Peter Georgakopoulos // Devlog #1 - Proof Of Concept Preparation

Hey, I'm Peter, one of the developers working on Quarry Kickin', and this is my first devlog on our chaotic 2v2 party game. 

Quarry Kickin' is a 2v2 competitive mining game where two mining crews compete to collect and deposit more gems than the other. Excavate, kick and place bombs, and interact with many physics objects to win!

This week is our Proof of Concept week in the pre-production phase of the project, where not only a proof of concept build is to be made, but many design decisions and planning going forward. In this Devlog I will be breaking down my recent discoveries and learnings as I've contributed to this exciting game project. Please enjoy!

Roadmaps!

One of my roles is a project manager, and its part of my responsibility to provide a high-level view of the project, through future mechanics, roadmaps, and features. To do this, I used Miro, an incredibly effect whiteboard-like tool. When I created this roadmap, I segmented it into week 5, 6, and 7 (proof of concept week).

Why I did this:

This was created as a response to me realizing our current task-tracking methods weren't as resonant or accessible to the team, so I created this much more visually appealing version and also printed them out, placing them around our workspace so members could always glance over and see what was going on. It's not only helped us understand where we are, but is easy to iterate and accessible to the team, and making it themed like a mine helped sell us on our game world we're creating.

Gems Mechanic

The main collectible in Quarry Kickin' are gems. These can be picked up and deposited at repositories to increase your team's score. I researched into ways to expand this mechanic or evolve it post-proof of concept, and this led to the idea of large gems.

I researched into this, for more unique and exciting ways to interact with gems, and the main takeaway I had was that large gems could be a worthwhile addition to the game. Large gems would be found in the environment and can't be picked up by players, it can only be kicked and blasted with bombs to move it. They can be deposited at repositories when within the range and would be worth significantly more than a regular gem. The kicker is: if the gem gets blasted with bombs it can be moved further than kicking it, but It can damage over time and break into regular gems worth less overall.

Why I did this:

I believe that introducing new ways to attain the objective and a more alluring gem than the rest would introduce more strategic decision-making and variation in the experience.

Takeaways

Overall, these are some of my larger investigations so far. What was important was that I was looking in the moment and forward with some of my work that helps me get a better sense of direction and understanding which I can convey to the team easier.

That's all for now, I hope there was some useful insights from this and thank you for reading!

Peter Georgakopoulos