(Note: WebGL games are formatted strange and may run slow in WordPress. If you have technical difficulties, check out the standalone version on itch.io)
Duration
48Hrs for Game Maker’s Toolkit Game Jam 2020
The Game
In Tinker, players have to place blocks onto pegs to help a ball reach the destination. The style resembles that of old marble mazes or Rube Goldbergs. The goal of the game isn’t really meant to complete every level, but to figure out the different ways you can complete it, and to experiment. I wanted a game that
wasn’t as intense and more of a relaxing experience.
What I Did
Well… everything. The only thing I didn’t do as much of was the art. I used just simple shapes and changed their color so it was a nice color scheme. I did all the parts of the game myself, including the design of the puzzles, programming, and audio.
What I Learned
Surprisingly, I didn’t push myself to learn new things as much as I would if I was on a team. What’s nice about working with a team is that there’s always something new to learn from other people, and there’s something that you can teach others as well. Working by myself I didn’t learn all too much, but this may
be because I was nervous of going it alone and only stuck with things I mostly knew. It was kind of interesting in the end, however, when I realized that I ultimately made a level editor, where players could place and move objects how they wanted.
Problems I had with not having a team continued into the design. When I released the game, I got a lot of mixed feedback on the difficulty of the levels; some said they were too easy, while others said they were frustrated and had to quit. The game was also missing a lot of player feedback: The holes on the
blocks didn’t show any indication that they were touching a possible peg, which could have easily been implemented by changing its color or adding an audio cue. The pegs also had problems where there was some “looseness” to them, where the block could be shifted more in another direction but still be
touching the peg. If I knew how to model some actual blocks, I would have put actual holes in them, which would have made my time dealing with the pegs a whole lot easier. Looking back, I should have made the holes lock into the center of the pegs, and made a simple tool to help figure out the layout of
the blocks to easily add pegs in the correct spot. I thought adding extra random pegs would make the game more interesting and confusing, but it seemed to frustrate players because they though they could connect to it. There was also bugs that allowed the player to move around blocks while the balls were
actually moving, and some players thought all the balls had to reach the goal to win, so while I was more focused on the presentation, it was the gameplay I should have analyzed more.