{"author_link":"\/users\/danemm","author_name":"DanEmm","author_uid":"danemm","comments":[],"epoch":1673523289,"event":"LD52","format":"md","ldjam_node_id":322024,"likes":4,"metadata":{"p_key":"171402","p_author":"DanEmm","p_authorkey":"1317378","p_urlkey":"400696","p_title":"Vacuum - how did we do it 1: Initial concepts","p_cat":"LDJam ","p_event":"LD52","p_time":"1673523289","p_likes":"4","p_comments":"0","p_status":"WAYBACK","us_key":"1317378","us_name":"DanEmm","us_username":"danemm","event_start":"1672963200","event_key":"116","event_name":"Ludum Dare 52"},"node":{"_collation":{"body_sanitizer":"TextUtils::SanitizeHTML via existing importer","event":"LD52","removed_author":false},"_superparent":313060,"_trust":1,"author":317378,"body":"So Vacuum is out now (please rate here https:\/\/ldj.am\/$317397)\n\nIt was an interesting development process - so let's walk through how the game came to be.\nFRIDAY\n\nThe theme was announced..\n\nHARVEST\n## Moodboard\n\n![moodboard_small.png](\/\/\/raw\/2c7\/d4\/z\/563eb.png)\n\nWe began with a moodboard - basically going online and saving a load of inspirational pictures vaguely around the theme, we have a\u00a0combine\u00a0harvester,\u00a0hydroponics,\u00a0general\u00a0photos\u00a0of fruits\u00a0&\u00a0veg, a little reaper in there, and while a bit hidden there is a photo of children picking through a scrapheap looking for valuable e-waste. There is also a\u00a0few\u00a0games which have a similar theme - some literal like Stardew Valley & Banished that just have plots of farmland, and another, POINPY, that has a little dinosaur bouncing through the air to collect fruit to give to a blue, hangry catbeast.\n\nSomething recommend to include in the early concept stage is\u00a0a collection of synonyms - words that are tangental to the theme that you may not have thought of yourself - helps get the creative juices flowing.\n\n## Concepts\n\n![concepts_small.png](\/\/\/raw\/2c7\/d4\/z\/563ec.png)\n\nWith the general concept set out, we set to work drawing up some basic game ideas. Our general principle was keeping the scope super small - a single screen ideally - this is just for fun after all, and we do enough stressful gamedev during the work week.\n\n1)    The player will harvest everything in a single row (or column) at once, weeds and all. The goal would be to maximise how much crop you harvest, such as wheat and fruit, while minimising how many weeds you harvest. Crops and weeds would both spread out from their starting tiles, creating an organic growth pattern across the board.\n\n2)    Something simpler based on the horizontal line idea from 1. - the Grim Reaper has a farm. Pumpkins fall from the sky, souls float up from the ground. Time your swing to get as many souls and pumpkins in the single line - harvest as many as you can before time runs out.\n\n3)    Something simple - drive a tractor around a field and collect all the wheat. This is an idea I have seen a lot in the jam submissions.\n\n4)    Similar to 3. but with a twist - tractors and combine harvesters are two separate machines, and so they should be controlled independently. In this game, players use the Left analogue stick to control the fast & nimble tractor, and the Right analogue stick to control the slow and slippery combine harvester.\n\n\nWe left it there for the day and slept on the ideas we had, ready to begin on Saturday...","comments":0,"created":"2023-01-12T11:30:35Z","files":[],"files-timestamp":0,"id":322024,"love":4,"love-timestamp":"2023-01-12T13:11:14Z","meta":[],"modified":"2023-01-12T13:11:14Z","name":"Vacuum - how did we do it 1: Initial concepts","node-timestamp":"2023-01-12T11:34:49Z","parent":317397,"parents":[1,5,9,313060,317397],"path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/52\/vacuum\/vacuum-how-did-we-do-it-1-initial-concepts","published":"2023-01-12T11:34:49Z","scope":"public","slug":"vacuum-how-did-we-do-it-1-initial-concepts","subsubtype":"","subtype":"","type":"post","version":1004697},"node_metadata":{"n_key":"322024","n_urlkey":"400696","n_parent":"317397","n_path":"\/events\/ludum-dare\/52\/vacuum\/vacuum-how-did-we-do-it-1-initial-concepts","n_slug":"vacuum-how-did-we-do-it-1-initia","n_type":"post","n_subtype":"","n_subsubtype":"","n_author":"317378","n_created":"1673523035","n_modified":"1673529074","n_version":"1004697","n_status":"WAYBACK"},"source_url":"https:\/\/ldjam.com\/events\/ludum-dare\/52\/vacuum\/vacuum-how-did-we-do-it-1-initial-concepts","text":"So Vacuum is out now (please rate here https:\/\/ldj.am\/$317397)\n\nIt was an interesting development process - so let's walk through how the game came to be.\nFRIDAY\n\nThe theme was announced..\n\nHARVEST\n## Moodboard\n\n![moodboard_small.png](\/\/\/raw\/2c7\/d4\/z\/563eb.png)\n\nWe began with a moodboard - basically going online and saving a load of inspirational pictures vaguely around the theme, we have a\u00a0combine\u00a0harvester,\u00a0hydroponics,\u00a0general\u00a0photos\u00a0of fruits\u00a0&\u00a0veg, a little reaper in there, and while a bit hidden there is a photo of children picking through a scrapheap looking for valuable e-waste. There is also a\u00a0few\u00a0games which have a similar theme - some literal like Stardew Valley & Banished that just have plots of farmland, and another, POINPY, that has a little dinosaur bouncing through the air to collect fruit to give to a blue, hangry catbeast.\n\nSomething recommend to include in the early concept stage is\u00a0a collection of synonyms - words that are tangental to the theme that you may not have thought of yourself - helps get the creative juices flowing.\n\n## Concepts\n\n![concepts_small.png](\/\/\/raw\/2c7\/d4\/z\/563ec.png)\n\nWith the general concept set out, we set to work drawing up some basic game ideas. Our general principle was keeping the scope super small - a single screen ideally - this is just for fun after all, and we do enough stressful gamedev during the work week.\n\n1)    The player will harvest everything in a single row (or column) at once, weeds and all. The goal would be to maximise how much crop you harvest, such as wheat and fruit, while minimising how many weeds you harvest. Crops and weeds would both spread out from their starting tiles, creating an organic growth pattern across the board.\n\n2)    Something simpler based on the horizontal line idea from 1. - the Grim Reaper has a farm. Pumpkins fall from the sky, souls float up from the ground. Time your swing to get as many souls and pumpkins in the single line - harvest as many as you can before time runs out.\n\n3)    Something simple - drive a tractor around a field and collect all the wheat. This is an idea I have seen a lot in the jam submissions.\n\n4)    Similar to 3. but with a twist - tractors and combine harvesters are two separate machines, and so they should be controlled independently. In this game, players use the Left analogue stick to control the fast & nimble tractor, and the Right analogue stick to control the slow and slippery combine harvester.\n\n\nWe left it there for the day and slept on the ideas we had, ready to begin on Saturday...","title":"Vacuum - how did we do it 1: Initial concepts","wayback_source":[]}