to define the scope, the art constraints, and then I can get to work.