Game Planning: Crafting Your First Adventure

7.1.2 Planning Your Game

Before diving into coding, it’s crucial to plan your game. Planning helps you visualize your ideas, organize your thoughts, and set a clear path for development. In this section, we’ll explore how to plan your game effectively, focusing on storyboarding, design elements, and fostering creativity.

The Importance of Planning

Planning is like drawing a map before embarking on a journey. It helps you understand where you’re going and how to get there. In game development, planning ensures that your ideas are well thought out and that you have a clear vision of what you want to create. This step is essential for both beginners and experienced developers.

Storyboarding: Visualizing Your Game

Storyboarding is a powerful tool used to visualize the flow and structure of your game. It involves sketching out scenes or screens of your game, much like a comic strip. This helps you see how the game will progress and identify any potential issues before you start coding.

Creating a Simple Storyboard

To create a storyboard, you can use a simple template with boxes representing different scenes or levels of your game. Here’s a basic example:

+-------------------+   +-------------------+   +-------------------+
| Start Screen      |   | Level 1           |   | Level 2           |
| - Title           |   | - Character intro |   | - New challenges  |
| - Play button     |   | - Obstacles       |   | - More enemies    |
+-------------------+   +-------------------+   +-------------------+

Interactive Exercise: Grab a piece of paper and draw your own storyboard. Include the start screen, at least one level, and any transitions between scenes. Think about what happens in each part of your game.

Design Elements: Bringing Your Game to Life

Once you have a storyboard, it’s time to think about the design elements of your game. These include characters, setting, objectives, and challenges.

Characters

Characters are the heart of your game. They can be heroes, villains, or even inanimate objects that come to life. When designing characters, consider the following:

• Main Character: Who is the player controlling? What are their abilities or special powers?
• Enemies or Obstacles: What challenges will the player face? These could be monsters, tricky puzzles, or environmental hazards.

Tip: Use simple shapes and bright colors to make your characters stand out. You can draw inspiration from your favorite games or create something entirely new!

Setting

The setting is where your game takes place. It sets the mood and atmosphere for your adventure. Here are some ideas:

• Forest: A lush, green environment with trees and wildlife.
• City: A bustling urban landscape with buildings and streets.
• Outer Space: A mysterious and vast universe with stars and planets.

Tip: Think about how the setting influences the gameplay. For example, a forest might have hidden paths, while outer space could have zero gravity challenges.

Objectives

Objectives give players a goal to strive for. They keep the game engaging and rewarding. Consider these examples:

• Collect Items: Gather a certain number of objects, like apples or coins.
• Reach a Destination: Navigate through levels to reach the end.
• Defeat Enemies: Overcome foes to progress.

Tip: Make objectives clear and achievable, but also challenging enough to keep players interested.

Challenges

Challenges add excitement and difficulty to your game. They can be physical obstacles, puzzles, or time limits. Here are some ideas:

• Moving Platforms: Jump across platforms that shift or disappear.
• Avoiding Enemies: Dodge or outsmart enemies that patrol the area.
• Solving Puzzles: Use logic and creativity to solve in-game puzzles.

Tip: Balance is key. Ensure challenges are fair and gradually increase in difficulty as the player progresses.

Tips for Creativity

Creativity is the magic ingredient in game development. Here are some tips to unleash your imagination:

• Mix and Match: Combine different elements from your favorite games to create something unique.
• Think Outside the Box: Don’t be afraid to try unconventional ideas. Sometimes the most unusual concepts make the best games.
• Keep It Simple: Especially for your first game, simplicity can be powerful. Focus on a few core mechanics and polish them well.

Conclusion

Planning your game is an exciting and crucial step in the development process. By storyboarding your ideas and designing engaging elements, you’re setting the stage for a successful and enjoyable game. Remember, your game can be as simple or complex as you like, and the most important thing is to have fun and let your creativity shine!

Quiz Time!