Devlog 1: Inspiration, Planning, and Scope

I’ve had the idea for this game rattling around my head for years. It’s part of the reason I decided to go get my Computer Science degree. A little overkill, I know, but that’s how I roll.

As soon as I saw the Playdate I knew that was the console it needed to be on.

I made a proof of concept for a gamejam a few years ago. It takes place in the middle of the story, and is more of a “filler episode”

You can play the original proof of concept here:
https://lodomo.itch.io/bouldermagenightmare

Inspiration

The earliest memories I have of video games are with my cousin and playing The Legend of Zelda on NES. He also had a Turbografx. There was a game on there called “Parasol Stars” which was an odd little game I’ve never seen in the wild since. It was an off shoot of the game BubbleBobble but with some really neat mechanics.

You were a boy with an umbrella, and you would strike enemies with it to stun them. Once stunned you could pickup and throw the enemies at other enemies. You could also grab water droplets to throw at enemies. If you pick up enough droplets you could flood the stage. Certain droplets had elemental characteristics.

But, just another arcade game won’t be enough. Boulder Mage needs a story.

I can’t stand games that take a long time to get going. The game needs to start almost immediately. In arcade games, that’s easy. You just throw a level at a player and they start to figure it out. For something story-driven it’s a very fine line of hand holding. In Legend Of Zelda: A Link to the Past, your call to action is almost immediate. You’re woken up, and need to go save the day.

Game-feel is also very important. Maddy Thorsen has an AMAZING breakdown on the feel of Celeste. https://www.maddymakesgames.com/articles/celeste_and_forgiveness/index.html I plan on implementing every single one of these that applies to Boulder Mage.

My last key inspiration for gameplay is the Chao Garden / Tamagotchi / Chocobos / Yoshi.

I’ll get deeper into this as development goes. But what if you had to raise your own Yoshi-esque chickens? And then that became it’s own little sub-game? It might be a big idea to pull off for Playdate, but I think I can do it.

Planning

I’m a big planner. I’ve got notebooks all over the place for projects, daily tasks, and so far it’s treated me well. I’ve adopted something from my time learning as a Master Training Specialist to make solid plans to execute projects. Some might think it’s too much, but it really helps me when I don’t know what to do next.

Here’s a template you can adapt to your own project: hop.lodomo.dev/plan-doc

You don’t need to fill out every section. You don’t need all the answers. But get some of that out so when you’re getting further into development you always have a path forward.

I won’t be releasing the entire Boulder Mage planning document because it has lots of secrets for the game. You’ve already read my inspiration sections. Here’s what my game features is starting to look like.

Game Features

• Main Abilities
  • Move horizontal
    • Ground Dash (Learned)
  • Jump – With some horizontal control after take off
    • Air Dash (Learned)
    • Double Jump (Learned)
  • Swing Staff
  • Pogo Staff (Learned)
  • Grab Item
    • Carry Item
    • Throw Item
  • Ground Pound (Learned)
• Meditation Zones
  • Areas that require careful platforming to lead to an unlockable.If you look close you can see I drew this when I was going by “BathThief”
• Collectables
  • Pythagoras Beans, Plant them to gain access to secretsPythagoras thought beans were human souls.
  • Elemental Gems, Not required to beat the game, but give extra perks to attacks
• Fast Travel
  • Rufus (NPC) gives access to fast travel portals. Some are to anywhere, some are location specific. See map.

Scope

Most of the scope is going to be in my planning document, but I also like giving myself a clear picture of “what I want” and “what I can’t give up”

What I can’t give up:

• JUICY controls. If this isn’t in the game, it’s not worth making.
  • This is 100% what I’m coding first, before anything else. Can I get a square to move how I want it to feel.
• 4 areas, 4 skills, 4 extra quests, 4 bosses,
• Engaging puzzles
• Chicken raising. One egg, One Mount minimum.
• World building without force feeding the info to the player.

What I want:

• A world full of NPCs that give life to the world
• Interactive environments
• Full Chicken breeding, racing, Chao garden style mini-game

Scope creep can DESTROY you. It’s either going to delay your project, burn you out, or make you hate everything you’ve been working on.

It will make every project feel sisyphean. Sometimes you gotta let the rock roll.

Why Playdate?

I think it’s important to give yourself restrictions. I found my scope spiraling out of control with my other ideas. This has some really strict rules.

• 2 Colors,
• 400×240 (or smaller) Resolution,
• 2 buttons,
• A crank,
• A d-pad,
• An accelerometer,
• A mic
• and 16MB Ram.

It will come with it’s own challenges, but thinks are less likely to grow out of control. Plus, how cool is the Playdate?

Until next time,

-Lodomo