Acorn Heroes

Today is the day when I tell all and bare all.

At least it’s the day when I said I’d tell all and bare all about the game I’m currently working on.

And I will, mostly.  You see it’s complicated, and that’s what this article is about.

Let’s start at the beginning.  There was an interesting chat this week on Twitter, where we were discussing how much you should reveal of the project you’re working on.  There’s a school of thought that says revealing your plans just gives other people the chance to rip off your ideas.  Which is true.  The other side says that there’s a huge potential win by getting something in front of people early, so you have a chance to ship a superior product.  Also a valid viewpoint, and this is why we have public betas.

So here’s my take on it:

Tetris was revolutionary.  It’s hard to remember that now.  I remember reading the pre-release buzz about Tetris, and I just plain didn’t get it.  Until I saw the blocks falling, and played with rotating and dropping them, it was hard to see where the fun was.  If Jonathon Blow had started talking to you about his time-shifting platformer, any game you made from the idea would undoubtedly be far removed from the wonderful game that Braid turned into.

Note that when I say derivative, I’m not necessarily being negative.  If you’re working on a Diablo-clone, or a Bejewelled-a-like title, there’s still plenty of scope for it to be brilliant, and well worth playing.  Execution is everything.  Just don’t hide it away in a dark dungeon, believing that no one else has had the same idea.

Don’t take my word for it, read this.

I’m not naive, but I do prefer to believe that most people are honest, and the world is a better place for sharing.  That’s why I love the iDev community so much.

So this fairly quickly lead to:

If you’re not familiar with the dog food reference, read this.

The problem with eating dog food is that sometimes, once you start to eat it, you realise why most people don’t.  In this case it’s scary, a leap of faith.  What guarantee do I have that someone else won’t rip off the idea and hit the App Store before I do?  Let’s face it, with full time employment and a hectic family life, I’ll be lucky to get this out before Christmas.

The closer I got to today, the more nervous I became about sharing details of my current game project.

Here’s the crux of the problem.  As with many iOS game ideas, my central game mecahanic is incredibly simple.  If I describe the core mechanic – which is not revolutionary, but I think is quite novel – then I’ve lost any chance of hitting the App Store with something a bit different.  This is especially true  Think about Fruit Ninja (App Store link) for example.  It’s a great game that managed to be fresh and fun.  But if the devs had openly described the core mechanic and the theme (ninjas don’t like fruit) too early, they’ve literally given the game away.  Instead, when it was released, complete with a crazy, viral video on YouTube, the novelty factor was high and helped ensure their success.

So, let me introduce Faerie (a working title).  It’s still in the very early stages of development, but it’s had encouraging feedback so far from people who have seen it.

I wanted to make a game that my kids could play that would still be challenging to an adult.  I think that too often we don’t give kids enough credit for the innate intelligence they have.  So Faerie is to be a kid-friendly game with some genuine challenge for all ages.

Faeries are on the front line of the battle between mediocrity and excitement.  Every day, in every way they fight to brighten people’s lives.  They do this by gathering up and combining the little pieces of magic that are all around us but we never see.  As the player collects magic and scores points, this is reflected by the game’s environment becoming a brighter, happier place.  Don’t score fast enough and dreariness wins.

Let’s show off some programmer art.  I owe a huge debt to Mike for his Photoshop tutorials which have helped me increase my Photoshop skill level. The player collects magic to make the sunrise more wonderful, and help people get a good start to their day.  The idea is that there would be multiple levels, each with their own backgrounds and stories.

Faerie began as a desire to make a game that my kids could play that still felt challenging to play as an adult.  Combining Bejewelled style scoring with geoSpark (App Store link) style action was the plan, although I’m happy to say the resulting mechanic is quite different now – including elements from Tetris, Whack-a-mole and Bejewelled.  This is perhaps the most sensitive area for me, so I’ll leave it at that.

Today on #iDevBlogADay we’ve already seen Retro Dreamer’s upcoming Linkoidz which should be due out soon.  Faerie isn’t anywhere near that ready, so you’ll have to wait, I’m afraid.  I’m hoping to get a first playable together some time this month, and if I’m really brave I’ll send it out to a few
people for initial feedback (let me know if you’re interested in providing feedback on something that’s very rough still).

So, not quite the ‘Full’ Monty, but now you know what I’m working on, please bug me to get it done before my kids grow up!