The game pitch went well. The client was satisfied with what we had to offer and he said so himself!
The post-mortem was done on the game after that. W mainly discussed how difficult it was to get a solid game idea, how many times the idea was changed and how difficult it was to find a fun mechanic to make the game not feel like homework. We agreed that instead of just dishing out an unfinished game, it is better to focus on developing the idea at this prototype stage. Yes, we faked our presentation and are proud of it! :D But I had also made a working prototype at the end of the last day too if it was needed. Finally, everything fell into place and it paid off!
The game idea went through many changes. Finally, it was decided that we use a money mechanic to inject some fun into the game. The users would be hired as a engineer for Dr. Andrew D Sorder and its up to them to keep the Steam Power plant up and running with maximum efficiency.
There would be wages which is essentially the difficulty levels. If an engineering problem is solved successfully, the player would be rewarded with more money. If he fails, eg. blows up the engine, his pay rate is reduced and he may have to pay to get new parts for the engine or repair the engine.
The challenges themselves would be displayed diagrammatically. The individual components like the boiler can be clicked upon to get more details about it which would help to solve the problem.
2nd week -
Skeleton of the game made. Got textboxes working.
3rd week -
Got text input working. But at this point, Brianne said that Roger advised to fake the game. So, we threw it out.
4th week -
Got a power bar animation working. If correct answer, it stays in green zone. If not, it goes to red zone and the boiler blows up. Also, made the final prototype by incorporating all the art into the game. Even though its not a fleshed out game, it looked pretty good finally.
For the final presentation. none of the above was used. The game was simulated by using Prezi! Yup - That's right! But, the presentation went well anyway. The client liked it and said that its exactly what he wanted. That made my day!
