Hey trainers,
Welcome to the first monthly dev log for Nanomon! Each month, I will talk with Oscar Brittain to talk about what they have worked on and how their progress has been going. I’ll forward the amazing work they have been working on to you all in a monthly dev log. These could be a general dev log or with a focus of gameplay, art, music, ect.
I talked with Oscar about the minigames and his thought process behind developing them for Nanomon.
“This month, I was designing Minigames for Nanomon, but the more I added, the more I would have to teach players, which seemed bad.
My solution was 3 “Control Types” that are reused throughout the game:
Power Type - When the player clicks on the screen, their Nanomon will fire an attack in that direction, which moves at a speed equal to their Power Stat.
Agility Type - The player’s Nanomon will move to wherever the mouse cursor is pointing, at a speed equal to their Agility Stat.
Heart Type - When the Player clicks, their Nanomon will brace and defend themself for a period equal to their Heart Stat.
So now, when I design a minigame, I start with 3 questions:
What is the player getting out of this? (Resources? Stats? Just Fun?)
Increases their Agility Stat
What is the Theme of the minigame? (Soccer? Combat? Farming?)
Something fitting Agility, like Soccer.
Which Control Type best suits this minigame?
For an Agility-increasing minigame, the Agility Control Type.
And voila! A minigame where you have to juggle a soccer ball in the air for as long as possible!
What’s cool about this, is that it looks/feels different to all the other minigames, but by using the Agility Control Type, and a well-known theme (juggling a ball), I don't have to teach the player very much at all!
Fuck yeah, science!
-Oscar”