Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast!
Leisure:Video Games
This week, the clubhouse becomes the birdhouse; we're talking pigeons! Dale created a prompt inspired by Ellen's activities as a child and she bombards your nice hosts with a TON of pigeon facts! We somehow designed a game out of it!
As a note, Ellen's was still recording remotely but the first 5 minutes she was recording on the wrong mic! We corrected it after those 5 minutes.
Ellen's pictures of pigeons she posted in the Miro board
None yet! It's a game design doc.
Control a group of pigeons
Real time strategy racing game
Manage each bird by going to each bird, checking statuses and causing communication so pigeons can help each other get to the goal
Players can give stats bonuses to each individual bird
You as the player don’t know where the pigeons are going, you have to figure out where the pigeons’ goal is
Can be multiplayer
Swapping between each pigeon gives you information about that pigeons’ status
Players have a very vague idea of where to go at the start
When a predator appears, the player needs to outsmart the predator to escape and keep racing
Then the player is off course and needs to find their way back
Some races can be longer, where you need to find a place to rest for the night and have enough food
Game loop
You get a random selection of pigeons
Compete in a race
Start in a random place on the map
Pigeons know where they need to go but the player does not
Players need to deduce where the pigeons are going and make sure to lead all of them in the right direction
Players control each pigeon individually, moving a pigeon will influence the other pigeons but will not move fully in that direction. Players need to guide each pigeon to their goal as a group, but control them individually.
Control of pigeons is in third-person perspective, players need to jump between pigeons to see the whole view of the flock
There are areas on the map that the player will know about that can have more risk involved (like areas where predators will often be)
There can be some collectables around that the player can pick up with birds to get bonuses (more points? movespeed?)
When you complete the race, you can remove a pigeon from the racing group and add a new pigeon from a set of 3 randomly generated pigeons
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