So I’m still knee-deep in Dink and Nipples game development. I don’t have anything new to post content-wise, but I am desperately trying to get into graphics-mode soon. So there will be some new things to lookie-lookie at in the foreseeable future.

I’ve finished an initial draft of the GDD (game design document) for The Human Trap. Mostly it was just transcribing the mess and plethora of details from my notebook into OpenOffice. It became an obvious pressing need after a meeting with Toon to recap what had been settled on so far and realising that I had to have one reference where it was easy to see what had been decided. So, overall a natural progression into the GDD, which is nice. — I enjoy writing up proposals and documents, so it was nice to tap that off. If I get to polishing it up soon I will post it online here. My main emphasis at the moment is design so the documentation is being done where necessary. While working independently there is less need to polish the docs up since I am the one funding and doing the work.

The biggest milestone on my list of things to do is level design. The overall gist and sway of the story has been detailed; the major characters have been illustrated; the game-play and interactivity have been outlined… and now it’s the level specifics that have to be set down. The player has to lead Dink and Nipples through four different stages to reach the final level. The levels in each stage are already outlined, but the actual level construction and obstacle-puzzles need detailing. The more puzzle-logic levels were the first ones fully detailed - being the easiest to do on paper. The more side-scrolling, full landscape levels are turning out to be irksome.

I had intended to sketch out all the elements for these levels on paper before moving into production and prototyping, but I’ve hit a wall. How do you get from the overall idea for a level to the final level design, one where every rock and leaf has been placed? In traditional tile-based side-scrollers, you use a level-designer. (Basically, a little application where you place the graphics on a canvas.) Since the level design for The Human Trap is not tile-based - it’s one large, non-repeating graphic element - I can’t go that route. I have decided to forego laying out entire levels on paper for now and instead will start making a mess and mashing things up graphically first. I need to get some inspiration going to fill in those spaces I am not sure how to fill at present. I also know I will inevitably come back and draw it all out on paper when I have progressed far enough to get an idea of what each level will look like. It will also give me an idea of what, where and how the obstacle puzzles will present. Incidentally, here’s a nice thread on the indiegamers about ‘game planning vs doing’.

In a related stream, I’ve also been trolling around online looking for online game, casual game and flash game development forums and resources in an attempt to find an active game community in which to post. I’m partially looking for comments and feedback on what I’ve got so far for The Human Trap, but also just to see if I can contribute anything as well. Since I have a smaller group of design friends here in BKK than home in Canada I’m also feeling the yearn to talk about design work in general. Thankfully I’ve found a few good resources that I am going to explore. Here are some of them, general as well as specific, if anyone wants to see what the online casual games world is like:

Kongregate
Jayisgames
Game|Life
Indiegamer.com Forums

I’m also considering and doing initial fact-gathering about potential marketing options for The Human Trap. The two main objectives for this production are to get a kick-ass project under my belt, and to see where I can take the game online and online in possible revenue-making avenues. I need to allow for certain possible options in the future, BUT! for now I have to get down to work. ;-)