“What do you look for when choosing a game to buy or play?” (Falmouth University 2021).
I look for games that make me think, this might be emotionally, politically, strategically and so on.
“What keeps you engaged with your favourite games over a long period?” (Falmouth University 2021).
4X strategy are probably the games that I have sunk the most hours into, and if I had all the money, skills, time in the world I’d want to be amplitude studios. After that RPG, and then story-driven games.
What keeps me engaged is probably the levelling up/collectable hook, and/or narrative. So for example as Breath of the Wild has been mentioned a few times, I have to complete all the shrines, and get them all! When replaying a game I enjoy going through the different option.
Playing Games for Research
Part of creating games with appeal I believe is playing games for research so you know the genre mechanics inside out. I play mobile games with good core fantasies, and I’ve been hooked recently on games like Cats and Soup and Terrarium.
Building Awareness of your Game
I usually pick games through articles, Twitter and word of mouth but if the store page, marketing materials or genre put me off I probably won’t buy the game no matter how much someone else raves about the game. The core gameplay loop, the hook and the kicker must be spot on for my target audience for Flora Fatalis.
The core gameplay loop, the hook and the kicker!
Game Mechanics
After brainstorming ideas, I made flow charts of my favourite strategy game mechanics. The mechanics displayed below will be refined and iterated on through research and testing throughout the next 12 weeks, so the general idea will stay the same but the playable prototype might look very different.
Fig 1. Masters 2021. Miro Planning Mechanics
Game Design Outline
Sprint 2 I refined and finished the Game Design Outline Document, using a template I created in Miro for Game Development (IGD720) and began considering the hook and the kicker of my concept!
Fig 2. Masters 2021. Miro Game Design Outline Draft
Concept, Hook, Kicker & The Safe Space Brainstorm
Clark (2020b) discusses the hook & the kicker for your game and follows certain constraints such as desirability and surprise to create successful indie games. “Think of it like a poem a sonnet may follow a rigid rhyming pattern but to those constraints limit the expressiveness or potential of the poem certainly not and the same goes for games. This is part of the method I’ve used to make numerous successful indie games since 2004 and I hope it will help you to succeed as well” (Clark 2020b).
Nick Popovich (2017), founder of Monomi Park and creator of Slime Rancher also discusses a safe and meaningful place in your game, and I feel for a strategy game it’s important to include this. My favourite parts of playing a 4X strategy Endless Space, XCOM or sometimes RPGs is setting up your inventory, upgrading your weapons, crafting your potions, organising your material, unlocking a new science and so on. And this idea of a safe place is something so familiar to me and games I love that it’s a part of ‘game feel’ that I want to include in Flora Fatalis.
Fig 3. Masters 2021. Concept, USP & Hooks
Safe Space: A moment where you can pause without leaving the game. A greenhouse, which you can organise a play around with, UI menus and cards with the properties of flowers that you have collected.
Hook: What is the hook of flora fatalis? It’s all about poison and deadly plants, something a little different for garden game lovers.
& The Kicker: Flora Fatalis is a strategy game, one in which you will form a bond with every plant.
My ideas might change over the course of the next 10 weeks but I feel like we’re off to a good start!
Greybox Prototype
Fig 4. Masters 2021. PlayMaker and main mechanics
PlayMaker
I have programmed an idle clicker strategy game in its most basic elements, you can click, gain money and buy and plant flowers. I have also learnt how to refactor the scripts. There are more programming elements to go, but I have now go the basics to move on to art and design.
The game should be completely unique from the tutorial by the time I have finished but has provided the start of the core gameplay.
Sprint Retrospective
I spent most of this sprint programming with PlayMaker, I have some experience programming websites but I’m still very much learning. So programming takes some time, for Flora Fatalis I am focusing on having a clean, working game that is polished and has no bugs. Using a tutorial from Greg Moss (2018) I programmed the basic mechanics of my game and learnt how to refactor state machines.
List of figures
Fig 1. Masters 2021. Miro Planning Mechanics
Fig 2. Masters 2021. Miro Game Design Outline Draft
Fig 3. Masters 2021. Concept, USP & Hooks
Fig 4. Masters 2021. PlayMaker and main mechanics
References
Cats and Soup. 2021. Hidea
CLARK, Ryan. 2020a. ‘Clark TANK DEEP DIVE | How to Make Video Game Hooks: Part 1 ‘ [online lecture] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOb-PdYwkwk [accessed 27 Dec 2021].
