How did I decide what I want my game to become? And which games inspired me?

Posted by joshyaxley on Jun 10th, 2015

If you read my last post, you'll know that I've recently made the decision to forgo entering the 9 to 5 world of work, and instead follow my dreams of becoming an independent game developer. Now, we're going to go back in time to January 2015, and I'll tell you the story of how I decided what game I wanted to make.

One of my favourite things about game developing is being able to tailor-make games to be whatever you want them to be. The creative freedom is immense. My usual process of coming up with an idea for a game, is simply to daydream about what kind of game I wish already existed, and then realise that I can actually make it a reality by creating it!

Personally, I love kicking back with an Xbox PC controller and getting my ass kicked in oldschool platforming action. I have a passion for hard, challenging games, because the sense of accomplishment you can achieve from them is so rewarding that you don't mind if you landed on the spikes 1000 times before you got to that elusive end boss.

I think it's important to take a look at several games similar to what I'm aiming for, and to think about what makes those games good.

So, which games inspired me to make Faerie?

Spelunky

One of my all-time favourite games just has to be Spelunky, the dungeon-crawling roguelike platforming game originally developed in 2008 by Derek Yu. I have sank a lot of hours into this game, and enjoyed each and every one, but what is it about Spelunky that really appeals to me (and so many other players)?

The original version of Spelunky was created in Gamemaker 8, a previous version of Gamemaker: Studio, which is the engine that I am using to create Faerie.

Mystery: When playing through Spelunky, you honestly never know what's going to come next. You explore your way deeper and deeper until you reach the very depths of Hell itself. There are numerous secrets that mean you likely never know everything about the game - hidden levels, special items, mini-bosses. Accidentally stumbling on a secret level is an almost electric feeling that makes you want to keep playing and discover even more.

When playing through Spelunky, you honestly never know what's going to come next. You explore your way deeper and deeper until you reach the very depths of Hell itself. There are numerous secrets that mean you likely never know everything about the game - hidden levels, special items, mini-bosses. Accidentally stumbling on a secret level is an almost electric feeling that makes you want to keep playing and discover even more. Challenge: Not only do you have to dodge various traps and deal with a whole host of enemies, there are also achievements to aim for such as speed runs or completing the game without collecting any treasure. This increases the longevity of the game and means you always have a reason to play.

Not only do you have to dodge various traps and deal with a whole host of enemies, there are also achievements to aim for such as speed runs or completing the game without collecting any treasure. This increases the longevity of the game and means you always have a reason to play. Unlockables: While unlockables only play a small part in Spelunky, being able to play as a character you earned through a particularly hard bonus level, despite only being a cosmetic change, can feel very rewarding.

While unlockables only play a small part in Spelunky, being able to play as a character you earned through a particularly hard bonus level, despite only being a cosmetic change, can feel very rewarding. Randomly Generated Levels: This makes each playthrough unique, keeps the game fresh, and prevents you from getting bored of the same levels over and over again.

Volgarr the Viking

Volgarr the Viking is another challenging platformer, but has a completely different feel to Spelunky through its use of retro visuals and carefully crafted levels that really makes it feel like an epic adventure. Each death teaches you how to handle certain difficult spots, and you can feel your skill progression as you manage to get further and further through the game with each attempt. Dying repeatedly does get frustrating, but the developers wisely made a save-game-like feature where you can start a new game at the furthest world you have previously reached. It also does great on the 'mystery' criteria, providing different level routes unlocked by filling certain criteria in previous levels, which then leads to 3 different endings.

This alternate level system allows players to choose how difficult their play sessions will be, so caters for multiple audiences.

Rogue Legacy

Rogue Legacy is another randomly generated "die once then start again" platformer. However, there's a much bigger focus on dodging projectiles in this game, with a myriad of monsters all firing at you. A nice feature of Rogue Legacy is that, when you die, any gold that you collected on that run can be spent upgrading your characters be earning points in the skill tree.

