I’m making a game. Here’s a video of the tech-demo/proof-of-concept:

The basic premise of Tribes of Mexica evolved from kicking around a few ideas that dealt with creating gameplay mechanics from radial menus. I have a couple different takes on it, actually, but the one I’m currently focusing on is a classic match-three approach. The reason for this is that it’s a relatively simple and intuitive concept, but it still provides me some room to be unique.

Of course the fact that match-three is almost a genre unto itself means that I’m not going for 100% originality. And that’s OK, too. Very few developers seem to be willing to point out their inspirations, and it’s a silly phobia. Also, too many titles are credited with being original when they simply use an existing formula with a new element or two. Instead, I’m committed to creating this game all the while calling a spade a spade.

Concept art for Tlaloc, one of the more significant gods in Aztec mythology.

So what’s my inspiration? Well, I think Puzzle Quest will draw the most comparisons, and that’s fairly accurate.

Soon after prototyping the ring-rotation, though, I realized that it’d be tough to make a pure puzzle game out of ToM. The interconnected nature of all the coloured elements meant that it was virtually impossible to visualize ahead more than a move or two. Typical links/chains/combos were possible, but they were usually a result of luck, not skill. The radial design also imposed various limitations that are not an issue with static, grid-based puzzlers such as Bejeweled. Still, I was fond of the core concept, so I decided to build on top of it and turn it into a combat game of sorts.

Much like Puzzle Quest, each attack fills up a colour-coded “spell” (currently indicated by the Xbox 360 controller’s face buttons), but I think that’s where the similarities end. ToM is a real-time game, requiring constant analysis and input. In fact, I think it’s more akin to Patapon than anything else; it’s an abstraction of an RPG battle system coupled with an interesting input mechanic.

The one-on-one nature of ToM also allows it to draw upon some elements found in traditional fighting games, and I’ll try to incorporate more of those as the title progresses.

Also, until we give the Incubator Games website an upgrade, I’m going to chronicle the whole experience here on Significant Bits. It’ll allow me to talk about the evolution of ToM’s design while bringing up a couple of other topics such as contracting and promotion. Too often such talking points are relegated to sentiments of “You should do it, and it’d help if you did it well,” though, and that’s not very helpful. Instead, I’ll strive to provide hard numbers and some personal opinions on the overall experience. Hopefully you’ll all find it interesting.

Next Tribes of Mexica post.

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