Mechanics first game design

OUR GAME DESIGN STRATEGY

We took the build from the ground up approach to the game design as well. Our first task was to find game mechanics and puzzles that were fun. We figured the best way to ensure the final product is fun is to have it be fun at its very core.

We started with the block pushing concept. Then added the idea of two types of objects to push, we called them rocks and logs. Then we built puzzles till we came up with a second mechanic, switches.

We built more puzzles then came up with the idea for a third mechanic. What would it look like if something pushed the rock for the player? At this point in development we called it water.

We decided we had enough mechanics and wanted to move on to the next feature, the world. We wanted the game to be an adventure game, so we created items to unlock different areas of the map.

Then we added optional collectables. This helped us to ramp up the difficulty of the game. You can defeat the game without exploring the entire map, but to collect all of the collectables you must solve the most challenging puzzles of the game.

All of this was done before we got to work actually building the game in Assembly. An unintended advantage to this strategy was it gave Casey time to learn game design and practice pixel art.