I think it’s time we took a take a break from all the pretty pictures and talked more about game design and the challenges we face.



From a purely gameplay point of view, I would describe Pode as Co-op Puzzle and Exploration game for one to two players.

Co-op in the sense that you control two characters, Stella and Bulder. Each have their own set of special abilities that you can and must use in support of and in combination with the other character’s abilities.

One to two players means that you can either do this alone, controlling one character at a time and switching between them with the push of a button, or with a second player controlling the character you’re not.



Puzzle and Exploration relates to your goal in the game. You move the two characters around a 3D environment; exploring a mysterious underground cave-system in your quest to reach the top of a mountain. On your way, you encounter challenges in the form of puzzles and riddles. These puzzles are usually solved by the correct use of the abilities at your disposal, as well as any tools the environment itself can provide.

With the above as a foundation, we created a set of goals and guidelines for the design of the game in order to make sure we provide players with the kind of experience we want them to have. Here are some of the more gameplay focused ones.



The game should be playable by a wide range of ages.

We want to challenge our players, but we also want you to succeed and to see the end of Stella and Bulder’s journey. This has a significant impact on difficulty tuning as we try to find the right balance.

For now, we’re leaning slightly towards the easy side of the curve, focusing more on the joy of exploration and discovery, ensuring that players can maintain a sense of progression throughout the entire game. This may very well change further down the line, based on testing and player feedback.

Puzzles can be hard to solve, but should not be hard to execute.

We are not making an action game. If you think you know the solution to a puzzle, you should be able to test your theory without being frustrated with the mechanics. Yes, there is an element of 3D platforming to the game, but the platforming is mainly there to facilitate the exploration and puzzles.

On the other hand, as we continue designing the game we sometimes find that some interesting puzzles require a bit more dexterity or timing from the player. In these cases, we need to test them out on players to see if they are too demanding for the core experience. If so, we try to keep these puzzles in the game, but as optional challenges that are not required to complete the main storyline.

The entire main game has to be playable by just one player.

This affects how we design our puzzles as we have to make sure that you don’t have to control both characters at the same time. This also applies to forcing the player to switch between characters quickly in the middle of a sequence of very specific actions in order to solve a puzzle.

Similar to the previous point, we may end up separating the puzzles that requires two players into optional challenges, or leave them out completely.

Avoid making one character more/less useful than the other.

This affects general mechanics and puzzle design, but also how we teach the players how to play. If we spend too much time on the specifics of one character, suddenly the other character is just tagging along. This is especially important to keep in mind if a second player has joined the game, as we want to avoid having one player feel like they have less to do than the other does.

Avoid failure states.

Going with the focus on exploration, mental challenges and the themes of the game, the characters cannot die. While you may fail a puzzle, you should be able to try another solution without having to reset an entire level.





In addition to aesthetic and thematic goals, these goals guides us towards creating the final experience. Although aspects and details of the design will probably change and evolve as we continue to develop the game, the goals serve as reference points for any future design decisions, helping us maintain our vision.

PEACE!

-Henrik