So last night I got home from work, sat down at the computer desk, and opened up Visual Studio 2008.  I had been mulling over an idea for a game most of the day, and so set about implementing a very basic prototype for the idea using Farseer Physics and some primitives.  I have to say I’m very happy and excited with the initial results.

Basically the game will be a puzzle platformer where the main character can neither move or jump on his own.  Instead you will have full 360-degree control for rotating the world around the character.  This will allow him to pick up momentum, maneuver into inaccessible areas, etc.

I initially believed this to be a rather unique idea.  I had heard of LocoRoco previously, but until it was mentioned to me on the #xna channel I had never looked at or played the game.  From what I can see though LocoRoco (and its iPhone brother Rolando) simply allow tilt of the world and you do maintain some control over the character(s).  I believe with a bit of innovation and my full 360 rotation mechanic I can set myself apart.  Luckily this particular spin on the genre isn’t exactly crowded so there’s room to work.

An initial theme idea revolves around a fat porcupine who just rolls around forested worlds trying to save other fat and rotund animals.  A sort of Sonic anti-thesis. :)

More details and possible screenshots as it develops!

UPDATE:

Here’s a short video showing the first prototype of basic gameplay.  It gives you a decent idea of how the game would function.

Very basic prototype from Matt Sams on Vimeo.

So I noticed the other day that I’m quickly coming up on the one year anniversary of my joining the XNA Creators Club Online.  A short bit of retrospection and a peek into my Projects folder lead me to the obvious conclusion that I haven’t accomplished a damn thing in the year I’ve been working with C# and XNA.

Normally I would not be bothered by this kind of thing.  I’m fine with taking my time with something – especially something new to me like game development – and learning the intricate ins and outs.  What does bother me though is that I have not yet taken what I have learned and applied it to a tangible project.  This is amplified by examples of stellar projects such as Noogy’s Dust:  The Elysian Tail where Noogy himself admitted he had only been working with XNA for seven months or so.

So the question I’ve been asking myself is where did I go wrong?  After a lot of thought I think I’ve narrowed down two of the major roadblocks that have prevented me from really producing anything of note so far.  I’d like to share these with you in the hopes that if you haven’t run into them already, you can avoid them.

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