Follow the development of Stable, a video game where you're a hand that sorts blocks, and stuff.

Team of two

We're a team of two. My good friend from work, and me. He programs, I draw. We both come up with ideas on how to make the game fun. It's great!

Idea

Stable is a video game where you control a hand and grip blocks from a tube that you sort into boxes for points until the end of time. Or when you're done with your toilet break is done, and go back to your day. We don't check.

Sketch

I put the pencil to paper and drew quick sketches that focus on what you, the player, do in Stable, and how that looks in my head.

A photograph of a paper on a table, with a pencil drawing of the game design concept for Stable, with annotations written in Norwegian

Digital visual concepts of Stable, exploring other placements of the tube, Grep the main character in Stable, and a light switch for difficulty

Incredibly rough ideas

When you reach a super secret special score, show a message on how to obtain a fancy limited edition physical reward.

Tube gets constipated and might explode when stuff get stuck in the tube opening. You need to pull the thing out of the tube end. Max amount on how much the tube can hold before exploding.

Achievements. Yep.

End-of-tube-tome. A thing that show things you've collected from the tube end.

Grep. Player character. Four fingered hand with two eyes and a mouth.

Plop. Non-player character. A worm like creature with two eyes and a large mouth. Main enemy of Grep. Plop eats blocks that Grep don't catch. Maybe Plop is related to tube?

Inspiration

Visuals are inspired by the strange clay chomping creature in the animation below. Do you know what it's from? Also the mouse cursors that look like Mickey Mouse’s hands.

Game play is inspired by Tetris, and the dumb claw machine that never gave you the nice toy you wanted when you were a kid.

Game feel

Game feel is all the good stuff in a video game, how all of it sounds, looks, moves, rumbles, and flows. Game feel is what's most fun about playing any kind of game, both physical on a board or cards, and digital. In Stable, we're mixing all of this in so that playing feels good.

Prototype

We have physics! When you drop a block into a box, they collide.

To do

There's a lot that goes into making a video game. Below I've written very simplified lists of what's done, doing, and to be done before Stable is done.

Earlier

Visual concept.

Now

Code.
Visuals.
Sounds.
Play test.
Pet bugs. Maybe step on a few.
Feel.

Later

Logo.
Key art.
Trailer.
Play test.
Release.
Update.
Repeat fun.

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