Sylv’Allion

Originally, a story of a little flat, black man:

Have you ever had a chance to play a Game & Watch game? For the record, it was originally small electronic games manufactured by Nintendo in the early 80s, even before the arrival of their first home console, namely the NES. Here is for example the Game & Watch Parachute :

For more history I refer you to the page of our dear friend Wikipedia. Even if the history of video games fascinates me, it is not the subject of the article. 🙂

Now let’s get to the heart of the matter, namely the gameplay. What makes these minigames so appealing? Not just getting the highest score. Oh yeah, a lot of games have done that, of course. Here, the particularity of this series is that the pace of the game is gradually accelerating. From 0 to 100 points a gradual acceleration occurs. Then everything calms down again when it reaches 100 points, enough to breathe a little while the infernal machine gets back on the road up to 200 and vice versa.

Yes, but don’t expect the rhythm to become calm as a river again with each hundredth milestone reached, because Nintendo’s little game design geniuses know that being bored is boring, and when you’re bored in a game, well, that’s not cool.

This is why each level also has its dose of up-tempo. You get caught up in the speed as you go and you get used to it. We want more (but not too much either). It’s a beautiful roller coaster in the land of the rising sun. Besides, when you get far enough and you lose, the slow pace at the beginning seems really too slow and we would like it to go faster to regain this feeling. Or is that just my impression? Still, this cycle of frenzy and tranquility turns out to be really gripping. Each level reached turns out to be a success, and we want to try to go even further.

It’s this idea of gameplay that made me want to start creating my first game. Of course I’m talking about Game & Watch, but it could have been other games, such as Tetris, to quote a very popular one that has a rather similar feeling: the stress of the blocks piling up, then the temporary relief of having managed to clear all of its lines…

Blocatcher or the “project with things that fall and we have to catch them”:

Originally I was too greedy I admit. I wanted to create several mini-games to include in a main game. They were supposed to be mini-games to collect money and other items for use in the main gameplay.

And then I remembered that I was not a studio made up of several dozen developers. But above all I had practically no experience in the development of video games. I could only rely on my experience as a web developer. So naturally I lowered my ambitions (but it’s only a postponement). 😀

In my head, it was the project with things that fall and we have to catch them, and then the rhythm that accelerates step by step like in G&W. I dive into my idea and I experiment with it, so it gives birth to the first game mode (yes so about that, I really only thought of making one originally, but I’ll explain to you later).

Did I forget to mention that this was a prototype? It’s just a prototype!

Here is the Catch mode, where you have to catch a falling projectile, sent by a cannon which is at the very top. To recover it you have to aim with a basket, while moving on three columns. After three missed shots, it’s Game Over. You have to start over from the beginning!

Note, however, that three different colors are available. It is therefore necessary to catch the projectile with the basket of the right color. If you catch a blue projectile with a red basket, then it’s a mistake! Yes yes, I assure you. (And no, the basket does not change to purple because of the mixture, unfortunately. :/ )

Catch mode has three levels of difficulty.

– Easy: The speed is a bit slow, like a cruising pace. So you can eat your slice of pizza with one hand and play with the other (I’ve never tried it personally, I didn’t want to dirty my keyboard).

– Normal: Normal speed. The experience everyone should try.

– Hard: Normal speed, but this time with shapes, in addition to colors! It’s a good way to give yourself a migraine, or simply to want to find that good old normal difficulty that is more welcoming. I think that personally I never managed to reach 100 points…

You should know that the acceleration of the rhythm is not done according to the speed of the projectiles, but rather how often they are sent and also the number of sending. I was hesitant for a long time to set up projectiles that fall at different speeds, like the modern Game & Watch “Parachute” version, which can be seen here:

(feel free to move forward in the video when the pace of the game picks up)

See how the Toads, Yoshis, and Donkey Kong Jr fall at different speeds, giving added pressure. It’s an idea that I was very interested in, but I already diverged from the feeling brought by “Parachute” from the start.

Unfortunately, I ran into annoying problems, such as projectiles arriving at the bottom at the same time, or two at a time, of a different color. I kept this idea for a new game mode (I didn’t want to throw away the idea which seemed to me to have potential, hence the fact that I end up with more than one game mode, now you understand why).

This is what gave birth to the catch mode V2, which is nothing but a frenzy of projectiles sent at all costs. The idea is to get the highest score in a given time. It is always necessary to recover the projectiles with the good color of basket, however there is no penalty if one is mistaken or if we miss one.

The difficulty level only changes the overall speed of the projectiles.

And speaking of projectile speed, why not build on that? And better, what would happen if we had to avoid the projectiles? Well that gives a new game mode (and yes one more!): Avoid mode.

At first I was not aware of it, but it reminded me of another Game & Watch game: “Helmet” where you have to avoid tools falling from the sky, which is the modern version on video here.

After all, we are never very far from the original idea, with things and stuff falling from the sky. I also find the avoid mode particularly addictive in the normal and hard difficulties where the speed seems to me to be well gauged.

That’s all about this prototype, of course it would benefit from many adjustments and I have some ideas for that. I’ll definitely come back to update on it when it’s well advanced.

– And you, have you ever had the opportunity to play a Game & Watch before? Or another game of the same style?
I will be happy to listen to your comments regarding your player experience, or simply about the article. 😉