Walking the fine line between simple and just plain boring gameplay is a delicate issue, especially with independent game makers. How do you make a game appealing without stripping it of the elements that keep players coming back for more? GameCareerGuide's postmortem with the Toblo design answers just those questions, discussing the high and low points in the development process.
"Light-hearted" and "easy to play" were two key phrases in the design of Toblo, a simple capture the flag game created by a group of DigiPen students. Played in a world of colored blocks, your only goal is to capture the other team's flag. Your weapons are the very blocks that surround you, simply walk up to anything and tear it down to load up on ammo, then dash into the enemy's fort and let 'em fly. Although Toblo isn't a full-fledged game, it's proof that a concept doesn't need to be elaborate to be interesting. Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Just had a quick go of this against bots and I reckon we could certainly have a good fun blast of this of a night. Only takes a few minutes to download and install and the physics-enabled blocks are rather entertaining to knock down.
The CTF map I played is 3v3, and while the models are quite simple they did have nice character. You really do feel quite spanged when a block thwacks you. The flags on the map I playes sit atop big precarious towers, so pulling a few blocks out of the bottom then blatting them back higher up to send it tumbling down is quite gratifying - especially as it has your objective at the top. It kinda has the feel of 5-a-side football with too few players; you're desperately trying to get their flags before they get yours because you know nobody's going to sit and defend.
Student Postmortem with DigiPen's Toblo
