It's Friday, and once again, that means it's time for Feedback. So, let's get on with it, shall we?
Last week we hosted a group of local high school students and talked about what it’s like to be in game development. One of the things we discussed was that the best way to get experience making a game… is to make a game with all the free resources around the internet. A great first game would be something on the level of the minigames in Wizard101. So, we ask you, our awesome community, if you were going to make a new Wizard101 minigame, how would it look? How does it play? How do you win? Describe it to us!
Have a fiery Friday and a fantastical weekend!
Standard disclaimer applies: We do not guarantee to use each and every idea submitted, and questions we pose may or may not be pertaining to things we are currently working on, or will ever undertake. Sometimes, there are just technical limitations that make changing things difficult to impossible, and though we possess all manner of magic wands here, there are technological beasts out there that are beyond our grasp. Sometimes, we may not feel it is within the spirit and vision of the spiral to add or change something. Also, we realize that some of these topics may have been addressed before in other threads - sometimes it's good to pick up a discussion again. Chances are I have read your threads and would like to hear more!
“If the Mind is like a candle, the Heart is like the sun.”
Professor Falmea
Some sort of Snake clone. Maybe themed after a snow serpent of thunder snake. I mean, most of the existing mini games are a clone of some old arcade game. Not that that's bad.
If I were to make a minigame, it would be a silver chest game that is basically a puzzle. You have to rearrange tiles to form a picture of some place in the spiral or an npc. It wouldn't be a slide puzzle, almost like a jigsaw puzzle and you would have a minute to complete it.
I think a minigame about Krokotopia would be really cool. You'll have to free all the Manders within the time limit and avoid the Kroks. Feel free to interpret this post however you want.
A great minigame could be a simple game in which you could choose to play as one of the wizard101 teachers, , in the same animation and art style as all the other mini-games, on a quest to save headmaster Ambrose from Morganth. each world around the spiral would be a new level, that could get you closer to the goal.
each level could be a maze/puzzle where you need to fight enemies who hide around the corners and find chests, one of which holds the key to unlock the spiral door. ( or find a key that unlocks a door to a boss battle, and once you win you can go through the spiral door that he guards.) the prizes could varry depending on which professor you choose, for example, if you choose professor Falmea, and you win, the prizes would be fire based. fire pet snacks, ghost fire reagents etc.
Pin the spell on Wonky the Donkey, where you would use your wands or flute wands to charm wonkey with as many spells as possible and if you get the most spells to hit him you win a prize.
Daniel Champion Necromancer lvl 125 Revered Crafter
Exam Cram! Some sort of educational game perhaps like typing or memory.
Cipher Decipher! Some sort of game involving symbols.
Foolish Wand Waving! A game that involves drawing/retracing casting and other magic symbols.
Bloons Tower Defense Type Game Oh wait, Grub Guardian already exists!
Dragon Surfing! Think Minecart Surfer like in Club Penguin. RIP Club Penguin
Craft-Mania! Think Like Cake Mania but with crafting.
Alchemy 101 A cross between Bean Counter from Club Penguin and Sophie's Stew from Neopets
Thing-a-ma-Bubbler! The thing-a-ma-Bubbler has gone rogue and now everything is floating up in bubbles! You can't quite shut it off, so you're going to have to guide your wisp through the maze of bubbles! (Think like Aqua Grabber/Jet pack game also from Club Penguin)
OK – this might already exist – if so, please excuse me, as my video gaming experience consists of Pac-Man, Tetris, Sorcery Stones, Conjuration Concentration, Potion Motion, Wizard101 and Pirate101.
Intro: This game tests your ability to look ahead, see a pattern, make a plan and remember it all as you move. On the surface it appears to be a simple maze. As each maze is completed points, prizes and potions are awarded.
Objective: Go from point A to point B. Avoid hitting dead ends—they immediately send you back to the start of current maze, without starting timer over. Attempt to complete successive mazes, without hitting dead ends, to achieve higher levels and progressively greater rewards. The timer is just a GO! toggle. In the beginning you can look at the maze for as long as you want, but once you hit Enter you must move constantly until you finish that maze. If you stop or come to a dead end you return to the beginning of the current maze, but must begin moving again within one second. You may begin down an alley and reverse direction as long as you don't hover at all. This opens a cheat where a player could rock back and forth on the arrow keys allowing them to reexamine the maze without starting over. So, there must be a limit on allowable reverses – exceed that number and they automatically start the maze over again.
