Dev.log Teal

If there's one strange phenomenon I've learned over the years as a gamer and game designer, especially in recent memory, it's that games can blow up in popularity out of nowhere. This can be any reason from good marketing, word of mouth, or being brought into the spotlight by a notable public figure. This has really helped indie games out the most because of their limited funds, audience and player base. So when Among Us suddenly was the most played game on the app store and Twitch, I had to give it a try for myself and I definitely have a few words I want to share.

Among Us essentially is a whodunit game, but what made it special I feel was two things: the timing and the party/couch co op design of it. The timing is because it feels like a good old fashioned party/couch co op type of game. I don't feel like my wallet is susceptible to microtransactions, the game is very fun without any win to pay schemes, there's a very low barrier of entry to learn the controls, and it's free. Couple this with the fact that people want to form connections and have fun while staying home trying to stay safe during COVID-19, and you got a sleeper hit. The fact that it's 2 years old and is only getting popular now makes me think how many other small indie games may have their break or moment to shine. It follows the less is more philosophy, so while it does have a fun core loop, you don't earn any rewards except bragging rights. In the limited time I had to play this game, it really can be for anyone: from those who wouldn't delve into any virtual games to the most hardcore and dedicated gamers you may know.

If I had to take any elements from this game and try to incorporate it into my own style, I would try to go for crafting only a handful of mechanics that are easy to learn and execute. This way, whatever complexities I have in store for the player later on, everything can be solved with what's already on hand. Games like Breath of the Wild and Super Meat Boy do this well where you're given everything from the start or already start off with everything; that allows the developers to craft interesting scenarios or environments that always revolve around the simple aspects. Just like with them, all Among Us does is give you some minigames to do, a chat option, a report option and a vote option. The rest is up to the users who find themselves in easy or unwinnable scenarios. It feels great to play something that feels complete and feels like good Nintendo party game: pure fun with room for complexity and strategy that's accessible to everyone.

You have been hired as an intern for Olive Garden. They want to redesign their kids menu to include a paper-based game that will:

• Keep kids happy (and quiet) (keep parents happy)

• Is on brand

• Requires only Red, Blue, Green, & Yellow crayons

• Menu prints only black ink + one color (optional)

With my memory from kids menus in different restaurants apart from Olive Garden, each one has different games: word banks, mazes, fill in the blanks. etc. Due to this, I was having a hard time trying to come up with something new that either hadn't been done or hadn't been done MUCH. Another factor I had to consider is the theme of Italian cuisine and the Olive Garden brand itself to somehow attract the attention of children. One more thing that was an obstacle and concern is that all of them are finite entertainment. Once you solve the riddle, circle the the last word in the word bank or complete the maze, the child doesn't have anything to keep them occupied; that includes drawing too. After a moment, I had an idea.

I remembered when I was young, my friends and I made up a game. We had a piece of grid paper with several circles drawn in waves, or similar to how you would see rings in trees. We then outlined several squares on the grid where these were critical zones. The objective was to hover your drawing utensil over the paper in a circular motion and randomly place it on a random part of the paper; the more critical zones you hit while closing your eyes, the more points you got. So I figured, take this concept, make the critical zones Italian ingredients or olive garden dishes, and the kid in question would have to hit all of these to make the best dish or have the best. I figured this way, multiplayer would also be an option incase it was more than one child per family and each child would take turns.

Then I quickly realized how many caveats this setup could cause. For one thing, children can be very clumsy and having to play this without looking could cause them to accidentally knock things over, especially if food is coming in and out. Then I also figured that me and my friends played this game in the aftercare program at school while bored, so would a hungry child at a restaurant have the same attention span to play this. The third and most critical was to ask if it was even fun for kids, maybe not. That was the last piece of originality I had for a unique game and figured to play it safe with any of the established games I had before. The major thing was that I can't add anymore elements, so making something engaging was hard. The only restaurant I've seen have other games that are fun single player or multiplayer was Cracker Barrel with their checker tables and their triangular table pin piece sets. I did not feel that confident that my game would be fun with the structure it had; I did think it could be a spark for something new though. I now see why many kids menus have the same games; because sometimes the classics can't be beat.