Game design is something of a dark art. It's a new field, and crosses a lot of lines between established disciplines. While there are many suggested processes to use when thinking about game design, it is still very much an art, not a science. Here's the process we use to generate fun ideas, and see if they work.
PROTIP: Crayons are amazing.
From this, a few solid ideas emerged. Some of these be applicable to other uses. In the end, we decided to go forward with an idea that combined soccer and pinball into a weird and original hybrid.
I very quickly put together a simple test to see if the idea was worth pursuing. The outcome was this prototype:
The core of the game existed. There was a problem though: It wasn't very fun.
Know when to kill your babies
The game prototype wasn't fun yet, but we decided to invest a little more time to see if it could be coaxed into being so. Otherwise, it would better to kill the idea and move onto another. We realised that the main problem was lack of precision in the controls. Players could see where the ball was going but were unable to do anything about it. The sheer inelegance of the controls was frustrating.
I went through a few iterations of mouse-based control schemes before settling on the current solution. It's not perfect, and can be a little unintuitive to begin with, but fits the "good enough is good enough" rule that I follow when prototyping. Prototyping is not about finding a perfect solution; it's about testing a general idea.
With the control system changed, and we made a few other tweaks to the game elements and physics, the game was finally becoming fun.This baby was going to live another day.
A little polish can go a long way
It doesn’t take a lot of refinement to turn a sketch of an idea into something presentable and entertaining. Sound effects can have a disproportionately large effect on a game's enjoyment. Bad sound effects canmake a game unplayable and embarrassing. Good sound effects can drag the player in, in a much more primal way than pure visual design can.
Using SFXR (a free tool for creating simple game sound) I created some basic effects that instantly added to the satisfaction the player gains when kicking the ball around and scoring goals.
Moving away from the initial soccer metaphor, I made some more polished images for the pins and player-controlled elements. Then I added a flashing glow when the ball collides with a pin. This happy confluence of sound, sight and the game's physics make a satisfying experience for the player. It's often these small details that tie the game together.
In the end, the client didn't pick up the game for further development. But it's now in a state where we know it is fun, and suitable for use in a variety of different projects.
Play the final prototype: