Week 7

So after working on our prototypes all week (and some overtime on the weekend) we found ourselves still unable to decide on an idea to work on.  We even took a ranked vote on the 3 ideas, and the results were 11 to 10 to 9, which we decided was too close to count.

Each prototype had its strengths and weaknesses.  Many people really enjoyed the simple charm of the gesture game, but there were some questions over how drawing symbols related to cleaning, as well as how the difficulty would evolve.  For the endless runner, it was easier to see how it would evolve, but some people expressed concern it would come across as derivative of other endless runners, and people might compare it unfavorably with more polished games.  Finally, people seemed to appreciate the idea behind the top-down chain reaction game once they understood it, however most people were initially confused by the concept.

So we went back to the drawing board.  However since we already had these 3 ideas we liked, we decided not to scrap them entirely, but instead use the best parts from each and put them together in a way that makes sense.  We kept the core swiping mechanics of the endless runner, and combined it with the top-down view of the chain reaction game.  The idea is that the player controls the wind, and uses it to blow a magic, pollution-clearing leaf through a city.  We also plan on implementing gesture drawing as a way to activate power-ups.

In addition, some of our prototypes suffered from performance issues, so we switched from 3D to 2D.  We also began discussing the sorts of enemies and hazards the player will have to deal with as they clean the city.  With only a week until halves, we have a lot of work to get done, but at least we finally have a strong direction to move in.