078 - Game Design

August 2, 2020

Short update this week.

I am laser focused on one goal.

Right now Akigi is little more than a glorified tech demo.

I need to go from that to a fun game, ideally in the very near term.

I want real people to start having real fun with Akigi.

So I will be doing one thing.

Experiment with core game play ideas until I land on a handful of core game mechanics that are remarkably interesting.

This could take two weeks. This could take eight. I don't know, and I won't rush the process.

I'm missing a strong, principled design direction.

My number one focus is to fix that. I've paused working on any code or art until we have real direction.

Having a real direction should open up the ability for me to start producing step function improvements in the game's fun-ness every week, because I will finally have something to aim at.

My plan is to play test the mechanics ideas with a friend every Monday.

Once I land on something satisfying I'll start sharing the game with real players and hopefully start to get feedback from a small but active player base.

I'm making progress on ironing out the game's mechanics on pen and paper before transitioning over to code.

I'll report back when I have a foundation in place.

Finances

Our finances for July 2020 were:

I don't remember what all is going into the AWS bill, so I'm expecting to take a look at that in the next month or two.

Next Week

Continue working on core game design until something sticks.

Cya next time!

- CFN