Zoomies

I landed on Spyro, having played the remake not so long ago and recalled that the sprinting on the ground was something that could be a nice match.

The biggest risk was that instead of being a four-legged animal you’d get something that is simply a car.

So I replayed, got a gameplay recording and pitched that. The understanding and being on the same page with my fellow designers and programmers afterwards was pretty clear and problem-free.

Spyro

Having had cats like most in our group, we were familiar with cat physics, from running to jumping and sliding around corners. The whole design team also played Stray, which certainly didn’t hurt.

The one problem that couldn’t quite be solved from a programming perspecting was the jump, it’s decent, but far from great. The angular force and control was tricky.

So whilst a core function, being also heavily involved in the level building since it belongs together, we focused on not having too many tricky jumps. Instead it’s more jumping over obstacles or trying a more risky short cut.

Zoomies

Leaning into our strenghts, the biggest challenge and fun is trying to cut corners and make jumps above obstacles, instead of jumping from many objects to another.

Being a big Miro fan, I pre-build the concept of our future flat, in collobaration with our artists. That way we were able to use big items that are the main building blocks, such as the moving boxes in multiple levels.

Having a pathway that is fun, since we simply close or open up doors to have more or less rooms available to be part of a level.

Zoomies

After having a very solid gameplay loop together, the question was how long is it fun and how much would it add?

The probably obvious answer is quite a lot! And thanks to one programmers ingenious skills, we actually even got a system that has you hooked to discord, where players now get their latest run recorded.

It is probably a good sign that half the development team, ended up trying to outdo one another in feelingly never ending back and forth.

Zoomies

I think in just about each game project, you do hope you have a really solid core, something you can pass on to a friend in real life. And then hear something similar to; ”you really should turn this into a full game!”

And since ideation, besides project management and gameplay mechanics specificly is one of my key strengths, I collected my instant most potent game modes.

Always thinking about what feels cat-like and is fun because I’ve played or seen it in different contexts.

Zoomies