Smartbomb

Puzzle Park is a fun little game I devised as part of the coursework for one of my game design modules.

My original idea was to hybridise the tight spacial challenge of Tetris with the broad elemental planning of Sim City, to create a casual puzzle game in which players would create a patchwork landscape from a series of random tiles. I decided to break away from the topic of urban planning, partly to help cover my inspiratory tracks (sneaky!) but mostly because I wanted to broaden the game’s appeal. Central to the game was the interactions between different elements – such as with Sim City‘s residential, commercial and industrial zones – so I spent some time thinking about real-world situations in which these kinds of interactions occur. I hit upon the idea of an ecosystem, with different groups of animals and plants and things all relating to each other in different ways, and settled on an African safari reserve. Conceptually, I mean.

So, basically, you select your game type and difficulty level and so on, and then  get about ten minutes in which to place a series of tiles representing lions and zebras and trees and roads and things. Making particular tile combinations – such as putting lions next to zebras, or connecting buildings with roads – scores bonus points and creates a little graphical flourish, such as cars driving from building to building. As play progresses, the park ecosystem undergoes a visual evolution that mirrors the player’s developing score. Depending on the game mode selected, the game ends when the players reach a target score, exceed a time limit, achieves an objective, and so on.

For my coursework, I wrote up a basic design document for Puzzle Park, with a word limit of 6,000 words (not including the barrage of tables in the appendix). You can download it here.

(The snazzy title picture was drawn by minkee, for use in my initial game pitch presentation – the lovely vector version she gave me has been marred by my raster resizing, but that’s entirely my fault. The wobbly pixel art screenshot mock-ups are my own work.)