I didn't make the cut I did get an honourable mention though, which places me in the top 15 out of over 50 entries, so I guess that's still pretty good for my first flash game.

There were a bunch of good entries that got submitted in the last week or so, some of which took the prime places in the final standings. I'm a bit disappointed in some of the results, but I can see that my game had a few problems that probably cost it a place.

I agree with most of the decisions made by the judges, though I didn't really think Wiggi Fire Mission deserved sixth place, definitely not above Galactic Mediator which took seventh. I also thought Wiggi Walk was a bit too simple to be so high in the standings, but it was well made and showed the values they were looking for, though I still think most of the entries were a bit heavy handed in that area.

Oh well, onward and upward! I am waiting to find out whether blogging the progress of my game is legal in the JayIsGames contest, if so I'll have the prototype of my first entry done in the next few days. I'm making sure not too aim too high when it comes to the graphics this time, and the hard bits for the physics are already worked out so I'm feeling quite confident.

I've started adding a few blogs by Flash developers who are doing some interesting things: fellow Melbournian Michael Battle seems to share my fascination with automated agents and emergent gameplay, and Martin at Grapefrukt.com who is also big on prototyping gameplay elements. Hey guys!

The WiggiWorld (whoops, apparently it's WoogiWorld now) contest is over, and the winners should be announced in the next couple of days. I think I'm still in with a chance to be in the top 7 and therefore winning $500, but there were a few good entries submitted in the last week which will drop me down a few places, I'm sure.

In retrospect I should have pushed the values they wanted a bit more; at the very least I should have put some 'Did you know...' type things between the levels to provide a bit more education. To tell the truth, I find that most of the entries are shoving the values down the kid's throats, but I don't know if my entry being more subtle will gain me any points.

I also think I should have gone with something more simple, especially as this was my first flash game; it seems that the games that are simpler and more polished are leading the way, such as Veggie-Matic and Wiggi Dance Academy.

The JayIsGames 4th Casual Game contest has started now as well, the theme is Ball Physics; I've had a couple of ideas, but haven't really got started on prototyping anything yet. I'm hoping to do so tonight. Unfortunately the rules of the contest specify that the game can't have been published anywhere else on the web, so I won't be able to document the process very thoroughly, though perhaps I'll do so anyway and just publish it after the contest is complete.

This is an idea I had a few weeks ago, mostly inspired by the wonderful game Katamari Damacy. I thought it could be a good idea to simplify the base concept into a simple 2D game.

I started with the basic idea that you can consume circles which are larger than you, and are damaged by those larger than you. Here's my first draft, use the arrow keys to move.

You probably noticed that this by itself is not particularly fun; you quickly become either quite large or quite small, and that's pretty much the end of the game. (I didn't bother putting in win/lose conditions for the prototype, but you can imagine what they would be)

So, what's the next step? Well, let's test out my list of ingredients. We've obviously hit the first mark: the game is quite simple. Too simple at the moment. Let's take it a bit further then, and add a sense of progression (and competition, since we'll have a measurement now to compare against our friends).

The simple addition of a size value gives this game some more meaning, and a reason for playing. I took a note from Katamari's book and did a quick and nasty pull back in scale when you get to a certain size; this doesn't work especially well when you have no real life objects to scale it against, but it means that the score could go up indefinitely if you played well enough. I could probably clean this game up in it's current state and release it as a nice little diversionary game. (Needs better physics, better zoom effect, maybe some effects when the balls hit each other)

What would push this game (I think) from a nice diversion to something more popular? Another ingredient, style. Katamari has style, if you were just a ball rolling around picking up random shapes (like in the tutorial) you would get bored very quickly, but given the quirky style, different environments and fantastic music, the game becomes a hit. (And hey, they're about to release the 4th installment and are barely changing the gameplay, so that shows you how far style can go)

I'm not going to continue to develop this game, because it's actually been done before. Check out Cosmic Crush. (I'd forgotten about this game when I came up with the idea originally) If I was going to continue though, I'd need to think of something unique, it would need to suit the setting, and (for me) it would need to be easy to draw. So...

That'll do. Maybe a little too much like Spore to be completely unique, but oh well. (This is a very quick and rough example, but it already gives you a better sense of scale changing and makes it more interesting to play)

Stay tuned for my next gameplay idea, which I'm hoping will turn out a bit more fun!

I've been thinking hard about gameplay and the importance it plays in games, especially in casual games, and I realised that if I'm going to create something popular and fun then I'm going to need to make sure my ideas are feasible before I put too much time and effort into them.

This is where prototyping is going to come in useful. I've decided that for any gameplay ideas I have, I'm going to whip up something quickly that gives me a chance to see how it will play before I start creating graphics, menus, etc., which will save me a large amount of time if it turns out that, no, that idea actually sucks.

This isn't always a useful step, of course; if the main draw of your game is the style in which you're doing it, then stock standard gameplay may do the trick, in which case you pretty much know that it's fun already. If you're bringing something new into the gameplay in any way, however, prototyping the base gameplay before getting into the more time consuming stages of development is definitely wise.

I'm going to be putting together some prototypes for some simple game ideas over the next couple of days, and I think it'll be interesting to see whether they turn out to be fun, tedious or in between.

I've noticed somewhat of a trend when it comes to those casual games (usually Flash, but not always) that get the most popularity and acclaim, and are the most addictive and fun (the latter leading to the former, generally). I hope to use these concepts in my next game, but perhaps they will be useful to others looking for ideas as well.

So here we go.

Simplicity

I think this has to be number one; the simplest concepts are the easiest for players to grasp, and are often the most addictive as there are no complex rules to learn or stories to follow. It's obvious what you have to do and it's just a matter of doing it well enough or for long enough to accomplish your goal.

This is not a hard and fast rule, of course, but there should still always be a clear goal and a clear method of achieving it; if the player is confused about what to do they're just going to stop playing.

Examples: Red, Double Jeu

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Take a look.

I'm mostly happy with the way it turned out, though like most projects I kind of just wanted to get it done at the end and rushed to finish it. I probably could have polished it up a bit more and added a few more features, but you've got to draw the line and those last few things would have dragged out too long.This is my first flash game and my first submission to Newgrounds, so it was an interesting experience. Newgrounds is a pretty well made site (though their forums kinda suck, no subscriptions or editing posts?), and it was kinda fun watching the votes pile up as soon as it went up there, the site is very heavily trafficked. (Though submitting it right before I went to bed probably wasn't a wise decision, I was kept up all night with thoughts of voting and flash ideas hammering through my head)

So, here's hoping I win some money from this contest, it would be a pretty good achievement to get some cash for my first flash game. I have some ideas for a couple of new games, but before starting on them I'm going to wait for the announcement of the new JayIsGames contest, which has a $2500 cash prize. I'll have 2 months for development, and I'm going to try to blog the steps more thoroughly this time.