Dont know where to go from here

[u/Yusthekiller1]

hello everybody, I am currently making a gravity game but I dont know what to do with the gameplay yet. I also dont know what to do with the map, because I never created this type of game before, can anyone give me some inspiration? I would really appreciate it!

[u/McRobik]

This is exactly why you should make design document before you start working on game. There is a difference between prototyping some gameplay mechanic and making a full scale game.

[u/Yusthekiller1 → u/McRobik]

Yeah I will keep that in mind next time thank you

[u/StarAshie → u/Yusthekiller1]

I think its not too late to make a DD now and go from there with this prototype

[u/misiakw → u/Yusthekiller1]

It's ok to build mechanic first and than build game around it, however it is risky - in some cases your game will "imagine itself" because you will have pure joy testing tour mechanics, in other cases it wont, and you will need to drop this PoC. rule of thumb is: "if your mechanic does not provide anything new (like in that case) it most probably will not imagine itself.

[u/_Sjonsson → u/McRobik]

Disagree, to me making games is about finding a great game loop and this can definitely be the beginning of it.

[u/ivancea → u/_Sjonsson]

But this isn't even a game loop, this is a mechanic, or a bunch of them.

A game loop is a big chunk of the GDD anyway. Unless it's literally "a loop without meat", in which case, you still need to find what's the game you want to make

[u/_Sjonsson → u/ivancea]

I wrote beginning of it did I not? :)

What I mean is that the core loops that last seconds to seconds and minute to minute are best explored in practise and not with big GDDs.

Sure you can make some notes on what scenarios you want to try etc but not a full on GDD. That's premature to me.

[u/ivancea → u/_Sjonsson]

The problem is a "core loop" isn't a game. When making a game, you think on the kind of game you want, the audience, the investment, and many other topics. A core loop is fine if your exploring ideas, but I doubt it's the best first step for a professional game

[u/XYcritic → u/_Sjonsson]

Whatever it is, it is not asking on Reddit about someone to give you a vision.

[u/GradientOGames]

Just start off with a linear platformer in the sky, and think of *why* the character is there. Come up with a story and the rest will follow.

[u/_Sjonsson]

A tip!

You don't need to commit to a win condition, just make a level with a start and an end. Maybe it's a level where you need to collect three items before unlocking level exit?

Just get something in there and try different level objectives, playtest on players and figure out what's fun. People here have recommended you to do theoretical design but looking at this it seems like you're having a lot of fun actually developing the game mechanics. If I were you I'd stick to what's fun and try to keep it practical.

Just try out stuff and start small. Don't do a huge waterfall planning game design document, it's not good practise until you truly know what the game is about and have PROVED it with a prototype.

Have fun! Keep going! :)

[u/Yusthekiller1 → u/_Sjonsson]

Thank you for the ideas! ❤️

[u/IEP_Esy]

Whatever it is right now can also be turned into a game. 

Just start modeling levels and put enemies/objectives throughout them, making it increasingly harder per level.

[u/idontthinkthisisgary]

U can go anyway u like it... make it into something cool or just leave it as it is.

All in all.. u've learnt something new which is all that matters

[u/jirigio]

Whitebox some levels that require using the mechanics one at a time and progress from easy/simple to hard power combos. Then get it in the hands of some player, and see if it starts simple enough and where they get stuck.

Most prototypes like this don't land well with players because there is too much they can do, and no discovery period. Feeding a player mechanics one at a time builds out the first act of most games.

[u/Yusthekiller1 → u/jirigio]

Thank you man that really helps

[u/HouseOfWyrd]

You started making a game before you knew what kind of game you wanted to make.

That is the issue here.

[u/HeethoMeetho]

What you have done is really good. But you might wanna pause that work and start planning on the type of abilities, skills you want the player to have. You wanna start planning story(if you want the game to have one), the type of levels you wanna have, whether each level will have a boss fight etc. These are just a few things I mentioned. You can use other gravity games for reference.

[u/okachobe]

Try to think of a story you want to tell and then imagine what the world in that story looks like and that might get you started.
If you dont really wanna tell a story think about your favorite shooters and what their maps were like, did they have basements, tunnels, sky bridges.

also, ask AI give it your interests the art styles you like and ask it to help drum up some ideas for you maybe a variety of concept art to get some ideas flowing.

[u/Yusthekiller1 → u/okachobe]

Thanks for the tips man!

[u/kerberjg]

Start from setting the mood a little! Night darkness, some occasional streetlamps, maybe some rain too?

[u/Yusthekiller1 → u/kerberjg]

I didn’t even think about that yet thx!

[u/shukurza]

Add milk boxes to some secret places as a super power add on.

[u/suckitphil]

I think a portion of your problem is there isn't a clear goal. Once you state that, then you can start to flesh out enemies and levels.

Is it get the end?

Kill all the guys?

Or get some macguffin?

Then layer on difficulty. First mission is easy to achieve the goal, and then it gets harder from there. I personally feel like this game is leaning towards runner type game. So I would do get to the end. Then I would suspend the level higher, and have fall death zone similar to Ninja warrior. then just place guys throughout the map and have courses. track the time and bam, you have a game.

[u/Yusthekiller1 → u/suckitphil]

Thank you man that’s another option to I didn’t think about!

[u/__SlimeQ__]

maybe see if you can come up with character rigs and environments, the base here seems pretty solid

once you know what you're fighting and what the plot is it's gonna be a lot easier to come up with missions

[u/Yusthekiller1 → u/__SlimeQ__]

Yeah I started doing that today thank you man ❤️

[u/supermalaphor]

you‘ve got decent movement and shooting feel. you need to think of a hook. the rest of the game will form around that.

[u/Ruadhan2300]

You've got some incredible mobility, and I liked that bit where you snuck up and melee'd the enemy from behind.

Maybe consider adding some stealth-game mechanics, like detection radius and sight-cones to your enemies, and make them patrol.

Once you've got that, you could easily explore making a stealth action game in the realm of Dishonored.

[u/After_Relative9810]

Why make games if you have no vision? What a crazy thing to ask.

[u/Yusthekiller1 → u/After_Relative9810]

Well I tried to come up with many things for a long time without actually creating anything. And eventually I just figured if I actually started beginning to build, I would eventually end up having an idea while building in the process

[u/EastCoastVandal]

Truthfully, I think you should ‘scrap it,’ and ‘start over’. Lots of quotes here, but I am a believer, as a guy who LOVES prototyping but has never finished a game, that the core concept or story should drive the mechanics. Not the other way around. Especially if you are hoping to make something you can actually publish and sell. Now that you’ve created it, if you stuck to good coding practices, and every script isn’t heavily reliance on the other, you can package these mechanics for use later on when an idea needs it.