GIF DUMP:
Progress Update (as of October 2015):I've been working on and off on Sausage Soccer since May when it started as a an idea from a GDC talk Bennett Foddy gave about bending physics engines to your will. Over the summer I got busy with contract work and another commercial project that didn't pan out, so this project went on hold. After encouragement from friends in the Chicago indie scene, I've resumed work on this and intend to finish this project however long it takes me.
I'm trying to keep an open mind and experiment as much as possible now to find what's good about the game. I'm really interested in cooperative adventure games and dynamic open-ended systems in games, so that's what I hope to eventually create here. I'm not expecting to be done in the next year. Hopefully by then I'll have a clear direction towards the end of the game.
I've attached some progress GIFS and notes I wrote down about how I think the game will work, although all of it is subject to change. For now I'm going to just focus on making it feel good to move around and explore and bop other players around. I'll probably do some early playable builds focused on competitive local multiplayer before I get to any of the adventure mode ideas. I'm open to suggestions and talking about my tech implementations on pretty much everything so, let me know if you're curious about anything.
Cheers,
Chris
Elevator pitch:- Sausage Soccer is a silly physics platforming game about exploring and rough-housing with up to 7 of your friends.
Game hooks:- Local multiplayer up to 8 players
- Sausage simulation like you've never seen before
- Single-player or co-op Adventure mode (5 maps, 1 secret map)
- Local-multiplayer Competitive modes including KOTH, CTF and Graffiti, Coinz
Player experience:-
Seconds: Action platforming while secondarily controlling a floppy sausage head. Should feel tight to jump around and loose to flop and bop stuff around you.
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Minutes: In adventure mode, your goal is to unlock the entire map and then play with everything inside. You're constantly platforming, fighting enemies, avoiding traps and solving puzzles to unlock the next area. In Competitive mode, you're trying to beat your friends in short matches. KOTH has multiple rounds and lasts a total of 5-7 minutes, CTF is a single round and lasts anywhere from 1 to 10 minutes and Graffiti is a single round that lasts 5 minutes.
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Hours: By getting to certain areas and completing puzzles, players unlock different sections of larger maps to explore and the completed section to be used in the Competitive modes. By collecting in-game currency, players can then buy customization options through a lottery system.
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Days: Reaching the main ending of each map unlocks a new character and fully completing an area unlocks another character. Reaching the main ending of all maps unlocks a new character. Fully completing all the maps unlocks another secret map.
Design Goals:- Any level of gamer should have fun. Hardcore people should be looking to 100% all the maps and get every customization option and stomp face in the competitive modes. Casual people should be enjoying the cute aesthetic, co-operative gameplay and carefully picking their customizations.
- Everything should make me laugh. If there's parts of the game that are boring or tedious then I’ll cut that out. If everything is funny, all footage of the game will be good marketing materials.
Target Audience:-
Streamers – A fun (somewhat phallic) physics game that can be played alone or with friends makes sense as a streaming game. Viral marketing, hopefully.
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