In this past month, my development for Strawberry Thief has been coming along well. I have been thinking a lot about the game’s new mechanics, which involves bringing colour to a William Morris sketch.
In the first iteration of the idea, the player would use the same bird from the Strawberry Thief pattern to collect colour (represented as small flowers and berries) and deliver it to ‘colour points’ in the level. The level would be made up of light sketches that the player could fly over, and darker sketches which were walls / barriers, turning the Morris pattern into a maze. The player would completely colour the sketch, and then move onto the next level. As I want to make a short game experience, I thought 2-3 levels would be enough, each with a different Morris pattern.
In the first iteration of the idea, the player would use the same bird from the Strawberry Thief pattern to collect colour (represented as small flowers and berries) and deliver it to ‘colour points’ in the level. The level would be made up of light sketches that the player could fly over, and darker sketches which were walls / barriers, turning the Morris pattern into a maze. The player would completely colour the sketch, and then move onto the next level. As I want to make a short game experience, I thought 2-3 levels would be enough, each with a different Morris pattern.
I took this idea to my programmer Erin (from Quartic Llama) and we discussed ways we could improve the concept. We decided to forget the idea of having a level designed from motifs with colour points, and instead chose to allow the player to fly over everything. The first part of the game would be a zoomed in portion of Strawberry Thief, and the player would paint a few basic colours by collecting the small, colourful flowers. Once that section is complete, the level changes, the sketch zooms out to reveal more patterns, and the music would become more complex. The player would then be able to add more colours to the sketch, as well as added detail. This would be followed by a final transition for adding even more detail and texture to Strawberry Thief.
I recently had artists join me on the project, so I am looking forward to sharing new visuals in the next few weeks, as well as short videos of the build.