CLARK, Ryan. 2020b. ‘Clark TANK DEEP DIVE | How to Make Video Game Hooks: Part 2’ [online lecture] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-8N0DuHwJo [accessed 27 Dec 2021].
Falmouth University. 2021. Falmouth Flex [online]. Available at: https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/924/modules [accessed 1 Dec 2021].
MOSS, Greg. 2018. ‘Build an Idle Business Tycoon Game with Unity3D & PlayMaker’. Udemy [online course]. Available at: https://www.udemy.com/course/visual-development-idle-business-tycoon-game-unity-playmaker/ [accessed 1 Nov 2021].
POPOVICH, Nick. 2017. ‘Slime Rancher: A Preemptive Postmortem’ [online lecture]. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyDOrNbvFN8 [accessed 14 Dec 2021].
POPOVICH, Nick. 2018. ‘Making Games That Stand Out and Survive‘ [online lecture]. YouTube. Available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTvBgmNL-p0 [accessed 14 Dec 2021].
ROSE, Mike. 2018. ‘Marketing on Zero Budget’ [online lecture]. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3QnovWYvwo [accessed 27 Dec 2021].
We can work on our own or in a team for Indie Game Startup and there are advantages to both options. The module might be ideally completed in a team, you will have a cross-section of skills, be able to bounce ideas off each other and you can create something more elaborate for a vertical slice with more heads. However, I have decided to work as a solo developer for the module. While I was open to the option of working in a team, I am keen to develop my programming skills (one of my weaker areas) and generally work on my game development knowledge. I also felt passionate about a particular idea I had formed while preparing and reading for Indie Game Startup. A poison garden game for off-shoot planters.
Planning
Developing a playable vertical slice and game trailer video
Plan: Each Sprint is 2 weeks.
Sprint 1 (2 weeks)
Vertical Slice: Game Design
Business Plan: The Games Industry & Creating a Viable Game Product
Marketing Materials: Creating a Trailer & Store Presence
Sprint 6 (2 weeks)
Vertical Slice: Sound and Music, Optimise, Fix bugs, Polish
Marketing Materials: Supporting your game after Launch
Sprint 7 (1 week)
Vertical Slice: Storyboard & Polish, Polish, Polish. Record Vertical Slice and Submit!
Polish Presskit, Trailer & Marketing Materials and submit!
Development Planning
Sprint Planning using Trello
Research using Miro
Portfolio and reflection through Development Log
Vertical Slice
“A vertical slice is a fully-playable portion of a game that shows its developer’s intended player experience. This means its key features and systems are all working together properly, complete with assets that represent – and this is important – final quality” (Xsolla 2021).
Inspiration & Research
Establishing in Module 2 Game Development that to create ‘game feel’ and ‘deep games’ it’s essential to draw from personal experience and extensive research I booked a trip to The Poison Garden at Alnwick Gardens!
To draw, create and sell a game you need to know the smell, taste, (the taste was described by a knowledgable guide to avoid death) aura of the plants. Some plants were so incredibly toxic you could not smell them and many of the plants were kept away in cages.
Many of the visitors include doctors or those in the medical field interested in the medicinal properties of these plants; some poisonous plants are used in cures and medication.
The tales of misdemeanours or terrible accidents from deadly doctors, victorian gossips and vain high society offered inspiration for a dark and delightful poisonous garden game. A dramatic duchess, poison flowers and a mystery – what better combination can there be!
Visiting The Poison Garden was fun, I highly recommend everyone visit.
Fig 1. The poison tunnel at Alnwick Gardens
Choose a game genre and platform to work with
Analyse market opportunities for games
Gap in the market? Finding a new niche.
“Identifying areas for innovation. Now we can analyse existing markets and look for gaps. For example: There have been no new games in a particular genre for over 20 years. Would players who grew-up playing this genre buy a new game? A particular franchise is huge on one console but is locked into that hardware. Can a new franchise with a similar aesthetic and gameplay compete on other platforms?●A particular genre is popular on PC but has never been brought to mobile – perhaps due difficulties adapting the complex control scheme. Can you innovate a mobile-friendly control scheme that makes the genre fun to play on mobile?” (Falmouth University 2021).