Controls: When ready, press Enter, to flip the GO! toggle. Use up, down, left and right arrows to control progress through the maze. Hitting Space bar will speed progress, hitting Tab key will slow progress. Hitting an opposite arrow from the current one, will reverse direction of movement.
Points: Kids won't SEE a dwindling score counter – but in general Normal Points are already given automatically when you start and are deducted as you go –every time you start over, hit the Tab key to slow progress, or reverse directions, and based on how many total levels you fail to complete. Extra Points are awarded every time you hit the Space bar to speed progress and by random chance every time you move through a bonus area.
Leveling: Lower levels are represented by simple mazes with many routs to success. Highest levels are most complex and only have one rout to success.
Rewards: 17 area/worlds Always—Health, Mana, Energy & progressive amounts of gold. Depending on maze completed—randomized boss drops of gear, reagents, pets, mounts, jewels, spells, etc. One maze per boss in the game – each maze drops that bosses drops. So the first maze drops Fairy Queen (Unicorn Way) drops and the last one, as of now, drops final boss drops from end of Empyria 2.
KI could market it as a Crown Housing Item, which during an active membership, also awards Energy.
At first Energy would just fill the energy ball if empty, by a number of points per maze, at higher levels it could drop potion bottles stored in the gift icon. At a certain level potion bottles—in the form of Energy Elixirs in the gift icon, so they can be saved for when they are needed or used on a different character than played the game.
Appearance: Since every maze is dedicated to a given boss, each maze would be styled after that area and world. The player icon could look like the doodle wizard icons. The background and border would have art from that world or a general wallpaper styled after it with a portrait of the boss in a corner opposite the start space.
How it works: LOL But I think it has to do with fractals and algorithms...
I imagine a frame with a winding – but not crossing – path like a snake laid out within the frame. Then random alleys and dead ends laid around it. Low levels would have wide paths and low complexity to the shape of the alleys and winning paths. High levels would be laid with one narrow and very complex winning path, with boggling alleys and dead ends.
Those fractals and algorithms come in because the special thing about this game is the mazes aren't static. Every time you engage the game you generate a different set of mazes, randomized per level set. Being random, there's a small chance you'd see the same maze again, but it's unlikely. Generally, the point is a player can't learn the lower level mazes by heart and just speed through to the ones they aren't good at or want to "farm" –also, the lower level ones don't become boring for players who just aren't good enough at it to get to upper levels.
Ideally, there'd be some kind of failure comprehension set into the game so kids or special needs folks could have a chance at higher level wins, too. So persistent tries, even if they fail, "sets the bar" lower for them. For instance I never play Choo Choo Zoo because I can't comprehend it and I let the Dance Game time out, because I can't reproduce the pattern, but the maze is boring after all these years.
To build off of this post-I think there should be some sort of reward for playing the Castle Games. (Games played unlocks a special shop that requires certain badges-perhaps similar to how the Team Up system is currently implemented). If you/your team wins the Housing Game you get bonus points but you'd get points for just playing. Must be a Public Housing game to earn points.
However, I also would say we should add a Hide and Seek Type Housing Castle Game. It could be similar to maybe like "Block Hunt". In that we would go to the Wizard's house and you would be able to transform into different housing items. There is someone who is an initial seeker and they go around trying to find everyone. Everyone else will be able to turn into random housing items in an attempt to hide from the seekers.
Another game that might also be fun is essentially a "floor is lava" type Housing Minigame?
I also want to see a game that involves floating around in some way shape or form. Perhaps something to do with Balloons?
I really would like to see a spot in the Pet Pavilion where we could let other people watch/train our pets for us. There are some people that really enjoy the Pet MiniGames and others that don't care for them in the slightest. So Perhaps letting people use our players energy-but we could pay them gold to do the pet games?
If you do add a new mini-game don't do a retextured port of one from Pirate101. I tried playing the Mini-games today and it was not worth it at all.
I also think it would be cool if maybe we could have minigames that are kind of based in the other worlds or even could be against other players. Think about having like cards, checkers, manacala, or chess in the Mirage Cantina or the Zanadu Leisuredome.