Another thing that sets it apart from the previous two is that throughout the game, you come across journal entries that gradually tell the background story of the game, giving more depth and motivation for your adventure.

Furthermore, upon 'completing' the game, you then enter "New Game+" mode, which is essentially a more difficult version of the game for hardcore players that really want a challenge.

Rogue Legacy also features several different 'classes' of hero to play, each with their own unique abilities and advantages in different scenarios.

Trine (1 & 2)

Trine is set in a stunning fantasy world, and is different to the other three games I mentioned in that it is more of a puzzle platformer than anything else. It features all kinds of movable crates, turning platforms, lifts, and switches that create a series of puzzles that you must get through to complete each level. You also get set upon by various monsters throughout your journey, but combat isn't really the main focus of this game.

The main thing I love about Trine is the world that it is set in. I feel it is fantasy in its purest form, with huge glowing toadstools, ancient ruins, and beautiful trees.

Those are the four games that are my main inspiration for what I want Faerie to become. Of course, I've played a lot of other games in 'research' and thought about what makes which mechanics good, but I don't want to turn this into a huge article about a dozen different games.

So, what do I want from Faerie?

I'm going to create a fantasy world that focuses on the war between two worlds: the realm of fairies, and the realm of spirits. The player will learn about this world by finding artifacts along their way, which will be added to a journal where they can read about that artifact, and piece together some of the lore and history of Faerie. Of course, players that aren't massively interested in lore can simply not read the journal entries after finding an artifact.

There will be an overall story to the main game, to add direction and meaning to the players actions, but it will focus more on dialogue between characters (that doesn't force-pause the game), rather than interrupting the flow with long drawn out cutscenes. I hope for the story to have some philosophical themes, but to be kept light with touches of humour and wit.





The main game levels will not be randomly generated, as that would mean the quality of them would also be somewhat random, and I'd like to be able to have consistently well-designed levels for the story mode. However, I plan on including a randomised mode that will procedurally generate levels in the same manner as Spelunky or Rogue Legacy, for players that want to experience a different challenge each time. Not all the artifacts will be found in the story mode, so players can enter the random mode to explore the world of Faerie and try to obtain all the journal entries.

As for the mechanics, my philosophy for Faerie is to keep things simple, but still be able to offer gameplay with depth. What I mean by this, is that you won't have a spellbook of 8 abilities and need to use each one in a different scenario, you will simply have one attack button that will swing a sword. It will be the way the enemies act and the specific combinations of platforms that will provide the difficulty in playing. Along the same vein, I will not use the RPG tradition of having a complicated set of gear with varying stats so that every 5 minutes you find a new piece of gear and have to work out what should be equipped and where. I'm not saying games like that aren't good, I just want to keep things simple. Of course, character progression is an important reward structure within any game, so there will be a few stats that affect things like how hard you hit, how fast you move, how high you jump, and how much health you have. These will be altered by, for example, paying treasure as tribute at different shrines along your journey.





To appeal to a wide audience, I also plan on including several difficulty modes. Each mode will have it's own leaderboard, so players can compete to see who gets the furthest and how quick they can do it. This will increase the longevity of the game and give players reasons to keep coming back to it and improve.

Hidden levels, and potentially special abilities, are more things that I would like to include.

I could write for ages about all my plans for this game, but I will go into more detail in later posts, where I will tell you how I approached developing certain mechanics and such. For now, those are the main points of what I intend this game to become.

Thank you very much for reading! If you know any other games that are similar to what I am trying to achieve, or want to say which parts you like and dislike about the games I mentioned, let me know in the comments!

If you are at all interested, then feel free to follow my progress on social media:

Twitter: Twitter.com

Tumblr: Electric-sheep-studio.tumblr.com

Facebook: Facebook.com

I plan on having a playable demo available by the end of the month, and I'll welcome all the feedback that I can get!

Josh