POP’EM PALOOZA! DEVELOPMENT LOG

GAME DESIGN & ANALYSIS

In the similar form of a Game Jam, I created something that could be playtested and revised over the duration of four weeks. The theme of the Game Jam was Chain Reactions, which inspired me with thoughts of games like Pinball, Brick Breaker, Diamonds, etc.

The first iteration of the game resulted in a very challenging, click-and-flick game experience that Play Testers could not complete successfully. The Players were only allowed a limited number of chances to clear the level of balloons before it was Game Over. Some bugs came to surface where the Player would fling the ball too fast causing it to fly out of bounds. Overall, Players reported to have enjoyed this concept, although challenging and looked forward to future development iterations.

GAME DESIGN ITERATION & PLAY TESTING

After taking all the feedback from my Play Testers with strong consideration, I iterated upon the game’s design further and introduced some polish to the game like popping sounds when a balloon was popped and fun thematic music. These additions gave more feedback and satisfaction to the Player whenever a balloon was successfully popped, encouraging the Player to pop them all!

In order to address the overall challenge the Player’s had during their previous play test, I introduced a new Power mechanic that allowed the ball to create an explosion around it, popping any balloons within it’s area of effect. The Player can time this mechanic when firing the ball across the level to pop a group of balloons in one congested area. My thoughts were that by adding this mechanic, it could create more interesting choices to the Player, as well as develop a sense of agency that would allow the Player to devise their own strategies toward how to win. Adding this did not remove the existing challenge of the game. The rules were still the same, however, with this additional tool I felt Players could have a resource to leverage and face the challenge more tactically.

In play tests, Players found this added mechanic more fun and beneficial, curving the challenge and raising their enjoyment. This seemed to nearly place them in a state of flow where the game was still challenging, but not so easy that it was boring. However, play testers were starting to complain about their limited amount of launches/moves they could make within each play through. This was then addressed in the final week of development.

POLISH AND PUBLISH!

Coming to the end of the month, the game required some additional iteration to address Player Feedback, polish, Additional Levels, polish, more Gameplay Moments, polish, and oh—more polish!

I decided to remove the rule of the Player having only a limited amount of moves to complete a level and opened the game up to become more of an adventure with the Player having a limited amount of lives instead. This created more gameplay opportunities that challenge the skill of the Player’s control while navigating the environment and using their power wisely, resulting in more creative challenging scenarios.

The game currently only has two levels, Level One, The Training Grounds is an introduction level so the player has the opportunity to learn all that they need to in order to play the game. Level Two, The Town is more open and introduces the Player to hazards that they must avoid, as well as challenge them skillfully in order to pop all the balloons and complete the level.