Cole Beernaerts
GAME DESIGNER
Pick It Up!
A 2D side-scrolling crafter/gatherer for PC focused on turning item pickup mechanics into fun gameplay with the theme of discovery. Made in GameMaker Studio 2, designed and scripting the game in GML, and used Adobe Illustrator for art assets.
Pick It Up! is a prototype where I learned a bunch of important lessons when it comes to game design and project planning.
Overview
Pick It Up! was originally developed in late 2017, with the initial goal of making a super small feature-complete game that I could sell. I later stopped working on it in February 2018 in favor of working on the Global Game Jam project I had developed, called Galour.
I picked up the project again in January 2019 with the same goal of developing it to a state that it could be sold, and to sharpen my skills as a game designer. Development was solid for the first few months, then lost some steam after so much to design in the game that I had gotten overwhelmed.
Team Size: Solo
Platforms: Windows PC
Tools Used: Game Maker Studio 2, Adobe Illustrator
An overwhelming project
With the amount of content that I had envisioned for the game, there was no way I was capable of developing everything AND meeting the deadline by the end of the year. At this point I had never heard of an "idea parking lot", so I had included all the ideas I came up with into the design of the game.
Realizing this, I stripped the game idea down to its core components: Gathering items, using items, and crafting items. My original idea for crafting was you could use 2 or 3 ingredients to craft, at a special work station in the main hub. After my strip-down of the game, I simplified this to just two ingredients. The number of areas in the game were brought down to just 3, removing the hub and only have the starting area, a new area, and a final area.
The whole purpose of this simplification was to meet the goal I set for myself: to get this game to a publishable state in 12 months. Working a full-time job and working on this in my spare time doesn't leave me with much time to develop, so it would be better to make a higher-quality product of shorter length. Leaving less for me to quality-check and play test would give me lots more time to achieve other things like marketing, and quality-of-life features.
The development on this project taught me valuables lessons when it comes to project management, as well as game design. You need to be able to create the game you're making within the desired time frame with your current resources.
The goal, and the lessons learned
The whole purpose of this simplification was to meet the goal I set for myself: to get this game to a publishable state in 12 months. Working a full-time job and working on this in my spare time doesn't leave me with much time to develop, so it would be better to make a higher-quality product of shorter length. Leaving less for me to quality-check and play test would give me lots more time to achieve other things like marketing, and quality-of-life features.
Working on this project taught me valuables lessons when it comes to project management, as well as game design. You need to be able to create the game you're making within the desired time frame with your current resources.
The development for this game has been put on pause for the time being.