In Unlocking the Vault, Game Developer Editor-in-Chief Daniel Riendeau dives into the rich archives of the GDC Vault to find timeless game development tips, anecdotes, and hard-learned lessons hidden in hundreds of talks from decades of GDC shows stored in the Vault. Every two weeks, this curated roundup will highlight key takeaways from vintage or classic GDC talks, with the goal of helping today's developers learn new lessons from the past.
Short hike Creator Adam Robinson-Yu's virtual talk at GDC 2020 Creating a Tiny Open World: A Little Post-Death Walk is one of my favorite videos featuring my game design students. It really has it all: tips on how to turn broken dreams into something special, fun design tidbits, cute GIFs, and an entire section on production tips for a solo project.
Short hike is a small open-world story game in which the hero, vacationing on a magnificent mountain, must reach the top to make an important call. Robinson-Yu details the game's many inspirations, including a previous RPG project, the wide-open wonder of open worlds, as in Breath of the Wildand the gorgeous colors of the Canadian forest in autumn. He used many convenient tools (e.g. yarn spinner) and spent part of the talk extolling the virtues of working within the constraints that led him to the game's colorful, pixelated 3D look.
Then comes the fun part: Robinson-Yu was able to find funding for the rework (to launch Humble Original), but he had to meet a three-month deadline.
Robinson-Yu shows a slide here with the game's core features and “advanced targets” for additional features and subtleties. It is noteworthy that the main game was not considered as a minimum viable product, they strived for “good”. “It would still be fun and playable if the goals weren't ambitious, but it allowed me to naturally scale the size of the project to the speed at which the work actually got done.”
He noted that some of these extra features didn't make it into the initial release (though some, like secret areas and extra tools, items, and quests, did), but “I think the game still ran well without them, and I ended up adding some of them for the later Steam and Itch.io release.”
He also managed to add some of these interesting features to later versions of the game.
Entertainment production for a team of one
In a slide titled “The Scrum Board You Know and Love (?),” Robinson-Yu extols the benefits of working to tight deadlines and thinking keenly about the production process, even as a solo developer.
“I used a simplified version of the Scrum process,” he says. “I usually re-evaluated all my tasks every week and also at the beginning of each day. This gave me a good idea of what functions I would have time for and helped me plan ahead.”
“I think it's tempting to skip this step when you're working on your own, but once I started doing it, I found it really helpful to stay on track.”
The next slide, titled “Timelines…misunderstood?” waving the proverbial mug Majora's Maskthe terrifying moon (a universal symbol, at least among my generation, for “deadline”). “I also had an external deadline to hold me accountable for this project,” says Robinson-Yu. “For me personally, it helped me focus on finishing something rather than trying to do something perfect.”
From there, Robinson-Yu gives some great design advice – one story about a cave that I won't spoil here, but it's just fireworks – and leaves the viewer with very positive and pure vibes.
Revealing Key Findings
If you want a sparknote version of the talk – or just want to outline some of the main lessons in your notes – don't worry, I've got you covered!
The key takeaways here are: Lesson #1 Use smart shortcuts and respect your limitations. Robinson-Yu reuses tools and assets from previous projects and even finds a unique, compelling art style while working within her means on art and animation. Lesson #2 is to use smart production methods: even when working alone. Robinson-Yu used what worked in the scrum to his advantage here, and it allowed him to finish a very solid little game in three months.
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