0:00:00.240,0:00:07.040
Last time on developing, I picked my game engine [br]- Unity - and I started to learn how to use it.

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But now it's time to reveal the idea for my [br]game and, well, get started with making it.

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But where does one begin when developing [br]a game? And I think this is a vitally

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important question because, as you are about [br]to see, if you take the wrong direction

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when you start developing a game it can be [br]disastrous for the project. Let me explain.

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Okay so let me start with the idea [br]for the game. I am going to make,

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and brace yourself because this is crazy, a 2D, [br]side-scrolling, platform game. Yes, I know, every

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indie developer starts by making a side-scrolling [br]platformer. But I think I have some good reasons.

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I love the genre. Platformers are [br]relatively easy to make in the

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grand scheme of things - it’s not a MMO at [br]least. And I've made loads of videos about

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platformer level design and character [br]design which should prove helpful.

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Now this is also going to be a, brace yourself [br]again, platformer with a unique twist. The

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idea is that the character in my platformer is [br]magnetic which means they will repel away from

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some platforms and attract to others. And you [br]can change your polarity with a button press.

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The idea actually came from this game: The [br]Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons. In this

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game you have a magnetic glove power-up which [br]allows Link to repel from some surfaces and

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attract towards others. You can also use it to [br]pick up large metal balls for puzzle solving

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and use it to fight enemies. It's a really cool [br]mechanic but it does feel somewhat limited by

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the genre, the top down camera perspective, and [br]of course the limited technology of the Game Boy.

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So I thought… what if I were to borrow that [br]game idea and put it in a different genre:

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a fast-paced, 2D platformer. Something [br]akin to Celeste or Super Meat Boy. A game

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where you have to master the magnetism [br]for speed and fluidity and precision.

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So that is the idea. And the question now [br]is: where do I begin with it? Do I just

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jump into Unity and start coding? Do I jump into [br]Photoshop and start making some artwork for it?

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Do I start thinking about the storyline [br]or the characters? Where do I begin?

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I'm going to level with you: this is not the first [br]game I've ever tried to make. Ever since I was a

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little kid I've come up with ideas for games, and [br]at various points in my life I have tried to make

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those games in different tools and whatnot. But [br]I almost never finish those games and I think

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the reason is the same, every single time: I [br]start in the wrong manner. Let me show you.

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So I got this folder from my parents house [br]and it is full of notes and sketches and

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ideas for a game I was going to make a few [br]years before I started Game Maker’s Toolkit.

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That is actually just a mouse mat for [br]Starcraft Ghost. That game never came out,

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did it? That might be worth [br]something actually, put that in the eBay pile.

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So this game was going to be called Carter's [br]Curse. It was about famed archaeologist Howard

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Carter, the dude who discovered Tutankhamen's [br]tomb. And, in my game at least, he would also

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awaken an ancient Egyptian curse meaning he'd [br]have to fight zombies and mummies and ancient

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Egyptian gods. I remember spending hours and hours [br]drawing all of this stuff. I mean… what a nerd!

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Anyway. So how would you go about fighting these [br]enemies? The answer: playing Picross puzzles.

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Picross is this logic-based, grid-based, puzzle [br]game… a bit like Sudoku. Nintendo's made loads

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of Picross games. I was really inspired by games [br]like Bookworm Adventures where you have a puzzle

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at the bottom of the screen, and completing the [br]puzzle does damage to enemies in a little fight

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scene at the top of the screen. And so my idea was [br]kind of the same: you'd have a Picross grid at the

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bottom of the screen and Howard Carter would [br]be fighting monsters at the top of the screen.

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So I jumped into development. I was making the [br]game in an app for iPad called Codea which lets

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you make iOS games on your iPad. I'd actually [br]previously used it for a very standard Picross

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app for iOS so I knew I could probably code [br]it, but I wanted the graphics to be amazing so

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I jumped into Photoshop and just started [br]making loads of sprites and animation frames.

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I actually have a Dropbox folder that is full of [br]sprites and animations. I made loads of different

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characters, I made finishing moves for Howard [br]Carter, I made an introductory cutscene, I made

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menus with big juicy buttons [br]to press. I really got into it.

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But then I realised something. [br]Something quite important. Something

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quite detrimental to the project. The game wasn't [br]any good! It was really bad, it wasn't fun at all.

