What I had in mind

I wanted to make a game where you play a kind of a nerdy guy, at the top of human evolution. He happens to be stranded on a desert island after a plane crash.
You’d have to explore the island to learn and discover a way to get out of it.

The idea behind this concept is that you’re back to a primitive state at the beginning of the game (weak and naked) and you must evolve to escape the island: you have to improve your survival skills and become a kind of Tarzan at the end of the game.
The game mechanics revolve around a platforming with adventure/point-and-click elements.
What Went Right

No unexpected crashes or bad issues during the weekend.
I developed a craft system, it was the first time I thought about that kind of thing.
I managed to submit something!

What Went Wrong

It was way toooo big for a single man. The game represents less than a half of what I had in mind. It’s a classic mistake, I knew it but I fell into the trap.
I spent a day and a half to develop the game system and only 8 hours on level design, art and animations. It’s absolutely not the right balance.
Nobody has tested my game before I submitted it and the game suffers from that:
– A lot of Level Design issues: I did not realized that people would try to escape from the island by swiming away from it and I didn’t put any invisible walls to block the end of the room. Everybody’s falling into the void at the end of the ocean and the game is over: awful design mistake here!
– The craft system is not really understood at first and it’s a bit glitched: you can’t craft a recipe with two ingredients if there’s a third one in the top slot.
– Some recipes are not obvious enough. It’s ok for a LucasArts game where you accepted to spend time trying to combinate items, but I think a lot of people will not be so patient for a little, free, snack game.
I had no time for music.
User Interface took me too much time.
Drag and Drop Interface for crafting –> way too big
Conclusion :
As I said I made a very usual mistake: the concept was too big for such a small development time. I knew it when I had the idea but it was challenging so I gave it a try anyway. It’s a semi-failure because the game does not represent what I had in mind and for many people the experience will be ruined because of design issues.
I think I will do a post-compo version with the whole TurboDindon team, with new graphics, sounds and a real Level Design. You’ll be able to play it soon!

Thanks for reading, and remember to avoid leaving the island by swimming if you play the game.

Cheers!

Bisou