Behind the scenes #2: Making the Rules

Hello!

Today we present a first mini-blog in a range of upcoming blogs to show you the second episode in the How it’s made video series: Making the Rules. Our colleague Rens is making these videos and we hope that they help give you more of an idea and insight into how we work and also show you a little of the work itself!

So what is this video about? It actually goes more in-depth on a previous topic where we discussed how we come up with features and prototype them before actually adding them to the game. To do this we make use of a feature matrix (remember it from a few blogs back? Image below the video). Using this matrix we can recombine existing features and combine them into new topics for mechanics or puzzle designs. We can also use this matrix to test out new idea proposals to see if they actually match with the existing content, of course you don’t want a new feature that completely breaks the balance of the game!

AI Vendetta Dev Video #2: Making the Rules

As you’ll see in the video, we usually start of brainstorming together to generate ideas. Our designer then further develops these in a concept and at the same time also validates them with the existing game content using the feature matrix (image below), among other tools. After the concept has been developed and an official design is made, the idea is then prototyped in a safe testing environment where it can be tested in various situations. Finally, when it has been completed and approved by all parties involved it can be polished and added to the game.

[ FEATURE MATRIX ]

This concludes our mini-blog. We hope you enjoyed the video and if you’d like to play the game for yourself, you can do so by clicking on the following LINK. Remember that the web demo is playable in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera after installing the Unity web plugin. Feel free to let us know your thoughts on the video and the game! We’d also love to stay in touch if you have any questions or suggestions, especially with our fellow developers from all around the world!

See you all next time!

~Thom de Moor, CatByte Games

If you are interested in following our progress, follow us on Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google+ as well as our individual members on Google+, Twitter and Indie Gamer.