Feel the Game
Things I've been thinking more about for starting a new indie game project
I recently watched/listened to this talk by Adam Saltsman1 and was very intrigued by the insightfulness and knowledge he shared. So many good takeaways to apply to indie game development. He talks about his approach to making small games and what makes them enjoyable.
Idea vs Formula
One of the core concepts he speaks about is the concept of idea versus formula. That is the core spark of a concept… the Idea or what he refers to as “heart feel”. And the mechanical implementation… or Formula.
He says ideas deserve trust and love because if that idea pushes you to create a protype, a draft, or gets you up to actually go make something… than that’s something worth pursuing.
In any case, I think he’s onto something. He encourages small game developers to prioritize a fun, easy process, trust the core emotional spark of an idea, and constantly observe the emerging reality of the game to guide design decisions.
The Idea
The idea is to create a cozy game2 3that’s a low-stress, building game where you restore life and beauty back into forgotten architecture.
We (my brother and I) have this bigger idea of incorporating a town of some sort where you try and revitalize community through restoration. It could be fun to see the town come to life as you help restore and fix it. Maybe it’s abandoned at first and as you fix certain buildings people move in and you get to know them.
The smaller version of this would be that You’ll be able to restore a house or buildings, but you should be able to put your own creative touches on it through decoration and design choices with some limited choices so that every players’ town doesn’t look the same and offers more replay value and some sort of progression.
So gameplay could possibly be centered around cleaning, collecting, crafting, building or rebuilding, and decorating. Everything you do in game contributes to something. It would focus on ways to make you feel like you’re part of the community and you care about the characters and not a place to just buy items or to serve the player.
I know I said no more side projects, and I don’t have a lot of time due to my current job situation, but this one… feels really exciting for some reason.
The question is…
Do I bail on this Idea? Delete this side project and move on.
Or do I try? Trust this feeling and give this idea some love to find a better way to Formulate it into a game?
You can find more on Adam on his website and also his itch.io
Read this What is a “cozy” game? by Katya Ryabova
Some small, cozy games I’ve been fond of recently… Tiny Glade, Unpacking, A Short Hike, Minami Lane
So basically an expanded Tiny Glade/Sims concept of sorts? I am all for more projects and think that giving the idea some love will be the only way to actually determine if there is a way to formulate it toward your goals.
To that end I want to push here and ask you a question instead. What i I understand the restoration bit and it makes me think of the power-washing games that hit that satisfaction nerve, like when watching someone restore metal or what have you.
Whats the view point? Meaning from a gameplay standpoint what is the lens and role of the Player? I think that is the thing that will lead you to what makes the player care about the community, and overall game loop.
I think you should explore this further and try to arrive at a formula! As a cozy games lover, I also want to say that there still should be some tension and a touch of a challenge; without stress doesn't mean completely frictionless.