The market is abundant with garden games, like Terrarium, Viridi, Gardenscapes and many more but what about off-shoot gardens like The Poison Garden at Alnwick. Our research shows a gap in the market for weird and wonderful planters, who like their gardens a little different.
Keep spiders as pets, grow deadly nightshade and mix up plants for antidotes in this deadly garden.
To find a gap in the market I conducted a competitor analysis which is included in my business plan and so, unfortunately, cannot be shared at the moment but here are a few examples of huge successful mobile games:
Fig 2. Studio Sprouts. 2021. Pocket Plants [image]
Fig 4. Ice Water Games. 2021. Viridi [image]
Fig 3. Green Panda Games. 2021. Terrarium [image]
Fig 5. Tactile Games. 2021. Lilys Garden [image]
Research Creating a Viable Game Product
To get warmed-up for this week’s market analysis, please research two indie game case studies or postmortems. If possible, find one business that performed well financially, and one with disappointing sales numbers. Where the information is available, please summarise what the developers felt they did right and wrong, what their game’s budget was, and how much revenue they made. You can search Google, Gamasutra, YouTube, Reddit, Twitter and beyond for datapoints. Try search terms like “indie game postmortem”, “how much money my game made” and “indie game revenues” (Falmouth University 2021).
Neon Climber
Fig 6. Dividebyzer0 2021. Neon Climber [image]
“Hi everyone, my name is Nikita Pavlov and just recently our team hit a major milestone – the first indie game release. A trivial, to be honest, mobile runner game took us 2.5 years of “in the spare time” production. The result – a complete commercial failure, with CPI over $1 and R1 lower than 30%. If these terms are not familiar to you, just know that with such metrics your hyper-casual game will sink right to the bottom of the Mariana trench. So to cool down a little and, I hope, to lower your chances of repeating the same mistakes, I’m going to tell you our story”
Struggled to interpret and define feedback with own goals
No artists on team and yet attempted to create an artistically styled game “Because none of us are artists, we had to deal with art workflow in the blind trial and error way” rather than consult actual artists
Lack of testing
Project Management issues
Eidolon (Ice Water Games)
Fig 7. Ice Water Games 2021. Eidolon [image]
“We launched in August of 2014 and sales to this point have netted us collectively ~$125,000. I don’t really care what you take from these numbers. Especially don’t feel entitled to tell me what I should take from this, as some have in the past. For us it is a tremendous success. The amount that I personally have made from this, as Eidolon’s most prominent contributor and beneficiary, would be enough for me to make another game of similar scope with no further income. It’s what afforded the development of Viridi.
” This went to UDK ($100 upfront), Greenlight ($100), Flash ($250), Promoter ($50), Dropbox ($10/mo for ~5 mo), and various costs (travel, food) related to the two places we exhibited the game (~$100, Viking Con in Bellingham and Invisible Arcade in Seattle)”
What went well
Marketing, and gathering interest with a limited budget
Sharing open progress
Adapting to change and feedback, pivoting from mechanics that weren’t working
Consulting experts in relevant fields such as UI, History and so on
Strong visual style
Using a commercial games engine
Eventually opening up profits and creative decisions
What Went Wrong
Lack of QA
Lack of Mentorship
Not enough polish
Optimisation issues
Crunch
Treating the project too personally
Not trusting in team enough
Research Creating a Viable Game Product Venn Diagram
Fig 8. Masters 2021. Venn Viable
Brainstorming
I brainstormed ideas and looked at small selection of competitors, testing out ideas for game mechanics.
Fig 9. Masters 2021. Miro Brainstorm
Fig 10. Masters 2021. Market Analysis Brainstorm
Brainstorming Moodboard
Fig 11. Masters 2021. Deadly Flowers Moodboard
Flora Fatalis
Fig 12. Masters 2021. Name Brainstorm
Night Flora or Fatal Flora
To choose a name I brainstormed early, carrying out different ideas. Some names and ideas I came up with will look silly, like ‘Lush and Shadowy’ but I keep writing names until inspiration strikes no matter how silly they sound.
I then floated a few my best ideas in front of a selected focus group, my favourite being Night Flora. A new suggestion was made: Flora Fatalis
Concept
Flora Fatalis is a hybrid-casual mix of genres, simulation, narrative, a strategy targeting long term retention of gamers. Inspired by The Poison Garden at Alnwick, you can explore deadly gardening with this combination of the accessibility of hypercasual games and the immersion of sophisticated game mechanics that let you explore the world in depth.
