The Creative Process of PLAY NOW!
The Creative Process of PLAY NOW!
(The button logo totally works!)
They were pictures of pop-up advertisements-- the kind you see and know they're fake in an instant-- and as they came up close to him he was swatting them away with his virtual hands. Over time, more and more appeared, starting to fill the screen.
They smacked him in the face, he pushed them away; another got in his face, he grabbed it and used it to whack other ads away; then tossed it aside when he was done, ready for more.
It was chaos-- and hilarious!
If I could find the video I would just paste it here, but it's been at least a year since then and it's lost in the avalanche of chat messages.
That was the inspiration for PLAY NOW!: ...some guy's 20-minute project.
Concept of The 2nd Month-Long Project
I started some doodles after discussing this idea with the team (who all were excited to get on board!)
Music
Music and sound have the power to define a story.I asked my cousin, Adam Simcock, a huge fan of zombie survival games, to come up with the music for us.
Originally, I told him nothing about the theme or content of the game, and asked him to create music for a zombie survival scene. I wanted to see if we could gain a funny contrast with the music and the rest of the game.
At first, when he sent the music to me, I struggled to believe the two would really work together, wondering if maybe the music was too dark.
We unveiled the project idea to him and we talked about how having a serious, tense, and somewhat scary soundtrack along with the funny and messed up situation could offer quite the comedic contrast.
He gave us a few different versions of the music, and they would all take turns playing, so that we would have music to fit when nothing was going on, music for when they were close by, another track for when a couple were chasing you, and another for when it starts to turn to insanity and they're all over you.
This really added to the dynamic of the game!
Advertisements
I initially just wanted to copy and paste other companies' advertisements, because who doesn't like free advertising?! Then I realized that we were trying to make ads look negative, and that there had to be all kinds of tangly legal messes with copyright laws we wanted to stay far away from.
I decided to branch out to friends and people in social groups. Turned out it was a great idea to branch out to others for content because it was the perfect win-win - they were getting free exposure to their services and products while we were collecting valuable content. What we got was fantastic, and really added to the overall experience - A big thank you to our contributors!!
And with the help of artist Kate Shepherd and Spencer Ashton, who graduated college in advertising, we ended up with some diverse and hilarious advertisements and clickbait.
We know that no one will discover most, if any, of what the clickbait captions and things say, but it's the funny glimpses people will get that really make the world feel big!
Art and Design
We knew that we wouldn't be able to create an extravagant environment, simply because of our time and resources. So, during the creation process, we decided to promote it and go along with it, trying to really make the best of our limitations.
Using gray tones as a very stale and dead characteristic made the ads really pop, forcing the player's attention on them - as every ad's purpose is to be noticed.
We also branched out to other modelers-- Riley Jones and Cameron Mallen-- to give them an opportunity to input their work, and to hopefully make the environment feel busier and more believable. Their input was invaluable. Thank you!
Programming and Gameplay
We wanted a crazy feel to the game, similar to the VR game I mentioned at the beginning of this post.
At first, we weren't sure how this game would play, only the feelings we wanted the player to experience. It had to be first person, otherwise it wouldn't feel like the ads are trying to get in your face.
Clicking on little close buttons seemed appropriate, as that's always the game of every pop-up ad - where the heck is the X button? And then to accompany that, clicking on print and audio ads to kill them fit in fine.
Over time, we started to feel the need for more. We added power-ups and a Black Friday mode (that can be unlocked by completing the game on its hardest difficulty!)
A very special thank you to Devon Stern and Hunter Angelovic for the programming. Without their efforts, there wouldn't be a game. The programming would be left up to me, which would take us more than twice as long and still wouldn't function as well as it does now!
Narrative and Secrets
Originally, we wanted to focus more on narrative for our second project, but that sort of got washed out as we built up the idea of this game.
We didn't give up on it, though! Devon pushed adding a backstory and making it seem like there's more to the game than just what you see - clues of past events in this world and what's really going on.
We had fun coming up with ideas for backstory. We drew inspiration from games like Portal and Journey.
They have story and they let the player discover the story themselves, like the secret rooms of Ratman in Portal, leaving writings and drawings all over the wall, giving you pieces of what happened.
Conclusion
Creating games is hard. It takes a lot of work and knowledge. And in the video game media especially, things don't look close to good until the very last part of the game design process. Things look and feel clucky all the way along, and it can be a real challenge to make things look and feel right. It's truly an art, and unless you've tried creating games yourself, you will never fully understand how much work goes into making even the least impressive product.
A common response we got from testers is that it was a lot darker or creepier than they were expecting from us. We have definitely learned a lot with presentation, mood, and how to deliver the right feelings.
When people play our game, and then go to our Puddygum Patreon page where the first thing they see is: "Puddygum is creating games to share light!", with the sun and the blue skies, they'll probably think, "Is that really their goal?" or, "Did I get the right Patreon page?". Don't worry-- you did.
Our main purpose in these month-long projects is to define a workflow. By creating smaller-scale and simpler games, we can focus on a good building workflow. If you don't know project management, you don't know how to make and finish a project efficiently, if at all. We're focusing on trimming all the fat and waste in the time we spend on making a project to get the best results.
We're also trying to build a good workflow model that we can use as a foundation for when we branch off to doing types of games that haven't been done before.
It'll be crucial to have a familiar grounding when we start exploring completely new ways to connect with people. We aim to give them different views on life-- resulting in different behaviours in their lives-- through our games, thus, sharing and adding light to people.
This was another fun project, like Hangry Farmersaurus-Rex. As we get further into making more and more projects, we'll be getting more to the meat of who we are as a group, and our main work that sets us apart from the rest of the video games industry.
But you have to start with playing around to know how it all works.
Stay with us, and look forward to seeing some great projects from us as we get closer to our goal: creating games that share light with others.
And please, consider supporting us by becoming a patron at our Patreon page! You can really help us out by donating just one dollar per project that we complete! We need your help to put more positivity and meaning into the video games industry (think of the CHILDREN!!). If we can get enough supporters to offer even one dollar per project, that will add up, and we can focus all our time on helping others through great experiences in video games and really make a difference - MUCH faster.
When you support us, Patreon will automatically pull your donated amount each time we release a new game, so you don't have to worry about remembering to keep your word - Patreon does it for you!
Here's a link to our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/puddygum
We appreciate any and all support that can be given-- thank you!
SO with that said,
Enjoy our not-as-light, but funny, game! :P
CLICK HERE TO PLAY NOW!!
- Joseph Burgan
Lead Designer
Puddygum
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