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And the more I coded it and [br]the more I developed it the

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more I realised what the problem was: Picross [br]just doesn't have enough depth for this

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type of game. You can't really have tactics [br]or strategy, you can't change what you're

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doing depending on which enemy you're fighting, [br]and ultimately it was immaterial that you were

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fighting enemies. You could ignore that entire [br]top part of the game and the game would still

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work because all you're doing is just playing [br]Picross puzzles. So it meant that I didn't have

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the ability to make the game more difficult [br]or more interesting depending on which enemy

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you were fighting and it meant the player was [br]just doing the same thing over and over again.

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I had made a game that was shallow and repetitive [br]and dull. And maybe I could have fixed it but I

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was so far gone at that point and so demoralised [br]that I just kind of scrapped the whole thing.

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So what was my mistake? Well, with many, many years [br]of hindsight… it's been almost a decade now… it's

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pretty obvious to me what happened. And it's [br]this: when you're making a game there's a bunch

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of different things you have to create. The main [br]ones being the music, the art, the game design,

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the story, and the code. And now it's easy [br]to think of them as being equal… but they're

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not. In a lot of cases, the game design is [br]not equal but instead it is the foundation

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upon which all the other parts sit. And so if you [br]get that bit wrong the whole thing falls apart.

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I mean you can fix the bugs and you can [br]redraw the graphics, but if the gameplay

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is fundamentally flawed well the whole [br]project can sometimes be unsalvageable.

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And this is pretty much what happened [br]to me. I spent so much time on the art

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and animation that by the time I [br]finally got around to the gameplay,

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I realised that the whole thing was flawed. [br]I had basically built a house on really

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shaky foundations and then I was surprised and [br]upset when my toilet fell through the floor.

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Embarrassingly this is not the only time this [br]has happened to me. I wanted to make a film noir

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point-and-click adventure game with a unique [br]procedural generation clue system - but

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I spent so much time on the story [br]and researching the time period that

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I never got around to actually [br]designing that system.

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And I wanted to make a fast-paced [br]modern twist on the mobile game

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Snake but I got bogged down in bug fixing [br]and trying to get the movement code perfect

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that I never found out if that game was [br]any fun before I got bored and burnt out.

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So every time I've tried to design my [br]own game I've put other elements like

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story and graphics ahead of the gameplay. Why?

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Well I think it comes down to making two very [br]wrong assumptions. Assumption one is that the game

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always felt kind of cool in my head, so I just [br]kind of assumed that the game would be fun

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when I made it. Obviously that was wrong. And [br]assumption two is that I'm not able to find out

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if the game is fun until I've built the [br]game. I have to just kind of keep making

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the game and at some point I'll realise [br]if it's any good… right? No, wrong again.

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And this is all very cringe-worthy to say because [br]now the answers are so obvious. But they weren't

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obvious then - it's only since doing Game Maker’s [br]Toolkit, since researching game development, since

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interviewing dozens and dozens of game designers [br]that I now know how most successful games start.

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You see game designers have loads of ideas all [br]the time and I'm sure they all seem amazingly

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fun in their heads. But the best game designers [br]know that their brains are horrible smelly liars.

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The only way to know if a game idea is [br]good is to build it, to test it. But

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instead of having to build the entire game, [br]designers just have to build a… prototype.

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A prototype is just this small scrappy test bed [br]for an idea, just designed to see if the idea

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is fun or not. These prototypes are [br]usually incredibly ugly with just

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unfinished art or basic shapes or sprites stolen [br]from other games. They're often buggy and broken

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and they have nothing in them but the bare minimum [br]features needed to test that mechanic. They are a

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just functional enough version of the [br]game idea, built as quickly as possible,

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with the only purpose being to see if that game [br]idea works. Is it fun or interesting? Is it

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worth pursuing? Is it a strong foundation [br]upon which to build the rest of the game?

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And so that's what I'm gonna do. This time I'm [br]gonna get it right. I’m gonna focus exclusively

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on making the prototype and I am [br]going to be extremely disciplined

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and not do anything other [br]than just test this game idea.

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So in terms of art, I'm just going to pull stuff [br]off Google Images. There's going to be no music,

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there's no story, I'm not going to think about the [br]name of the game or the name of the characters.

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I'm not gonna start designing an app icon [br]for a game that hasn't even been built yet,

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Mark, you idiot. The code will definitely [br]be buggy and broken because I'm still just

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learning Unity, but it should be good enough

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to see if this idea works. Just a sandbox to [br]test out game mechanics and see what's fun.

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So let's get started, and open up Unity.

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The first thing I needed to do was to have a [br]character who can just move left and right and

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jump, so I just have it apply forces to [br]the rigidbody when I hit the right keys.