So maybe there's a set of 10-20 mazes per boss/level. All things being equal, everyone starts with the hardest maze that boss has to offer, but if you fail 3 times, on the fourth try a new slightly easier maze is generated. 3 try/fails on one maze and you get bumped down a difficulty grade while still staying in that boss/game level. The change isn't explained, you just automatically get a new maze every 4th try.So persistence and hard work pays off, even if you lack the talent for it. It would be time consuming so the rewards should be the same as if you'd finished that hard maze on the first try. Those players are just paying for the reward in in different way. And completed "work" is still complete. I don't know if it's scientifically possible but it would be awesome if instead of a set of 10-20 premade mazes (which as many bosses as there are would be a LOT of work.) there could be parameters within which random paths would be set so even if it was your favorite game no matter how often you played you'd still have a new experience. But the difficulty grades and the general idea of lots of success paths narrowing to one success path were still minded. OH and it would be great if updates to this game were added every new world, so the drops continued to be useful as Wizard101 grows.
It's Friday, and once again, that means it's time for Feedback. So, let's get on with it, shall we?
Last week we hosted a group of local high school students and talked about what it’s like to be in game development. One of the things we discussed was that the best way to get experience making a game… is to make a game with all the free resources around the internet. A great first game would be something on the level of the minigames in Wizard101. So, we ask you, our awesome community, if you were going to make a new Wizard101 minigame, how would it look? How does it play? How do you win? Describe it to us!
Have a fiery Friday and a fantastical weekend!
Standard disclaimer applies: We do not guarantee to use each and every idea submitted, and questions we pose may or may not be pertaining to things we are currently working on, or will ever undertake. Sometimes, there are just technical limitations that make changing things difficult to impossible, and though we possess all manner of magic wands here, there are technological beasts out there that are beyond our grasp. Sometimes, we may not feel it is within the spirit and vision of the spiral to add or change something. Also, we realize that some of these topics may have been addressed before in other threads - sometimes it's good to pick up a discussion again. Chances are I have read your threads and would like to hear more!
Make a petshow talent or make Pet Derby a mobile minigame
Intro: This game tests your timing, hand eye coordination and ability to make a quick choice and remain committed. The idea is to simulate a 3D claw game. Rounds are ended by either grabbing an object and dropping it in the chute or timing out before that happens.
Objective: Grab the loot of your choice and get it into the chute before the timer runs out.Loot categories are symbolized by the icons in our book and other areas of the game. Attempt to complete successive rounds—by grabbing an icon and dropping it in the chute/backpack—to achieve higher levels and progressively greater rewards.A timer dictates the length of your turn—unless you grab and successfully deposit something early.
Controls: Use up, down, left and right arrows to move the player icon to a loot icon and then to the chute. Hitting the Tab key makes the grab. Hitting the Q key drops the item.
Points: No points – it's just loot or no loot.
Leveling: Lower levels are represented by greater odds of a solid grab and hold, with lower value loot. Higher levels have lower odds of a solid grab and hold, with very desirable loot. A round is ended when the timer runs out or a successful grab is made and completed by dropping the item in the chute for player reception. Random chances determine whether any grab attempt is successful and whether it sticks long enough to make it to the chute.
Rewards: 17 area/worlds Always—Health, Mana, Energy & progressive amounts of gold. Depending on number of rounds completed—randomized boss drops of gear, reagents, pets, mounts, jewels, spells, etc. One round per boss in the game – each round drops that bosses drops. So the first round drops Fairy Queen (Unicorn Way) drops and the last one, as of now, drops final boss drops from end of Empyria 2. As well as grab bags loot icons that are huge caches of low level items for sale or passing to a lower level character and sets of reagents, treasure cards, pet snacks, and jewels.
As with the Maze Game above, KI could market this one as a mini game kiosk in the Crown shop and when there is an active membership the potion rewards that every participant gets could also include Energy as well.
Appearance: The drops are tied to bosses and worlds as the player levels – but the game should look and feel different form the Maze Game above. So, imagine a doodle wizard flying on a doodle dragon mount – our Tab key making claws open and close in a grabbing motion. Arrow keys moving the dragon up, down, left and right field. We're flying above a gigantic open, overflowing treasure chest. In the midst of golden coins are the icons of hats, boots, robes, daggers, wands, rings, decks, snacks, reagents, jewels, pets, mounts – whatever the boss associated with that level drops – and bulging bags associated with the icon on front: yellow question marked bags = random low value stuff for sale or transfer. Green bulging bag = reagents. Golden Deck = just the treasure cards. Blue bag = jewels. Brown bag = pet snacks. Orange bag = seeds.
