11-02-2020: Inspiration Roundup

It's very important for everyone to stay as safe as possible this holiday season. Wear a mask, wash your hands, practice social distancing, and if you need something to cut through the boredom of staying at home, take a look at this month's Inspiration Roundup! These are some of the games that in some way or another provide a positive model for how we want to go about making our game.

1. Overcooked!

This cute game and its sequel was simple and fun to get into, with lots of pitfalls and curveballs tossed at the player as they progressed. Our cafe minigame takes some cues from the core gameplay, mainly time-limited task completion with no undos. While Overcooked! isn't the first game of its kind, it certainly showcased the fact that simple could be engaging.

2. Slay the Spire

The fundamental aspects of deck-building are front-end choices and back-end optimization. The fun is in the payoff of early decisions paying off as well as finding the most efficient way to leverage the cards available while having just enough RNG to keep things spicy but not silly. Slay the Spire rewards these fundamentals in a very rewarding way, which we are taking into account for our personal training minigame.

3. LittleBigPlanet 2 (Block Drop)

In addition to adorable aesthetics and breathtaking platforming sequences, LittleBigPlanet 2 featured several minigames that could be played and replayed without boredom. Even Block Drop, one of the inspirations for our workout minigame, which is a two-button game, manages to be a worthwhile experience despite a "shallow" mechanic thanks to the presentation and UX. Small touches like the camera angle and sound design go a long way in driving players to want to keep playing.

We'd love to hear from you what games have been inspiring you recently!

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