As I am writing the game, there are times I want to test something out in the game, but because of the nature of the game, getting to that state naturally will take some time. What I am doing is building in buffs that assist with that.
For example, I’m currently working on a lock, and the lock opens after some time. I can manually add a lock into the game and set it to a low time to open, but this is also an incentive to add a new buff to the game. Let’s make a buff that speeds up lock openings.
This does two things. First, it gives another stat that I can use. Now I can add more locks around the game world and make for more interesting interactions. Players have more control and can manage this. I can also make locks that take longer more dangerous because players have a way to offset that danger. Also, locks that are completed faster can give bigger rewards. Once again, because players can manipulate this.
Secondly, because I have the new stat, maybe I can use it for other lock-based mechanics. What else can this stat do? Right now it’s just for locks, but maybe it’s about manipulating other elements in the game that I’ve yet to design. I want to build in puzzles, so maybe this also gives more leeway in the time needed to defeat the puzzles. Maybe this is a general time state, and it allows us to modify anything that has a time component? I don’t know.
Basically, it lets us put more gameplay into the lock mechanic and add more depth to it because players have multiple ways to deal with it, and it opens the door to other non-lock uses.
I could have just dragged a lock into the scene and set it to a short timeout, but I find putting my solutions into the game opens up more doors.
Jason Lotito 