{"author_link":"\/users\/nikolai-shkurkin","author_name":"Nikolai Shkurkin","author_uid":"nikolai-shkurkin","comments":[],"epoch":1602646488,"event":"LD47","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":231122,"likes":4,"metadata":{"p_key":"151458","p_author":"Nikolai Shkurkin","p_authorkey":"1213065","p_urlkey":"367963","p_title":"Dev Log #3: Games are like Onions?","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD47","p_time":"1602646488","p_likes":"4","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1213065","us_name":"Nikolai Shkurkin","us_username":"nikolai-shkurkin","event_start":"1601596800","event_key":"76","event_name":"Ludum Dare 47"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD47","removed_author":false},"_superparent":212256,"_trust":1,"author":213065,"body":"![38c20.png](\/\/\/raw\/940\/43\/z\/3958c.png)\n\nIn this post I want to talk about how @chris-hall and I went about crafting and executing the design for our game [Boomie](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/47\/boomie). Our goal was to produce something that was \"complete\" and so we took a pretty good chunk of time (about 5 hours) picking and crafting a game design before we wrote any code. \n\n## Picking an Idea\n----\n\nSome criteria we used during the selection process:\n - **Is this idea interesting and fun for us to implement?** :clown: :circus_tent: \n - **How risky is it to pursue this game idea?** (can we make it in the 72 hours? is the idea too vague?) \n - **How much work is needed to get to \"minimally viable product\"?** (we could submit and it is *something*)\n - **Can the game design be easily extended?** (we can keep adding new concepts without changing the core mechanic)\n - **How much time do we have for polish?** :clock: \n\nWe ended up writing around four pages of ideas on our shared Google Doc. Here are a few:\n\n - Toy race cars :race_car: with multiple different track loops that you are skipping between somehow\n - What if... the player was literally STUCK IN A LOOP. Like, imagine you are stuck in an innertube and you are rolling down a hill :mountain:\n - Time loop :clock: murder mystery where you live 60 seconds\n - (**Boomerang**) Overhead shooter where all your projectiles have loop-based movements, like progressively weirder versions of a boomerang\n\nWe ultimately picked the **Boomerang** idea because it seemed to have good answers for all of our criteria. One of the main reasons we went with the idea (other than that it seemed fun enough on it's own for us to implement) was because it seemed like the core mechanic was easily extensible (we had a laundry list of ideas we wanted to attempt to implement).\n\n## The Onion of Implementation\n----\n\nWe roughly broke down our order-of-implementation as follows:\n\n![BoomieDesign-4.png](\/\/\/raw\/940\/43\/z\/3a22d.png)\n\nEach concentric ring of features gave us the ability to implement the next ring, as well as complement previous ones.  Any time we had a new idea we placed it in this mental model of what needed to be done. Importantly, this framework allowed us to keep focused on that task at hand. \n\nAt the end of each night we took a break from feature work and implemented some piece of polish (sounds, music, animations, additional assets, level design).  By around 9pm Sunday night of the jam we had implemented all of core features in the above diagram and all that was left was making animations, levels, and rounding out any final bugs we found.\n\nI think part of our success in making Boomie was that we carefully thought out a plan and then executed it. As far as I know, none of work we did went to waste!\n\n----\n\nThanks for reading! I have been pleasantly surprised by everyone's games and look forward to playing more during this last week of feedback!\n\nCheck out our Game and other blog posts!\n  -  [Game - Boomie](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/47\/boomie)\n  -  [Blog - First Jam + Dev Log: Wow that was a lot of fun!](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/47\/boomie\/first-jam-dev-log-wow-that-was-a-lot-of-fun)\n  -  [Blog - Thoughts about Jam Tools](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/47\/boomie\/thoughts-about-jam-tools)\n\n ","comments":0,"created":"2020-10-13T15:04:18Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":231122,"love":4,"love-timestamp":"2020-10-14T18:15:09Z","meta":[],"modified":"2020-10-14T18:15:09Z","name":"Dev Log #3: Games are like Onions?","node-timestamp":"2020-10-14T03:34:48Z","parent":213136,"parents":[1,5,9,212256,213136],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/47\/boomie\/dev-log-3-games-are-like-onions","published":"2020-10-14T03:34:48Z","scope":"public","slug":"dev-log-3-games-are-like-onions","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":705445},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"231122","n_urlkey":"367963","n_parent":"213136","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/47\/boomie\/dev-log-3-games-are-like-onions","n_slug":"dev-log-3-games-are-like-onions","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"213065","n_created":"1602601458","n_modified":"1602699309","n_version":"705445","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/47\/boomie\/dev-log-3-games-are-like-onions","text":"![38c20.png](\/\/\/raw\/940\/43\/z\/3958c.png)\n\nIn this post I want to talk about how @chris-hall and I went about crafting and executing the design for our game [Boomie](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/47\/boomie). Our goal was to produce something that was \"complete\" and so we took a pretty good chunk of time (about 5 hours) picking and crafting a game design before we wrote any code. \n\n## Picking an Idea\n----\n\nSome criteria we used during the selection process:\n - **Is this idea interesting and fun for us to implement?** :clown: :circus_tent: \n - **How risky is it to pursue this game idea?** (can we make it in the 72 hours? is the idea too vague?) \n - **How much work is needed to get to \"minimally viable product\"?** (we could submit and it is *something*)\n - **Can the game design be easily extended?** (we can keep adding new concepts without changing the core mechanic)\n - **How much time do we have for polish?** :clock: \n\nWe ended up writing around four pages of ideas on our shared Google Doc. Here are a few:\n\n - Toy race cars :race_car: with multiple different track loops that you are skipping between somehow\n - What if... the player was literally STUCK IN A LOOP. Like, imagine you are stuck in an innertube and you are rolling down a hill :mountain:\n - Time loop :clock: murder mystery where you live 60 seconds\n - (**Boomerang**) Overhead shooter where all your projectiles have loop-based movements, like progressively weirder versions of a boomerang\n\nWe ultimately picked the **Boomerang** idea because it seemed to have good answers for all of our criteria. One of the main reasons we went with the idea (other than that it seemed fun enough on it's own for us to implement) was because it seemed like the core mechanic was easily extensible (we had a laundry list of ideas we wanted to attempt to implement).\n\n## The Onion of Implementation\n----\n\nWe roughly broke down our order-of-implementation as follows:\n\n![BoomieDesign-4.png](\/\/\/raw\/940\/43\/z\/3a22d.png)\n\nEach concentric ring of features gave us the ability to implement the next ring, as well as complement previous ones.  Any time we had a new idea we placed it in this mental model of what needed to be done. Importantly, this framework allowed us to keep focused on that task at hand. \n\nAt the end of each night we took a break from feature work and implemented some piece of polish (sounds, music, animations, additional assets, level design).  By around 9pm Sunday night of the jam we had implemented all of core features in the above diagram and all that was left was making animations, levels, and rounding out any final bugs we found.\n\nI think part of our success in making Boomie was that we carefully thought out a plan and then executed it. As far as I know, none of work we did went to waste!\n\n----\n\nThanks for reading! I have been pleasantly surprised by everyone's games and look forward to playing more during this last week of feedback!\n\nCheck out our Game and other blog posts!\n  -  [Game - Boomie](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/47\/boomie)\n  -  [Blog - First Jam + Dev Log: Wow that was a lot of fun!](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/47\/boomie\/first-jam-dev-log-wow-that-was-a-lot-of-fun)\n  -  [Blog - Thoughts about Jam Tools](https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/47\/boomie\/thoughts-about-jam-tools)\n\n ","title":"Dev Log #3: Games are like Onions?","wayback_source":[]}