At this point nothing specific. I always list out most things needed in the game. At the least in my head which works fine for the tiny games I have been making. I don’t detail everything because I found that doesn’t work out so well. Many years ago I used to list everything and try to design the games completely defining it all on paper from assets to code and so forth. I found it was just way too rigid and during development things change and you have to be able to change based on what you find out after you start implementing.
That being said I do kind of like the idea of making a game featuring a barbarian and a good amount of melee combat. And I have certain things I would like to be in it such as the sunrise, day, sunset and night periods as the story unfolds. I think something with some actual combat would be cool… like not just hit, hit, hit the enemies and they are dead but more like actual back and forth battles. Not to the degree of something like Mortal Kombat but somewhere in-between that and the typical platformish game. I like the idea of there being different modes of gameplay. Even if they are just mini games like fishing for food, etc. Maybe in a boat and that level is entirely about the player crossing a body of water to the land on the other side where his journey can continue. I’d like for the game to provide a good amount of interaction… more than is normal anyway.
As you can see there is no actual game defined yet; instead just a bunch of loose concepts that I feel would be interesting to be in it. That’s mainly because I’ve been focused on solving this graphics issue once and for all. And I think dropping down to 128x72 will finally be the answer.
Anyway, when I get to the graphics solution I will probably take a break again from game dev. And then when I get back to it again I will start thinking about the actual game. Then I will define things in more concrete terms. First, will be the story. I always start my game designs with a story. Normally very simplistic but that’s enough to shape the game design.
Basically when I make games I try to make a story the player can experience whether they are really thinking about the story or not while playing it. And ultimately for a bigger game like I would like my next one to be the ideal is for the player to be sort of writing a story in their head that is more or less the story I used when designing the game. But of course for each person it will be a little different.
I don’t want to just tell them a story. I want the player to experience a story in their own way. Like if they tell a friend about it I imagine it being something like this “I started out in this forest area where I [whatever they did there] and then went into a huge freaking cavern and found [whatever it was] and then I found an underground river and a boat. So I took the boat down the river and came out the opening and I think I was maybe in the ocean or something. Anyway then I had to…”
Basically the gameplay experience & progression is writing a story. I will sort out the story and that will drive the game design and that will drive the requirements. But it will be a while before I start on any of that. I’m really still in half-burnout mode on this game dev stuff.
(Zombie Night Terror, alongside some amazing TIG forum GIF’s that seem to abound among indies)