Judging the results of my work is something I struggle with – as I (re)discovered this week.
Where I’m at
The third prototype for my conveyor game is officially complete and I’ve started work on the fourth, after reviewing the third and picking the direction to head in.
I’ve also identified a bit of a slow-down in my work, which is something I need to keep an eye on as I move into the next prototype.
What I Planned
Get the final stages of the third prototype complete by linking the UI to the data of the simulation, with buttons that do things and change the state of the game. After that, judge the prototype and determine the next step.
What Actually Happened
So I completed the final touches of the prototype fairly quickly – it was done by the end of Monday. The next stage was to judge it – a challenge since I’ve now spent quite a few weeks on this so far.
Overall, it’s definitely moving in the right direction, but I still didn’t feel like I had found the core gameplay loop for this yet. I settled on the idea that the scheduling itself is a bit clunky and leads to bursts of action followed by periods of quiet, which isn’t what I’m after.
So I chose to remove scheduling and instead let the player just pick what contracts will be worked on. I feel like that will let the game feel more alive, but naturally, time will tell if that is the case.
I’m also looking to add the storage and resource purchasing aspects to this prototype, as I expect these could be adding to the missing element of the core loop.
I decided to come at this from another perspective – literally. I grabbed a pen & paper and decided to scribble out some UI designs.
From this, I’ve extracted the data and structured the models so that I can store and present this to the player during runtime. Now is the hard part – turning those scribbles into code.
What Went Wrong
I’m noticing a gradual slow-down in my output. Prototype 3 took 2 ½ weeks to complete – which isn’t a problem in itself, but tells me that I’m getting stalled by… something. I don’t know what yet.
I’m cautious of over-diagnosing it, but I feel there’s definitely a pattern emerging, where I get myself distracted with busywork – that is, something that doesn’t really contribute towards the goal and just consumes time. Right now, I’m prototyping. It doesn’t need to be perfect. It’s okay if it breaks when you click one thing wrong.
The doubtful part of me would say that means “I’m not creative enough for this field.” I don’t believe that, of course, but it still plays on my mind.
What is more certain is that the honeymoon period has worn off and I’ve slipped back to an older pattern – using safe, but low-value work to feel busy and avoid dealing with this problem.
What Went Right
Despite the issues, I did make tangible progress this week. The third prototype reached a stage where I can judge it properly, and I got a better idea of what was and wasn’t working as a result.
I also managed to sketch out several UI screens on paper, so I have something concrete to work on as I continue to develop the fourth prototype. This new approach feels like it’s worth exploring, which is enough for now.
What Next?
I need to continue working on this new approach to see if it brings the missing elements into sharper focus. This means developing the data model and the UI, then creating the links between the two to judge if the game feels more interesting, more fun, or better in any way. Or worse, because that’s data too.