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This already had some problems, which wasn't a [br]great start, but I got there in the end. Then

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I put a magnet in the scene and needed to make it [br]so the character would attract towards the magnet.

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Now to get this working I had to become an [br]expert programmer, I had to use my galaxy brain

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coding skills, so I limbered up my fingers and [br]typed in the following line of code… how do I

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move a rigidbody towards another object. [br]Okay, yes, I Googled it, found some code,

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and slapped it in my project. But I did make [br]sure I understood how it works - it basically

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finds the direction between the character and [br]the magnet and applies forces to the rigidbody

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in that direction. I also tweaked the code so that [br]it would speed up as you get closer to the magnet.

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Then I made it so you could turn off the magnet [br]with a button press which had the intended

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effect of keeping the character's velocity [br]going, sending them flying through the air.

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So if I slap a platform up here I can attract [br]the character towards the magnet then let go

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and jump up here. Which does feel pretty [br]good… but it's a little hard to control

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things. This code maybe isn't perfect, [br]things get out of hand pretty easily.

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But as I was researching this stuff, I [br]stumbled upon something really useful in

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Unity. It's a built-in component called the point [br]effector, and it's basically… a magnetic field.

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I don't know how I missed this, the icon for it [br]is literally just a magnet. Here's how it works:

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you give a GameObject a collider and a point [br]effector, and then set an attract strength.

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And now when a rigidbody is in the collider, [br]it's attracted towards the center of the field.

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You can also use Unity's layer mask system to [br]make it so it only attracts certain objects.

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So this would certainly make the game [br]a lot easier to make, so I decided to

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remake the prototype. And, yes, [br]the game feels more grounded.

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It's easier for me to tweak things [br]and I can do cool stuff like

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if I put the attract point on the poles of the [br]magnet, this happens - which looks pretty sweet.

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But when I made this second prototype, for [br]some reason… not quite sure why, I decided

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to not use Mario this time, but replace him with [br]a picture of a magnet for the main character. And

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this kind of gave me an idea: what [br]if the character is not magnetic,

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but there is a magnet in the game world. And the [br]character can walk over and pick up the magnet.

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To achieve this I used Unity's built-in [br]joint system, it's another component.

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This allows you to connect two rigidbodies [br]together using different types of joints like

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hinges and springs. So now the character is [br]essentially holding the magnet and if the magnet

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is attracted to a piece of metal, the character [br]goes with it. Until you let go of the magnet,

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and now you can walk around again. [br]And that gameplay I wanted before,

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with using the trajectory of the magnet to [br]send your character up to a higher platform,

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that can still be achieved by just [br]letting go of the magnet in mid-air.

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Plus it allows for all sorts of [br]other things, like you can have

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two magnets, or more. And you could maybe, like,

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place the magnet up here, then get an enemy to [br]chase, you turn off the magnetism, and splat!

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Oh this is kind of cool, actually. Maybe this [br]could work. Suddenly the game felt way more

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interesting than my original idea, which I have to [br]admit I was starting to get a little bit worried

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about. When your character is magnetic and being [br]attracted and repelled it's very easy to feel

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a bit out of control, but having the magnet be [br]a separate object means you get times where you

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are completely in control as the character, and a [br]bit more out of control when holding the magnet.

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Plus, I was a bit worried just how many ideas I [br]could come up with for a game where the character

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is magnetic. But as soon as I had it as two [br]separate entities, the ideas just started flowing.

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Plus I really like games where you move back and [br]forth between two distinct types of gameplay,

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like, think how Mario Odyssey changes when [br]you do and don't have the hat. So in my game,

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the character is nimble and can jump really high [br]without the magnet, and slow and leaden when

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holding the magnet - but, of course, that magnet [br]allows for all sorts of amazing possibilities.

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Now I shouldn't be surprised that an even better [br]idea emerged during the prototyping process. As we

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saw in the GMTK episode The Games That Designed [br]Themselves, it's pretty common for new ideas to

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emerge during prototyping. Take a look at the [br]game Crypt of the Necrodancer: when that game

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was originally designed, it was just supposed to [br]be a roguelike with a tight time limit in between

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your turns. But as the designers made it, they [br]realised that it would be even more interesting

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if, instead of it being on a timer, [br]it was set to the beat of a song.

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So prototypes aren't just a way to [br]test and prove the validity of an idea:

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they are a way to generate [br]new and even better ideas.

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Now during this whole stage I made [br]another interesting discovery in Unity:

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this one is called sprite shapes. And [br]it's generally used to make really cool

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organic level design, like you [br]might see in the Ori games,

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but for my purposes I just put on a blank colour [br]and this allowed me to make level design really,

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really fast. I could just snap together a [br]prototype area by dragging handles around

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like doing something in Photoshop. So I built [br]the prototype again and this time I wanted the

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character to be a little bit better to control, [br]something closer to a real video game character.

