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[Kyuugatsu]

Animal Magnetism is a game about making a silly claw machine game and iterating on it until I have something I can sell somewhere (probably on mobile). I'm doing all the art myself for now, but I will probably get an artist down the line so I don't spend much time on it.

A gif of one of the latest builds in action:

There've been a lot of improvements already - things that were culled:

The Actual Claw
As you can see the game only has a magnet. That's because when I had the claw, people would tap at all sorts of random times because they were confused about how the claw opens and closes (taps controlled both that and the up/down movement, it was confusion). Thus, I replaced it with a magnet.

Too Life-Like
The very first build was a weird Mecanim based grab, and it wasn't that fun. The next one was too much like a real claw machine where it was really hard to grab onto anything and it felt rigged - that wasn't really so fun either. The magnet hopefully solves both these problems.

Awkward Controls
I used the accelerometer in the phone to move the claw from side to side, but that turned out to be too awkward and unintuitive.  Now the magnet automatically moves side to side and goes down while you touch the screen, and automatically goes up if you don't.

When all the toys are gone there's nothing left to do, so I sort of veered into endless runner territory for a bit. I'm bringing it back to a roguelite (everything is a roguelite now) type format which was more aligned with my original vision. That's why the claw/magnet has a heart!

What's coming up? I'm not sure - I have a couple of ideas to try out. Stay tuned!

[Sustrato]

It's definitely too early to say, but I could see this going over really well. Probably don't need to say it but you should check out Radical Fishing for some inspiration (and only inspiration, because they really hate cloning), the basic mechanics are similar and they were quite successful.

[Kyuugatsu]

Thanks! I've seen Vlambeer's "Ridiculous Fishing", but I didn't know Radical Fishing was a thing too! (Though they are both pretty much the same).

I'm not going to clone anything, but it's good to see some similar games.

Currently working on making the magnet action more magnet-like, and less like super glue.

Early example:

[dragbone]

I like the idea but currently don't see many possible game mechanics. Maybe something like trying to get as many animals as possible in a single grab without getting too greedy? I wonder in what direction this will be going in a few weeks/months

[Kyuugatsu]

Spent the most recent of my time upgrading Unity and dealing with a bunch of problems...it seems I need to reinstall Unity every time I need to do some work, thanks in part to my ancient graphics cards.

Still managed to make a bit of progress:

I like the idea but currently don't see many possible game mechanics. Maybe something like trying to get as many animals as possible in a single grab without getting too greedy? I wonder in what direction this will be going in a few weeks/months

Glad you like the idea! As for mechanics...just wait and see.  

[Kyuugatsu]

I thought it would be funny if the premise was that you're an alien warship trying to destroy planets using gigantic genetically modified creatures from that planet. So I made this:

[standardcombo]

I would just make this a simple, straight forward collectibility game, where the player is collecting the plush toys. Make the 'trash' items in the machine coins. When the user misses a plush toy at least they get a coin. Allow player to shake their device to stir up the toys and coins. With coins they can upgrade their magnet. They can see in the gallery the X out of Y toys they currently have. Toys they don't have appear as black sillouette. Each day (or at least 6 hours later) you replenish the machine. Send a notification and badge number when the machine replenishes. Hit game right there.

You make money with ads and give the game for free. Two good opportunities to offer "watch to earn" could be to replenish the machine instantly and in the upgrade magnet screen you give coins for watching the video. The builtin Unity Ads is pretty decent.

[Kyuugatsu]

Those are good ideas (and there's no reason I can't use most of them in the game, regardless of the direction it goes), but I just can't see myself getting excited to play a game like that.

Still early days, so I might end up doing that after all - but for now I'm exploring exciting things. 

Thanks for your input! Now I don't have to think about game design if I get stuck.

[standardcombo]

Sure, having passion is really important. I am personally driven by the prospect of completing and publishing projects. Having a direct and clear design sets a path to get there. Good luck!

[Kyuugatsu]

Haven't made as much progress as I'd like this weekend but I thought I'd share what happens after you drop your "monster" on to a planet and the natives decide to attack it. (At this point it's looking like the claw machine is just an incidental mechanic...haha)

If it falls down it's dead.

You might think it's horrible to have your cute penguins suffer this fate, but if you don't drop them there those missiles will be headed for your mothership!

[Kyuugatsu]

I've been working on the gravity for the planet in the background, as well as the states for the animals and some work on missiles. Most of the missile work is missing from this gif, but this is roughly where the game is at now:

[Kyuugatsu]

Today I was feeling rather stuck with the idea but after some discussion with friends I'm feeling unblocked again - but this project is going to pivot once more, hopefully for the better.

One of the most notable changes is that you will only have one animal. The mag/claw mechanic will be kept for now, but I'm considering getting rid of it. The main argument to not get rid of it is that it provides a very easy control on mobile and some interesting time/skill challenges.

Stay tuned! 

[Koori]

Another idea: Using the magnet is phase 1 - you need to grab the best plushie monsters from planet surface. In phase 2 you use them to attack your enemies :-)

[Kyuugatsu]

Right now I'm like...



Playing around with bullet/hell rhythm game ideas:



Inspired by:

[Kyuugatsu]

Another idea: Using the magnet is phase 1 - you need to grab the best plushie monsters from planet surface. In phase 2 you use them to attack your enemies :-)

Interesting. Reminds of some tower defense games. I'm still figuring out how to make the attacking part work, though.

[Koori]

Maybe something like Stick War? Your units coming from one side of the screen and the enemy from the other side. Your units can have some special abilities. If you don't catch enough strong plushies or don't use your abilities right you lose.

[Kyuugatsu]

I've never played Stick Wars, trying it now!