We're now down to only nine short days until the release of block'd for iPhone and iPod touch. For today's count down post I'm going to give you guys a little insight into the inspiration behind the game. (Also, if you haven't read the day 10 count down you should go do that now and then come back)
Honestly the main inspiration for this game really came from a need. We had just finished our first game, ColorGuess, and we were onto the next one. However, we were having some trouble finding an idea for our next game that would fit our learning curve. With both of us in school full time and dealing with part time jobs it wasn't always easy to find time to learn all the skills we needed in the amount of time we had. With all of those factors influencing the direction for our next game a puzzle game just kinda seemed to fit into all of those criteria. It seemed simple enough, not requiring too much animation or in-depth artwork, and only needing a simple game engine. Additionally, it seemed like a logical next step in our learning curve to help us become more aquatinted with more advanced programming techniques for our future games.
The other source of inspiration for block'd came from the games we were playing at a time. The main games that gave me inspiration for block'd were Color Zen and KAMI, both of which are puzzle games that, coincidentally, have the same end goal of filling the playing area with a single color. The main thing I remember while playing Color Zen was the simple concept of the game accompanied by the complexity of the gameplay. It kinda got me thinking about how a developer would come up with a concept for a puzzle game. What the end goal would be, what the game mechanics would be, and how both of them would fit together to give people a challenge. While Color Zen really got me thinking about the basic concepts of a puzzle game, KAMI really drove it home. KAMI really helped me put the finishing touches on my basic idea for block'd. But again, the inspiration for block'd really came from the contrast of simple goals but complex mechanics that both these games have.
Once I had the basic idea down I started making some simple levels to see if the idea for the game was even interesting. I told Austin about the game and that I had a couple of levels I had made that I wanted him to look over, but before I had a chance to give them to him he had already started the programming. . .
Thanks for reading and make sure to come back tomorrow to read about the begging programming for block'd