Story of Challenging the Global Gamers Challenge with Flutter
Spring is in the air! I'm Saya, one half of the indie game developer couple, Kotoriyama. I can't wait for cherry blossom viewing.
The other day, I participated in the Global Gamers Challenge, developing a game using Flutter for the first time. To cut to the chase, it was a lot of fun! Today, I'll share my experience from planning to submission.
Global Gamers Challenge: What's That?
Flutter Development Game Jam
Theme: "A game that encourages players to take small actions for the environment."
Deadline: 8 weeks
Global Gamers Challenge
The Spark: A Stuffed Toy at Home
I got a bluebird plushie, which turned out to be the character of Dart language when I googled. Knowing Dart is the language used with Flutter, I decided to join the game jam thanks to this encounter.
Flutter-suited Games?
Since it was my first encounter with Flutter, I googled to understand its strengths: cross-platform compatibility with Android, iOS devices, and web browsers. Recognizing its UI capabilities, I chose a card game for development.
Choosing a Theme from Environmental Issues
The game jam's theme was "A game that encourages players to take small actions for the environment."
While searching for a theme, I came across concerning news: trash floating in the sea harming marine life. (Viewer discretion is advised)
WWF Japan
Sea Otter Savvy
Encountering shocking footage like sea otters with fishhooks embedded and seals dead from entangled fishing nets, I felt both a desire to help and the complexity of the issue, making the planning challenging. I want the game to be a bright and enjoyable experience like chatting with friends.
Planning
The theme became "A game to help sea creatures entangled in trash in the sea." Let the development begin! Here are the four guidelines we set:
- Bright and enjoyable
- Easy-to-understand rules
- Short playtime
- Replayability
Prototyping
Thinking combining a board game with cards might be fun, we prototyped with dice and cards while playing with two players.
Game Mechanics Complete
Title: Rescue Sea Friends
Player: A surfer.
It's a board game card game where players clean up a trash-filled sea while surfing to rescue entangled sea otters and seals.
Here's how it works:
- Roll two dice and choose the wave to ride.
- When riding a wave, flip a card to reveal trash.
- Form a three-card or straight flush to clean up trash.
- Stop at a rocky area with entangled animals to place them on the surfboard.
- Game over if three trash of the same suit appear.
Once safely back to the beach, the rescue is complete! Game clear!
Although we shared the rules and game screens, a problem arose.
Problem Arises
The game flow was hard to grasp. With too many scenes, it was difficult to search for each. To address this, we suggested a wall flow.
We printed the game screens and stuck them on the wall to visualize the game flow. It made meetings easier to discuss "What's happening here?" and "What do we call this phase?"
8-Week Flutter Development
Learning Flutter and Dart for the first time while developing in a short time was challenging. Would we finish by the deadline?
Done! Submitted!
The game worked smoothly, and we submitted it! There are still things like implementing animations and polishing, so we aim to implement them for future releases.
Demo video on Android devices: Rescue Sea Friends #Shorts #gameplay
Great job!
It's a long read, but thank you for reading till the end! I'd be happy if you could play it once it's finished!
Saya