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Now I don't want to get bogged down in [br]coding movement and jumps, so I downloaded a

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character control script off the internet. [br]It works really good, I can focus on tweaking

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it or remaking it or whatever in the future: [br]right now I don't want to put time into that.

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Also in this prototype I started looking [br]at some more mechanics like being able to

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throw the magnet and then being able to [br]recall it back to you like Thor and his

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hammer. And because the magnet rigidbody bumps [br]into the character's rigidbody, it gives you

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this little bit of feedback when you catch the [br]magnet. It's like free game feel, it's amazing.

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And then I came up with various scenarios [br]that you could use the magnet in, like

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throwing it at a wall to create a platform. [br]Maybe connecting it to a piston and then

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disconnecting it at the right time to send [br]it flying. Maybe switching its polarity to

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jump between two conveyor belts. Or how about you [br]weigh down this platform, stand on the top of it,

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and then change the magnet's polarity to shoot you [br]up in the air? Whoa this is actually pretty cool,

0:17:30.160,0:17:35.120
right? This is looking like a [br]video game. This is pretty fun!

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And this really was the point where I felt like [br]this game idea certainly has some potential. It's

0:17:41.120,0:17:46.160
original: I've seen a bunch of magnet-based [br]games but nothing quite like this.

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It allows for both platforming and puzzle [br]based gameplay. It feels like ideas for this

0:17:52.080,0:17:56.960
game just flow really easily so I can build [br]loads of different levels. And, best of all,

0:17:56.960,0:18:02.320
it's just really fun to play. I can just jump [br]into this scene in Unity and pick up a controller

0:18:02.320,0:18:06.720
and it's quite enjoyable. That [br]is surely a very good sign.

0:18:06.720,0:18:13.120
And so this is the power of prototypes: [br]you can use them to test if a game idea

0:18:13.120,0:18:16.320
is actually any good. And, if you're really lucky,

0:18:16.320,0:18:20.720
you might find that new ideas emerge [br]during that prototyping phase.

0:18:20.720,0:18:26.880
Now I think you do have to have a certain level [br]of discipline here, you really do have to say ‘I’m

0:18:26.880,0:18:32.000
not going to focus on anything extraneous right [br]now, just the gameplay’. And, I mean, it is hard.

0:18:32.000,0:18:37.520
Like, in this video I didn't show you the entire [br]week I spent looking at particle effects and

0:18:37.520,0:18:43.280
shaders and UI elements and things like that - I'd [br]gone right back to that old behaviour of getting

0:18:43.280,0:18:49.520
distracted and carried away by stuff that just [br]doesn't matter right now. But luckily I caught

0:18:49.520,0:18:54.400
it in time and scrapped that prototype, before [br]getting back to the stuff that is important.

0:18:54.400,0:18:59.600
And ultimately I think it worked out: I ended up [br]building something that I think is pretty fun,

0:18:59.600,0:19:06.000
that does have potential, and that I am excited [br]to work on. My previous games which I tried to

0:19:06.000,0:19:11.600
make when I was much younger were built with a [br]sort of blind hope that the game would be fun,

0:19:11.600,0:19:16.640
which isn't the most confidence-inducing [br]way to make a game. But now it feels like

0:19:16.640,0:19:22.000
I'm building on a really strong foundation [br]and so all those other aspects - the story,

0:19:22.000,0:19:29.200
the music, the artwork - that can be built with [br]faith that the underlying foundation is solid.

0:19:29.200,0:19:34.400
And so I feel like this is [br]the way to start making games:

0:19:34.400,0:19:39.840
building a prototype. The only question [br]is: what the hell do I do next?

0:19:40.720,0:19:45.120
I guess we'll find out next time, in the [br]next episode of Developing. Thank you

0:19:45.120,0:19:51.840
so much for watching and I hope you'll join me [br]on the next episode of this journey. Goodbye.

0:20:14.320,0:20:18.320
The idea actually came from this game, [br]The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons.

0:20:19.600,0:20:22.240
Damn it. From this game. Oops.

0:20:25.120,0:20:31.760
From this game. It came from this game. This [br]game. This game. This game: The Legend of Zelda:

0:20:31.760,0:20:38.080
Oracle of Seasons. The idea actually came from [br]this game: The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons.

0:20:39.920,0:20:41.120
That was pretty good.