{"assets":[],"author_link":"author\/curiousexpedition\/","author_name":"Maschinen-Mensch","cat":"LD #29","categories":["LD #29"],"comments":[],"epoch":1398952380,"event":"LD29","likes":4,"metadata":{"p_key":"80469","p_author":"Maschinen-Mensch","p_authorkey":"0","p_urlkey":"289479","p_title":"Planet Corp \u2013 design notes","p_cat":"LD #29","p_event":"LD29","p_time":"1398952380","p_likes":"4","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":null,"us_name":null,"us_username":null,"event_start":"1398384000","event_key":"22","event_name":"LD29"},"source_url":"2014\/05\/01\/planet-corp-design-notes\/","text":"

This was a very special game jam for us.<\/p>\n

Not only was it the first jam we ever participated in, but it was also going to be to first game we would release under our just recently founded company, Manschinen-Mensch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want this post to grow into a post mortem about our entry just yet, so I\u2019ll (try to) focus on what I wanted to put out first; some of the scribbles\u00a0that we did while\u00a0creating\u00a0Planet Corp.<\/p>\n

\"designNotes_01\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the first thing I dew when coming up with the basic idea of Planet Corp., which was called back then \u201cPlanet Cracker\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"designNotes_02\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The rest of the first page detailed out some of the rather complex mechanics I had initially envisioned for shooting the Torpedo-Drills. Luckily, both the necessity to reduce complexity from the tight time-frame as well as the ever so fruitful discussions between the two of us led to a much more focused\u00a0and simple player\u00a0interaction. One of the most memorable moments for me was when Riad said we could basically strip the whole shooting mechanic down to a one-button interaction (instead of the extensive menu-type of settings I had in mind initially).<\/p>\n

\"designNotes_03\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here you can see a couple of thoughts for how we would combine the different material types to create different challenges for the player. Back then the resource was still called oil, which we dropped some various reasons.<\/p>\n

\"designNotes_04\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Maybe one of the best decisions was to take the games setting from a rather generic space sci-fi thing to our own solar system. This immediatelly spawned the idea of the newscast, which allowed us to add a lot of\u00a0humor, narrative grounding and an actual message to the game. In hindsight, I\u2019m still blown away by how much that seemingly little decision has influenced the game overall.<\/p>\n

\"designNotes_05\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One last pic which shows the initial idea for a level progression screen. The intention was to have this inbetween planets. However, we never really\u00a0saw it fitting into the really nice structure we found for the game (newscast followed by planet) so we ditched the idea alltogether, even after I had already prepared the graphics for it. However, as Riad struggled a bit with the Game Over a.k.a. Mining Failed screen he still found a good use for the graphics and used them there. Again, this was a really good decision compared to what we had imagined initially, and it again came out of sheer necessity and limited time.<\/p>\n

Those were the most interesting design notes I wanted to share with you. I hope you enjoyed the little insight.<\/p>","time":"May 1st, 2014 1:53 pm","title":"Planet Corp \u2013 design notes","title_was_empty":false}