triptych

I was going to do some work on my Denweaver site this weekend, but ended up doing other things with family as well as resting on Sunday. However, I did do some work. I was writing down some ideas for the site, and I also played a few other web based games.

One game in particular – which is meant to be a sort of learning game for kids – really inspired me as they have a really smooth and clean way to introduce players into the game. The site is https://www.prodigygame.com/ and I started looking at how they onboard new players. They do some clever things with cut scenes, and show you your little home and how to interact with NPC’s as well as a few battles to help you learn the ropes. I really like this kind of “learning by doing” and they also add a bit of storyline and motivation for you to play.

Originally I was going to just tell the player they have a house, and a dungeon and how the mechanics work and let them just start out. But I really like this idea of just putting them in the world, have a short cut scene that introduces the first level of mechanics and get them immersed right away. It’s so much better than the expositional style I was going to go with.

Here’s an example screen

And here’s one with the upsell

They do such a great job with color, design, and everything. I’m super impress with this supposedly kids learning game.

Another example

This is helping me rethink how I am organizing my own game.

Instead of endless menus, and walls of text. I want to put them into the game right away and let them explore.

So, while I didn’t do any coding this weekend, I did learn a lot, and this will have a dramatic impact on the course of my own Denweaver game.