Designing prototype #2

As I mentioned in the post What do I want from my next prototype my second prototype should not be controlled by tapping, and should make use of a different twitch mechanic than timing.

After days and days of brainstorming, I came up with a game idea that I'll explain in this post.

The first thing I need to address, is that art wise the new prototype will look like Square drop - the player will be in control of a square, and the obstacles will look the same as Square Drop's platforms, however first of all I'm making prototypes, not actual games, so the artwork will naturally look similar as I'm using place holder art; and on top of that the actual gameplay will feel totally different to the one experienced in Square Drop, so my second prototype is by no means a recreation of the first one.

The game is called Square Wobble, and the point of it is to move the square, by swiping left and right (left swipe - the square moves left; right swipe - the square moves right), and squeeze it inbetween the incoming obstacles. Each beaten obstacle gives one point. Touching the obstacle, or the side of the screen will result in game over. The higher the score, the better the player has done.

The game makes use of swiping, as a form of control, and precision as a form of twitch mechanic. Below you can see an illustration that shows gameplay:

The game should be easy to learn, considering there's nothing else involved in terms of mechanics other than left swipe, and right swipe, and difficult to master, considering the square will be in constant movement, forcing the player to keep swiping left and right to avoid touching the sides of the incoming obstacles. The need of repeatedly moving the square one way or another, makes it look wobbly, and hence I called the game Square Wobble.

All this is theory - we'll see how things stand next week, when I'll start developing Square Wobble.