Every year the Norwegian film institute (NFI) hosts a 10-day long competition called the “The Norwegian championship in gameplay”. It is a fun, involving and intense competition, that shows of a lot of great ideas and fun concepts. For us it is a good design exercise and it gives us the opportunity to experiment and focus on something else for a little while.
This year we won and we would like to share our design philosophy and strategy that we have, and how we work.
In the beginning
The first day NFI reveals the topic and this year it was “resistance”. With nine days to create the idea and prototype, we started by setting up some restrictions for ourselves. We also noted down some key points from last year, in addition to our own personal goals.
1. We knew that the judges and audience have very little time on the venue. Therefore, the game needed to have easy to understand mechanics.
2. All games in the finals last year had good visuals and audio.
3. Spending time in pre-production always helps you gain time later. We decided to spend two days at developing an idea we all felt we could work with.
4. It needed to be something we ourselves would enjoy.
http://i.imgur.com/NfDohqx....
On the first day, we took it easy and went to a place where we could drink good coffee and catch up over the holidays. We bounced around some ideas but nothing that we felt confident that we would finish with the criteria we had. Instead of pushing it too hard, we called it early and went home to get some rest.
During the second day, we discussed several ideas. Everything from 2D adventure and action a games, to sports game and even a strategy game. Still, none of those ideas felt right. When we talked about the board game “Descent”, and how it was one player against many we started getting some ideas. We also love a game called Munchkin, where all the players are on the same team but they still compete against each other. Mixing both of these ideas, combined with our own creative input we ended up with the idea that later became Agents vs Villain.
The idea was to have one player play as the villain. He would control all the traps on the level. The agents has to traverse the level as fast as they can, with as few deaths as possible. To reinforce the topic “resistance” it was crucial the agents had to compete for first place.
This idea felt right and seemed like a fun concept. It was something we could technically do within the time we had. We committed ourselves to the idea and started on the next step.
http://i.imgur.com/KYaA57s....
Creating the prototype
When we started creating the prototype our focus was to get the most important core feature into the game as quickly as possible. By doing this, we quickly realized we could cut several other design features. Not only did this save us a lot of time, but it also kept us from having to solve more bugs before the deadline. At the end of the day, no one noticed the features we had cut. We might want to add some of them when we make the game.
On the fourth day, we had a working prototype. We loved what we had so far, but would other people like it? To find out, we invited some kids from the local library game club to play the game. When we saw how much fun they had, we knew we could continue with confidence. From that point on it was all about getting rid of bugs and getting the aesthetics in place.
We stopped working the last night around 8pm and went home for a good night’s sleep.
At the venue
At the venue, we showed up early to set up the booth, and check out our friends, and competitors, finished prototypes. The competition itself is very hectic, as there is little time to show off your game to both the judges and the audience. To make sure as many people as possible would be able to play it we setup our own booth a little bit outside the main venue and invited as many people as possible to play it. The response was great, and people enjoyed the game a lot.
http://i.imgur.com/nEKCUFn....
The conclusion
While winning is fun, we had a lot of tough competition. More important for us was that the project went right. The plans and goals we set out to for ourselves all worked and we had a great time while doing it as well.
Day 3 | Process Games
A new rumor suggests the next Xbox console is currently being tested by developers in South Korea.
If true, hopefully a fully fledged next gen console and not some unnecessary mid gen refresh system.
It could be that rumored Xbox portable, who knows
Could be the refresh console perhaps? I doubt it'll be the new console. Might be the portable rumored device.
Regardless the fact we're talking about new hardware already is absolutely pathetic. Barely any current gen stuff out and the stuff that is out or coming is at 30 fps or doesn't, doesn't look current gen and what have you.
All we're doing is chasing power and not creating the games to harness said power.
Worse generation so far easily.
It was reliably leaked just a month ago that MS hadn't signed contracts for next gen till literally weeks ago- the same leakers that correctly leaked that hi fi rush and pentiment and sea of thieves were going to ps5. So this is very very very unlikely- if not impossible. Also it's way too early....
Bandai Namco just released a free demo of its upcoming anime JRPG Sand Land for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, and PC ahead of the game's release.
The game was on my radar anyway but now I almost feel obligated to buy it after what happened. I will definitely check the demo out.
I wasn't a fan of the demo just a open world combat demo no story I'm sure the full game story will be good.
Got an Xbox and a Game Pass subscription and want something spooky to play? Here are the best horror games on Xbox Game Pass.
though i dont believe in winners and loosers specially with things in relation to art and such but still there must be some strong competition there.. love how much dedication they put in there games
i like the art style
Nicely done, set up goals and met them so you can relax the last couple hours. From the looks of things, they're having fun doing what they do which is way important in the gaming industry. Keep that determination up!
Sounds like a nice competition, it keeps you determined and entertained at the same time, that's a great way to find new ideas!
Nice