An experiment in transparent games design

Today, our character is on vacation! So this prototype is about construction : you will have to construct shapes with your little cubes!

You can play it HERE!

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After the reflexes, back to the reflexion!

Today’s prototype will melt your brain! You now have 4 characters to bring to the correct arrival and each one walks on a specific dimension!

Rotating the camera and zooming will be essential to finish this level so I remind you the control :

- LEFT CLICK : Selection.
- RIGHT CLICK and DRAG : Rotate the camera.
- WHEEL : Zoom +/-.
- WHEEL CLICK and DRAG : Translate the camera.

You can try to beat this level HERE!

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After reflection with the previous prototype, it’s time for action! This new version is more stressful and you will have to think quicker than usual.

You have to reach the arrival before to be under the water or you will see the first GAME OVER of our series of prototype!

You can try this new version HERE!

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Today, a prototype which uses all the previous concepts but with a new principle : the “play/pause” button!

You have to build your entire path before to let the character advance : you can’t switch a piece when the game is on “play mode” so you will have to anticipate all the character’s route! Thinking is now the core of the gameplay and no more ramdom rotations and reflexs!

You can PLAY this new version HERE!

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Today, the goal of the prototype is not reach the arrival, but to collect some cubes. But you can’t collect them in just any old way!

You have to collect them in the right order : 1 - 2 - 3, and it will not be as easy as it seems! (and you lose all the cubes if you don’t respect the order!)

You can use your neurones on this new version HERE!

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Today, new cubes came from the future : a teleportation system!

When the character walks on the entrance, he is teleported to the exit. To know the entrance-exit link, you have to look at the colour of the circle.

You can play this new version HERE.

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Today, a level without rotating cubes, but only with new shapes! The level is less complex than the previous one but it is more about “spatial thinking”.

As usual, don’t hesitate to give your opinions and to report bugs!

You can play this new level just HERE!

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This week, we’ve tried different things with shapes. We tried free moves, we’ve implemented rotations and collisions for these shapes. But as prototyping is risky, it appears that these designs didn’t work because it was really too complicated for the player (with multiple pivots you have to be a mechanical engineer to understand the rotations!).

So we choose to implement shapes that can only rotate on themselves. This prototype introduces the classical T shape from Tetris!

Because the level is a little more complex than the previous ones, it’s advisable to master the camera and its entire possible moves!

You can try this new prototype HERE!

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2D rotations doesn’t mean playing only on one plan! This new protoype will bring you to think about using few plans to create stairs for the character (even if it’s a quite simple level).

It also introduce few new cubes :

BRICK : that type of cube can’t be moved but the character can walk on it.

METAL CUBE : that type of cube can’t be moved and the character can NOT walk on it.

BOLT SYSTEM

The character have to grab the key to unlock the bolt and be allowed to walk on it. In any case, you can’t move this type of cube.

CAMERA IMPROVEMENT : to avoid the interference between the movements of the camera and the selection of a cube, you now have to drag the camera with the RIGHT BUTTON to move it.

So the control are now :

- LEFT BUTTON to select cube

- WHEEL to Zoom

- RIGHT BUTTON and DRAG to rotate the camera

- WHEEL BUTTON and DRAG to translate the camera

You can play the new version HERE!

Good Luck!

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Rotations, Cube and Paths…

These 3 elements are the substance of our gameplay and what we will build our different game designs around. Today, I’ll tell you how we started from a wooden toy to arrive to our core game mechanism, that we will derivate into different types of games for the weeks to come.

1. Rotation Axis

The first challenge was to define the rotation allowed and to begin, the axis used for the rotation. We hesitated between rotations using the edge or the axis of the centre of the cube.  To test the different ideas we used a 3D modelling application. It rapidly appeared that rotations using the edges were very limited. Moreover using this kind of rotation brings the structure of the cube to close in on itself!

Rotation Diagram

So we stopped our choice on rotation around the centre of the cube’s axis.

2. Rotation Visualization

The second design problem was to show to the player the possible moves. Many ideas were discussed (for example, a system of arrows for the different rotations) but we quickly agreed on an outline system showing the implication of the moves.  Like a hologram showing the possible moves of the selected cube so we called this type of cube a “holocube”. The first prototype using the holocubes showed us that we had a major problem. Some positions was accessible by different rotations, the number of positions possible were very high and it was very hard for the player to understand the situation (except if he was a 3D artist!). So it brings us to the third decision;

3. Rotation Angle

Using the wooden toy, some plastic and paper cubes (because the simplest tools are the best for game design!). We tested the different rotations possible and we finally decided that the best design choice was to restrict it to 90 degrees because this kind of rotation is simple to understand and will allow the other rotations (180 degrees in 2 moves, 270 degrees in 3). At this point, the prototype was playable and allowed us to notice some interesting points that we didn’t consider before, like the creation of loop with the cube or the fact that a cube alone can’t move and that the player would have to think how to link his cubes without losing one in the process. We also tested 2D and 3D versions of the rotations (and more interesting a 2.5 D version: 2D rotations are allowed only, but the cube can be on few plans and so the player has to deal with the different cubes on each plan to build “stairs” for the character).

4. Character

At the beginning, we though of a character choosing random direction at each intersection, but it was not a clever idea, because the player will be forced to only build straight paths to direct the character. So we chose a “Lemmings’ style behaviour”: the character advance as it is possible. If he encounters a frontal intersection, then he chooses randomly the left or the right and if he is in a dead end, he can turn around. This behaviour is much more natural and understandable for the player.

Furthermore, it allows interesting structure like that :

All these different points and reflexions bring us to our actual core mechanism. It was really interesting to see how implementation and prototype influenced each other. I think that these two aspects were linked because our base concept is really about 3D Geometry, ultimately a mathematical subject and so closely linked with the code. The game designs that will deviate from this core will certainly be more influenced by game, life and culture influences.

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