Pencil Prototyping

Yesterday I started mocking up the entry deck, a spaceport which will function very much like an airport (allows for some lightweight humour). Before that, I’d started the other day by just drawing a load of different ‘spoke’ elements outside a common main hub for a few decks. I was just getting a feel for what sort of variation I can get, and then I plan to quickly test the spaces to see if they feel about the right size.

Mini-maps of 4 potential decks.

With no real plan in mind, I just took the first one and started to adapt it to my idea of a spaceport, thinking about how it would function as an opening chapter allowing me to set the tone of the game

First go at the lowest deck

I figured you get off your ship in the non-VIP hangers, and are directed through a series of airport style areas. I took the ring element to the right, made it a single linear loop for security, and everything else started to fall into place. Shortly after I’d finished this, I texted it to a friend, and by the time I’d finished typing out the message I’d already figured out a change I wanted to make…

Revision made in about 3 minutes.

So I’d quickly decided there’d be a visible (if not ever playable) route for VIPs to skip security, via some NPCs at barriers, and I thought why not send the payer through duty free on their way into the station. Having done this on my iPad (with iconfactory’s Linea Sketch app, naturally), I was then in a position to throw the basic blocks into Aesprite, and immediately into GB Studio. The whole exercise from picking up one of the mini-maps took about 30 minutes. Most pleasing.