The how/why of Flappy-vaders
The last thing I need to cover with regards to planning, is the how/why behind the idea of “Flappy-vaders”. Starting next week, the topic of conversation will be shifting to Programming.
In this post I’ll talk a little about the thought process behind the idea of Flappy-vaders.
Genre
The two biggest constraints for Flappy-vaders were time, and that I’d be writing it using a ridiculously low spec PC. Due to these factors I had already decided to create a simple casual style mobile game.
Again, for the sake of development time, I decided to take some already successful concepts from other games and combine them in a (fairly) unique way.
I decided to take the game mechanic from “Flappybird”, as it’s fairly simple, as well as being quite well known and fun/addictive to play.
I also decided to expand on this idea by adding elements from other games, such as the “zones” which you see in games like Jet Pack Joyride etc.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not simply copying Flappybird. This is going to be an original game in it’s own right, and I am 100% not encouraging people to create the utterly rubbish “asset flip” style games which are nothing more than a simple online tutorial which has been followed and the graphics replaced.
Visual Style
One of the things which makes games stand out at the store and in videos online is the visual style. I’d already decided to create a 2D game due to the hardware. I can’t imagine how the Linx tablet would run Blender, lol!
My initial inspiration for the graphical theme of Flappy-vaders was the menu screen for Fallout Shelter by Bethesda.
I loved the old style scan lines and the darkened edges of the screen, reminiscent of old CRT TVs. I imagined I could produce an effect similar to that of an 80’s era TV with a border and a scanlines overlay.
My next thought was about the type of games I’d have been playing on such a TV. Now in the 80s I had a ZX Spectrum, which had only 8 colours (well, 16 if you count brightness). I thought that palette would be a bit limiting, so I looked at other similar age devices before settling on the Sega Master System.
The Sega Master System has 256 available colours which should be more suitable for this project.
Monetisation
The last thing to do was decide on how the game will be monetised. Since it will be a casual mobile game, it will be free to download but include adverts. The player will be able to remove the ads by paying a small one off fee.
Another popular way of monetising mobile games is through the purchase of in game currency. This can be used to buy power-ups and upgrade the ship. Since I was planning on having power-ups and upgrades in the game, this seemed like a logical strategy to follow.
Conclusion
Overall it took me about a fortnight of thinking, researching and jotting down ideas. And then maybe as long again to refine them and be ready to create the GDD.