Dung is the result of a unique game-development venture -- a collaboration between BigPond and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. BigPond is contributing AU $1,000,000 towards developing and marketing the game, which was selected in an Australia-wide competition won by Sherele Moody of Warnambool.
The story of a heroic dung beetle on an epic journey to save his siblings, the game is being developed by Melbourne’s Firemint studio. Today we have part one of the Firemint's Development Diary so you can see how a video game is born. The man behind the development diary is Kynan Woodman - the Development Director.
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Kynan Woodman, Development Director for Dung
Part 1: Prototyping
The process began with brainstorming and white boarding. We experimented with scrolling, but quickly scrapped the idea, opting instead for a static-screen physics engine with pickups. One of the earliest prototypes had pickups that moved constantly on screen, which made us a little ill after just a few minutes. So we added a grid and made the icons move only when they needed to. After a few tweaks, we decided it felt compelling enough to start coding it in Richmotion - the studio’s proprietary software toolset.
The first prototype
This version side-scrolled. You could move the ball left and right, and bounce it up.
Prototype 2
A puzzle/physics approach that didn't last too long.
Prototype 3
Introduced physics and pickups that were part of the control.
Prototype 4
Extended the screen to the mobile aspect ratio and added more pickups - You couldn't stare at this too long.
Prototype 5
Getting closer to the end result - the pickups moved down when you collected them.
Prototype 6
We introduced the grid and gave pickups different functions that helped move the ball around. This had an almost hypnotic feel to it, even at this early stage. We knew we were close to the base mechanic.
Prototype 7
This was the final prototype, which became the framework for refining Dung’s gameplay and controls, creating levels and story elements, and determining design and art direction.
Next week in Part 2 - Kynan takes us through Character Development and Design. Stay tuned!
