HANDZ – Week 1: Introduction

Hi everyone, this is the first devlog I’m doing so I hope I don’t mess this up too bad.

I love couch multiplayer games, some of the best gaming moments I had were because of them, so I decided that in my first development project I would design a game like that. Also these kind of games can be really simple and quick and since I’m a “one man band” I figured this would be the smartest choice for a first serious project.

So let me tell you about me. I’m 23 years old and I’m from Italy (so as always “SoRRy fOr My enGliSh”). This year I graduated in graphic design at the academy of fine arts in Bologna. This year I also discovered unreal engine and the power of visual scripting. I’ve always been a fan of games obviously but unlike every other game designer out there apparently I didn’t start designing games since I was 2 years old. I began this year, 2018, I based my graduation thesis on game design theory and now I started working on my own game.

So what is this game I’m talking about? Well now it doesn’t have a name, just a semi-working prototype and until I find a proper name I will just call it HANDZ. So as I said before it’s a couch multiplayer game, from 2 to 4 players. Basically I based the entire game on the rock-paper-scissors system. At the start of the game each player has to choose one of those elements and based on their choice they will have to destroy the opponent or run from him. Let’s say I pick scissors while my opponent chooses rock. Rock beats scissors so my goal for the round will be to run and hide for my life until a timer of 40 seconds reaches 0 while my opponent tries to destroy me using a range of weapons (which I will talk about another time). If the timer reaches 0 and I’m still alive this will result in a draw and I (the one with the weaker element) would get the element stronger than the one of my opponent so now I’m the one that has to destroy him/her.

This is basically the core mechanic of the game, the most basic rules let’s say. In this video below you can see the “game” in action. For now I’m testing it alone and I’m pretty sad since I have to move both players.

In this video I’m also talking about weapons and upgrades, things that I’ll explore more in depth in the next devlog, have a nice day.

Elia