Good question! But before I answer let's talk about what actually inspired the game and ideas that didn’t make the cut. After all, the point of these devlogs is to try to show you our process and progress.

Once we had our team formed it was time to start brainstorming concepts. No brief that we’re used to, this was from scratch. Fortunately, last year we had a prototyping module that helped us establish ideas we liked, ones we didn’t and ones we didn’t think were achievable. 

So let’s take a moment to pay tribute to the ideas that didn’t make the cut. 

From horror games to online multiplayer to an isometric strategy game to a narrative game, we explored all possibilities. Online multiplayer was an idea thrown around but from previous experience networking in prototyping was enough to scare you off for a lifetime. You’ll never experience greater joy when one thing syncs at the same time on another computer. Trying to do that after every push and having a small team simply wasn’t realistic. 

Horror and a narrative game were up next. Both require extreme detail to narrative design and evoke emotions. We simply decided that none of us was experienced enough in narrative design, especially with horror. The isometric strategy had the same thought process in terms of not having team knowledge with strategy.

So finally this brings us to our idea! *drum roll* 

May we present to you: Balls to the Wall! A cooperative party racing game! Out of all of our concepts, we kept coming back to this idea, for many reasons. Firstly, playing games with our friends kept us all connected during covid. Personally, I don't think there was a day during all the lockdowns where I wasn't in a discord call playing games with my friends.  

Secondly, we thought about how a party type game could allow for emergent gameplay, where depending on your player type the game has tools where you can create your own fun, while still having the games original mechanics there. The game will have a cooperative aspect to it ie. you need one of the other players to help you through another part or by placing an item (hopefully) for their own benefit but also everyone else's.  However, they might choose not to do this to simply screw you over (it is a race after all).

 Key Features:

• Character customization.

• Play with up to four friends!

• Unique maps

• Competitive free for all

Out of context quote of the week: “If you get a concussion too many times it’s not good for you”  - Emmet, 2021