“Hybrid-casual games allow developers and publishers to create engaging and core mechanics quickly while benefiting from hybrid monetisation strategies, such as combining free-to-play and ad-based business models with in-app purchases to boost revenue.” (Selz 2021).
Hybrid-casual games are a “relatively untapped market in terms of its success” Corentin Selz publishing manager for Voodoo, best known for its work in hyper-casual games believes this “offers a new genre for players to get excited about” (2021). I’ve always been fascinated by the properties of plants and Flora Fatalis offers exuberant gardening for the interesting, unusual and wonderful. You will expand your selection of plants and gardens the better you keep your garden. You will unlock secrets about Flora Fatalis as you explore and rise in level. The visuals are 2.5D, with 2D flowers layered and planted in a 3D environment—a striking, dark and fantastical setting.
Vision, Values & Mission
Vision: A deep and meaningful mobile game, about growing and tending a poison garden.
Values: Protecting the planet, acceptance and spreading knowledge are our core values.
Mission: To create an off-shoot garden game for lovers of the rare and fascinating, that will retain a special community of plant lovers.
Retrospective on Sprint 1
Sprint 1 has been spent mostly researching the mobile game market, competitors and gaining inspiration from The Poison Garden; all of which will underpin the viability and appeal of my game. A poison garden game is an idea I have been brewing and I’m excited to bring my Flora Fatalis concept to life over the next 6 sprints.
List of figures
Figure 1. The poison tunnel at Alnwick Gardens. October 2021 at Alnmouth, Northumberland. Photograph by the author.
Figure 2. Studio Sprouts. 2021. Pocket Plants [image] The App Store [online]. Available at: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pocket-plants-merge-games/id1170134874 [accessed 1 Dec 2021].
Figure 3. Green Panda Games. 2021. Terrarium [image] The App Store [online]. Available at: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/terrarium-garden-idle/id1401837582 [accessed 1 Dec 2021].
Figure 4. Ice Water Games. 2021. Viridi [image] The App Store [online]. Available at: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/viridi/id1107708818 [accessed 1 Dec 2021].
Figure 5. Tactile Games. 2021. Lilys Garden [image] The App Store [online]. Available at: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lilys-garden-design-relax/id1437783446 [accessed 1 Dec 2021].
Figure 6. Dividebyzer0. 2021. Neon Climber [image] Google Store [online]. Available at: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Dividebyzer0.NeonClimber&hl=en_GB&gl=US [accessed 1 Dec 2021].
Figure 7. Ice Water Games. 2021. Eidolon [image] icewatergames [online]. Available at: http://www.icewatergames.com/ [accessed 1 Dec 2021].
Figure 8. Sarah MASTERS. 2021. Venn Viable.
Figure 9. Sarah MASTERS. 2021. Miro Brainstorm.
Figure 10. Sarah MASTERS. 2021. Market Analysis Brainstorm.
Figure 11. Sarah MASTERS. 2021. Deadly Flowers Moodboard.
Figure 12. Sarah MASTERS. 2021. Name Brainstorm.
References
Eidolon. 2014. Ice Water Games
Falmouth University. 2021. Falmouth Flex [online]. Available at: https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/924/modules [accessed 1 Dec 2021].
Neon Climber. 2020. Dividebyzer
RUSCH, Doris C. 2017. Making Deep Games: Designing Games with Meaning and Purpose. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business.
SELZ, Corentin. 2021. ‘Corentin Selz Voodoo from Hypercasual to Hybrid-casual’ [online]. Available at: https://www.pocketgamer.biz/interview/77247/corentin-selz-voodoo-from-hypercasual-to-hybrid-casual [accessed 20 October 2021].
SWINK, Steve. 2009. Game Feel: A Game Designer’s Guide to Virtual Sensation. Amsterdam ; Boston: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers/Elsevier.
The Alnwick Garden. 2021. [online]. Available at: https://www.alnwickgarden.com/the-garden/poison-garden/ [accessed 27 Dec 2021].
XSOLLA. 2021. ‘Funding 101: The Impact Of The Vertical Slice’ [online]. Available at: https://xsolla.com/blog/funding-101-the-impact-of-the-vertical-slice [accessed 27 Dec 2021].