Sitting astride a dragon, we roam the field and swoop to grab the type of thing we want a chance of winning. If we miss we may grab one of the bags or miss altogether. Ideally we grab and fly to the backpack icon /chute and drop it in before the timer runs out.
How it works: I think this one would be simpler than the Maze Game I submitted.
I think on the underside it's like Pac Man and Dig Doug – grabbing and just touching something are kind of the same. And traveling up and down screen is the same as background and foreground.
There's a randomized chance of grabbing and another randomized chance of holding. There's a personal ability chance of seeing a desired item, attempting a grab, and if successful getting it back in time. If successful, whatever icon you drop in the chute rolls another random chance of which item you win out of that set. So if I'm on Malistaire (Dragon Spire) and drop a Boot icon in the chute, it triggers a random roll of which of his boot drops I get.
In this game you fish against Fishing Trainers and other notable characters from around the spiral. Your wizard is in one rowboat and your opponent is in another, both of you towards the top of the screen. Below you swim various fish of the spiral. Each world would have various levels with the trainer being the final boss of the world.
To fish you click an icon for the school lure that the fish you are trying to catch belongs to. As you catch fish you gain gold. As you gain gold you can upgrade spells like you upgrade guardians in Grub Guardian until you get a higher level and can catch larger fish. You can move side to side in order to get closer to fish, but more importantly to get closer to your opponent. Because your goal is to sink their boat by throwing fish into it. That makes upgrading lures important so you can sink them quicker.
You'd also need to keep your opponent from catching their favorite fish. So no letting Diego catch a sword tail, or Merle catch an owlfish. Otherwise they start leveling up and catching bigger fish too.
Coins also allow you to repair leaks in your boat and feed a fish to your pet to keep from sinking.
Rewards for the game would be energy, energy elixirs, fish related housing items, possibly mount/gear/pet from fishing bundle, and even unique rare/ultra/epic fish that you can keep in your aquariums at home.
Intro: This game is really about timing and persistence. It's basically a combination of Space Invaders and Galaga. As each level is completed points, prizes and potions are awarded.
Objective: Defeat as many mob monsters as you can as fast as possible – in an effort to collect reagents they are hoarding in their pockets and on rare occasion fully completed craftable loot items. A timer dictates the length of a turn Controls: Tab Key casts a wand hit. Use up, down, left and right arrows to control to travel the field. Hitting Space bar will speed up the mob hits, entrance of new enemies and the speed the player is able to return fire. OR a mouse click can target an enemy, but a hit would only result if there was good coordination between the mouse click and the Tab key wand casts.
Points: Every defeated and partially damaged enemy results in points accumulated. Hits they land, without defeating a player, result in lost points. Bonus points are awarded and better chances of fully crafted item drops result when defeating a wandering boss. Higher scores result in more drops and greater value drops.
Leveling: Lower levels are represented by only being able to move left to right and shoot straight "up". Highest levels are most complex with fully wandering mobs and player. Hits are the same intensity at all levels. Numbers of monsters who move faster and from different directions increase as levels go up.
Rewards: 17 area/worlds Always—Health, Mana, Energy & progressive amounts of gold. Depending on level completed—randomized mob and boss drops of reagents, recipes, and anything craftable. Which items are dropped matches what's available for harvest or drop in the area of the game associated with that mini-game level.
If the player equips a recipe before entering the mini-game sigel or kiosk the drop rate for the reagents in that recipe increase dramatically –as long as they are drops/ harvests available in the area associated with that level. As with the previous games I've submitted –KI could market it as a Crown Housing Item, which during an active membership, also awards Energy. This game would also be attractive for the focus on reagent drops and people crafting houses would like the chances of getting the items you have to craft just to use in greater recipes.
Appearance: A 2D field seen from the air with a wizard doodle icon and various mob and boss doodle icons. And wands and sparks of light hitting each other.
How it works: As stated I think it's overall a combination of Galaga and Space Invaders.
