More about my work process in Pocket Quest 2024 jam
Hello You game makers, game readers, game jammers and gamers!
When I made the first sketch of the important parts of the island and the town, it was a major moment. The moment that broke the barriers and let me open my mind to creative mind-storming. This kind of mind mapping and listing of things, helps me to think better about the things I am making. What are the important elements? Is there something missing? Is there something too much?
Usually thinking of the main places and the most important faces, helps me to get my engine whirring. Oftentimes, at that point, I don't think the wording or are the ideas worth it, I just list usable things. Things that feel and sound right. Right for the atmosphere.
And that is what I shared in the earlier blog post. This time I shall share more of the thinking process. First I gave some precious time for my brain to think the list through. Then I sat myself down and started to think about the rules and limitations of the game designing jam. Weighing in: are all things necessary, could some things to put together somehow, and for obvious reasons, how does this all present possible elements to have a heist in the story. After all, the game product for the year 2024 Pocket Quest should be about "Heists!".
If you have scrolled through the next example text (under, the next chapter), You might have noticed some minor changes to the first sketch. Changes that I thought, are necessary to bring the right atmosphere, but also to cut down elements that felt unnecessary. Also combining things with other things. Especially if something felt somehow misplaced.
"What is on the Island?
The Town Hall
The Church
The Town Park with an icecream kiosk
Houses for the Islanders and their guests
The Village Store divided into two sections: The Shop and The Bank
The Swimming Beach with a cloth-changing hut
Who are These town folks on the Island?"
The Shop Owner and a clerk are also the Bank clerk and the banker
The owner and the clerk of the kiosk in the park
The Town mayor, secretary of town mayor, the town council
The priest and the organ player
The town guards, acting also as swim guards
House cleaners acting also as Street swipers
Random locals are very random "
As You may have noticed, this is just two simple and short lists of the places and people on the Town on the Island. Even as it is, those lists bring you something that can provoke the feeling of adventure in your mind.
Another important thing to notice there, even though these are merely just mundane lists of faces and places on an island, those list contain already the needed elements and seeds for some evocative heist stories. In other words, You don't need big fancy words or supernatural elements to make something interesting that can give you fun on the gaming table.
After thinking a bit more of the places and the faces, I sketched a little map of the Island and the town on it. Just a simple, a bit childish and a whole lots of quirky map sketsch, but it really helped me (both literally and figuratively) to see the place more clearly. That quickened the process of thinking what is where, how things are linked to each other, what could happen where, what things are happening regularly and what is the place the most important things are happening at. Also, even as crude as the map is, it gives a clear visual of the Island to the Game Moderator and to the other players.
Next I thought about the name of the game. I wanted it to be short, simple, catchy, weird and a bit funny. I thought about the material and the theme. The game is more about the place and the people and only on the side theme, it's also about the possibilities of doing something, eg. doing a heist. And it's on a distant island. I thought all of this for a while. And in all simplicity, it striked to me that I just could take the two main elemtens: ([trying to find] a heist and [ending up] on an island, and just run with it.
After that the thinking process was a pretty straight-forward. I wrote "Heist" on a small piece of a paper. Then sat a while watching the piece of a paper and a word on it. Then I sat there some more and kept thinking for a moment or a two. "Heist plus something sea or island thematic, or should it be other way round?", I thought silently in my mind. And then it hit me like a lightning. It's "heist Ahoy!" Simple, effective, quirky and a bit funny, so let it be the name, I decided on that spur of s moment. And I have decided later, that I'll stick with it.
On some other text I'll tell you some more about the game and the process of making it. Now I just wish You a nice Friday!
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