I think it’s important to have goals – aspirations to strive for, things you want to achieve. I think games need goals too. By this, I mean their should be certain things that the developers of the game deliberately set out to achieve with their game. It can be features, technology , emotional impact or something else. I’m pretty sure most games have an intrinsic goal – entertain the player. It’s the ones that the developer(s) explicitly decide upon that are most important however.

I’ve set a couple of goals for the gameplay in Star Hammer, and I want to share them with you.

Star Hammer is an action game, so therefore, having lots of action is pretty important. However I’ve found with some action-orientated games that I’ve played over the years, that too much action can be overwhelming, and that’s not fun. I’ve also found that action without context can be pretty hollow.

So, based on these observations, goal #1 for the Star Hammer project is to create a game that provides an intense action experience, but also with some context that provides some depth to the experience.

To me, context means story. Human beings are inherently storytellers, and have been since we could draw on cave walls. There is story everywhere around us, and games are just the latest manifestation of our need to be surrounded  by stories. I have to admit to being a bit conflicted about the role of story in games. Story telling is one way, from the teller to the listener. Games are (supposed to be) interactive. There is an obvious conflict here. I’m not trying to resolve this conflict with this game, however I do want to use story to add context.

I’ve also noticed that many of the independent/indie games these days bypass story completely. Maybe it’s a issue of budget, or skillset or something else. As Nick observed a few months ago, there is a trend towards “toys” being sold as games.

If I’m playing a game, even if I can’t influence where the story goes, I’d rather have it there and be taken along for the ride than have to find ways to engage with the game myself. A story is like the skeleton that everything hangs off. Without it, instead of a fully formed animal, you’ve got a flaccid lump of fur and organs that can’t move anywhere!

Goal #2, provide a good story that the player can follow and be a part of that provides context to the action and gives the player a reason to keep playing.

These are really the two most important points for me with this project. Other stuff, like attractive graphics, great sound, etc are important, but will count for nothing if I don’t get the experience right. That experience might not suit everybody – in fact I’m sure it won’t as I think space shooters have become very niche these days – but I hope that it will be a good experience for the people whose taste that games premise does appeal to.