Greetings, dear reader!
Today I come to you all with a more personal side of Rush Stop, as myself, the game designer.
As some may already be aware, the game designer is usually required to create the initial concept of the game, as well as managing most of the production plans for the game's development. With that in mind, I had already started developing some possible ideas for the game we were creating, even before a team was assembled. Most of them ended up failing straight from the conceptual phase, but there was one that stuck with me, and that was the first idea I had when I first started this course.
I can say that I've spent uncountable hours of my (still rather short) life with public transport. I'd catch the bus to middle school when my parents thought me independent enough to do so, I'd get into intercity busses when my school's ended up being quite far away from where I lived at the time, I'd catch an hour long train each way just so I could attend a two hour class about HTML programming that I'd eventually forget.
Picture: Actual photo of one of my many train rides. The weather was nice.
With that many years knowing the ins and outs of using public transportation, most would think that I'd have it down to a science. But unfortunately, I think I have only been able to keep myself mildly fit due to the amount of times I had to rush to get to said public transport. The feeling of missing that train home for one singular minute of delay is something I hold deep in my heart even to this day.
And that is exactly how I came up with the idea for Rush Stop. A girl's tumultuous journey of catching something as simple as the bus.
Picture: My initial sketch of our main character. From around october of last year.
Of course, that was too simple of a game premisse by itself, so I had to get creative. (which is, half of my job at this point.) So let me actually introduce to you some of the other inspirations for this game.
I grew up a lot with fun, and perhaps sometimes out of the box, entertainment. And with that came a lot of lasting memories of shows, games and movies I'd experience throughout the years. Funny enough, for this game, I had Mary Poppins as a major inspiration for one specific mechanic.
Picture: Mary Poppins (1964). I like to think my parents had good taste in films.
Between the members of our development team we call it the umbrella mechanic, but I like to call it "Poppins Borrowed Umbrella". It's as simple as it is in the movie itself. The player character has an umbrella, and she can glide with it!
Picture: MC using the umbrella.
Readers of our previous article might recall this one from our artist's initial sketches.
The gliding aspect of our game also led us to our second mechanic, that of wind currents! They can push the player forward or backwards depending on their directions, and are interacteble with our umbrella. This one came directly from a character from the children's old book series Winnie the Poo. I was a big fan of it when I was a kid, even had a Piglet backpack way back in the day.
Funny, didn't Piglet get constantly blown away with the wind?
Yes he did.
Picture: Piglet, from Winnie the Poo, getting blown away. Curious, he's also in an umbrella!
And with that, my little talk on inspirations for the game and its mechanics comes to an end. We can promise you that many, more technical, updates will come soon. (I can't wait to ask our programmerto write about his struggles with the umbrella mechanics)
Don't Rush, I'll see you on our next Stop!
50Sense Studios' Game Designer signing out!
