Prototyping

The first stage of game design is to come up with a solid game-play mechanic, and to branch out from there. For our first game, we decided to go with one of the arch-types familiar to everyone whose played any casual game in the past 5 years.
Match-3 games are popular in today's casual gaming market for several reasons.

1. They have a simple rule set, and it's obvious what you need to do to score high.

2. They tend to have nice graphics, with a minimal amount of clutter. This aspect is important, and differentiates them from other, non-casual games.

3. Easy to learn, hard to master. The first part leads to the wide appeal, and the second part causes people to keep playing.

Match-3 games I can immediately think of without doing any searching include; The Bejeweled series, Jewel Quest, Tetris Attack, and Pokemon Puzzle League. But there are hundreds of clones out there, that can be freely played online, or even purchased and downloaded to a smartphone.

While I wont spoil exactly what we have in mind for game-play, I will show a visual mockup of the intended main game screen. (click the image for a full-res preview)

Because this is just a quick prototype image I threw together using some assets drawn in photoshop, it'll change as the game-play nears completion. As it stands, it provides an example of what core visual elements will need to be represented in the final game. Do not expect this to be representative of the final quality of the game.

Watch this spot for more retro-tastic art and gaming.