The Things That Give Me a Headache
At the beginning of trying to make a metagame, I had a hard time. I was at a loss as a creator – if I just added different gameplay to a game with a different theme, it felt like I was just carrying the gameplay and playing with it, even if the system served my game. I still think it’s just copying the gameplay and lacking innovation. I think it’s important to explore and innovate in a particular direction while still having fun with the game. It’s painful to think this way, and I’ve tried many directions that I’ve rejected myself, and I don’t think it’s developed its own style.
I’m even thinking of changing direction to a critical play game, since all three of my directions have proven ideas.
Second Pitch
During the second pitch, I raised my confusion and David’s affirmation was a good solution to the problem I had been having. My idea was interesting enough and different enough. This gave me the confidence to continue with the meta project.
Design of a part of the levels
This week I have conceived 10 levels. These levels have a similar or uniform style and I want the player to feel like they are playing the same level over and over again but encountering different situations each time. Later on, I will be designing levels with different styles to add to the richness of the game.
Level1.
The player opens the game for the first time. The well-known meme from The Elder Scrolls V is used here – “Hey, you. You finally awake.” When they see the start button, they will definitely try to click it to start the game. But they are told that this is just part of the background. The player needs to press Enter to start the game. When the player is directed to press the Enter key, they find out that the phrase means that they need to manually enter E-N-T-E-R in order to start the game.
Level2.
The second level uses the same theme as the first level to imply that the START button is still part of the background. When the player discovers this, they try to enter e-n-t-e-r to start the game. However, it is found that the mechanics of the game are already different from the first level. Eventually they can find the start button at the QUIT button.
Level3.
The Start button has disappeared and the player needs to open it via the option menu.
Level4.
The Start button escapes and the player needs to control it via other buttons and elements.
Level5.
All the buttons are fragile and the player needs to put them back together to unlock the corresponding function.
Level6.
Add gravity to the mouse to make it look tired. This allows the player to try and make it move. Combined with Angry Birds gameplay.
Level7.
I learned how to add voice recognition to the game. The player based on a few previous levels. Was able to think that the game has three buttons to control. So shouting out the corresponding button would enable the corresponding function.
Level8
The game would fail during the loading process. This causes the player to find a way to fix the loading box. After fixing it a new feature should have been added, but for time reasons it was not done.
Level9
Should have interacted with Level8, but did not do so due to time.
Level10
Déjà vu Scene. Once again the players encounter a scene where the start button disappears. They can’t enable the start button from here, so they need to turn the start button on again from Level3 to Level10, as the two levels are designed to overlap with Levels 8 and 9, which can cause confusion for the player. I will therefore bring this level forward.
Level20
A simple prank. Make the player’s computer pretend to be dead.
Case Study
The Henry Stickmin Collection
The mechanics of this game are very simple, it is based on flash animation. The gameplay is simply a matter of clicking on the branches that appear on the screen and then the game plays different animations depending on the player’s choice. However the narrative is very strong. The game is full of memes from start to finish, so much so that the whole game feels like a gaming festival fest.
This suits me perfectly, as my game will be an homage to and emulation of various classic games. So it was important to incorporate classic elements into a unique design. I played through all the levels repeatedly and took 400 screenshots. Trying to fully grasp every single sticking point in the game. It’s a case study, but it’s really fascinating to me.
Source:
PuffballsUnited (2020) The Henry Stickmin Collection. [Digital Download]. Windows. England: Redmond.