Intro: This game is a tweaked version of Sorcery Stones.
Objective: 1. Clear as many clusters of matching ingredients as fast as possible. Levels are successful as long as finished before reaching the top. 2. But, focusing on the items needed for the recipe the player has equipped makes the rewards match what was cleared, instead of be random – but increases the risk of letting ingredients reach the top and losing the game.
Controls, Points & Levels: work just like in Sorcery Stones
Rewards: Always—Health, Mana, Energy & Gold. Depending on level completed—randomized reagents including jewels and created items used in recipes. OR if a recipe is equipped AND the clusters cleared match something in the recipe –the rewards are of that cleared item. (So if I need 19 diamonds – and I clear diamonds, dandelions, mushrooms ... – my rewards will definitely include diamonds, and may be only diamonds. The number of reagents won depends on the levels cleared. 15 levels = 15 reagents. If I used a recipe and cleared 5 of something on the recipe I'll get a certain percentage of my drops in that form.)
Again, this could be part of a new set of Crown kiosks and when there's an active membership, the game can refill and award Energy and Energy Elixirs.
Appearance: Jewel blocks and skulls are pictures of different reagents & itmes. At top somewhere is the picture of the reagents needed for the recipe equipped.
The whole thing could work like the test we take at Character Creation. Except instead of Ambrose talking to us we hear music and see the multiple choice test - of different music titles. Unlike our first test in the game - this one is timed, like the old TV show Name That Tune. At every turn the faster you answer correctly the higher your points and 3 wrong answers ends the turn.
Rewards would be like the other mini-games now, totally random. Probably include music related items as rare drops. And recipes for any craft-able music related items too. and could include Energy, too --for members who have the kiosk.
If in fact the mini games are getting a revamp, let me suggest that the current mini-game be converted apps that can played from the phone. Ala Grub Guardian.
I wouldn't mind seeing a 2D version of Grumpy Gobblers. ------------------ Wizard Breakout - The Boss from each level has built up a Wall that He/She is hiding behind. There are seven color bricks that make up the wall, each one based on the schools. The "spells" we throw at the wall affect the different blocks in different manners.
A level is "cleared" when the boss behind the wall is hit so many times.
Game over after 3 lives are lost ----------------- Gobbler Invaders - Gobblers descend from the top of the screen. Moving slowly at first but picking up speed as more and more gobblers from each wave are killed. The Wizard has little barricades to hide behind as the Gobblers try to attack with noxious gas attacks. If you're hit you lose a life. A level is cleared when the entire wave is destroyed.
Game over after your Wizard has been hit by thee gas attacks. ---------------- Pitfall Ravenwood - Shelbus Gruffhart is sending us out to pick up magical artifacts. This game is a left to right scroll kill the attacking minions. Spells are basic "fireballs" but the Wizard can jump over and duck the obstacles. Each level corresponds to a world on the spiral. You need to make it to the end of the block to collect the artifact. You lose a life if a minion touches you. The level is cleared when you get the artifact
I think it would be pretty surface work to turn the pet cannon game into a dunking booth like at a carnival.
The dunkees would be various bad guys from around the Spiral. They could be completely random so you could play for an hour and at level 1zillion have a dark sprite in the booth OR just started and have the final boss from the newest world -- and the loot rewards are -again- from what that boss or creature drops in game.
Showing it was all in good fun (like at a school) various good guys show up too- Ambrose drops elixer versions of the mana bottle he gives us, copies of his amazing crystal ball, wizard level appropriate versions of his outfit- balanced gear since he's always sending us off to battle. Cards from his Star school. Gammas eggs etc. Harold drops library housig items and treasure cards ... garden moles drop energy elixers, seeds, rare "likes" etc.
Been an age since I tried that game- I find it as repulsive as the idea of feeding mounts to pets and trapping pixies in dead plants- but weren't there multiple targets to choose from? Could be multiple tanks too. Whatever -you get the idea.
Same as all my others- in addition to refilling mana and health and giving gold - for members it would refill energy too.
, in the same animation and art style as all the other mini-games, on a quest to save headmaster Ambrose from Morganth. each world around the spiral would be a new level, that could get you closer to the goal.
OH and it would be great if updates to this game were added every new world, so the drops continued to be useful as Wizard101 grows.
and could include Energy, too --for members who have the kiosk.