The Demo Island | Rex Remix Games

Welcome back dinosaur fans.

So last week I said that I didn’t really have a game yet. I had a rock in the sky, Rex had stubby little arms, and I’d split the world into two islands because the first one was getting too crowded. But there wasn’t really a game to play. Just a bunch of stuff in an editor. A bunch of cool stuff! But just a bunch of stuff.

The problem with having “a bunch of stuff in an editor” is that it’s very easy to convince yourself you’re nearly done, right up until you try to let someone else play it.

I want to get a demo up on Steam eventually - mostly because paying the fee and having people watching is the only way I’m ever going to finish this without getting distracted by another brilliant idea for an idle game about dinosaurs summoning a meteor or something. Ah man I wish I didn’t write that down, that sounds good. You could collect curr… no, stop. Stop it.

You see why I need this? So this week was about taking that first little island - the tutorial island - and turning it into an actual playable start.

The Shaman performing his ritual by the campfire — The Shaman doing his ritual. Seconds before everything goes completely wrong.

Funnelling Without Being Mean

The whole opening of the game hinges on you waking up on a beach and going to see the Shaman. In my head that sounded really simple. But actually I kinda knew it wouldn’t be. Different players are gonna do different things, and if you just drop a player into an open world and expect them to walk the right way, you’re gonna have a bad time.

Normally games solve this by putting a big glowing marker on the screen or having someone shout “Hey, over here!” in a text box. Maybe some yellow paint. But I’ve already committed to the bit: nobody speaks, there are no text boxes, and there’s no UI clutter. Which meant the island itself had to do the work.

The tutorial island path — The very start of the game. Guess which way you need to go.

I ended up spending ages doing what I can only describe as aggressive landscaping. I put a bunch of dirt paths down on the tutorial island and put the shaman in the middle. All roads lead to the main quest and all that. Then I plonked the player on the beach facing the path, with the shaman in the background, beckoning.

The World’s Smallest Fetch Quest

Once you actually reach the Shaman, you have to do his quest.

Last week I showed his emoji request - he wants an apple, a feather, and a bone so he can cast a curse. I think he wants something else now, like… meteor themed stuff. SUNflower, STARfish… ROCK. Anyway that’s besides the point. All the stuff he wants is right next to him. Indicative, but boring. So that’s the “tutorial” part, hey this guy wants this stuff, all that stuff is right here, can you figure out how to pick it up.

The tutorial quest layout — The very first quest. Guess what you need to do.

But a bit boring, so after that I hid a bunch of others around the clearing. Not too hidden, because again, there’s no text to give you hints, but enough that you have to actually look around:

The sunflowers are in the flower meadow.
The rocks are at the quarry thing.
The starfish are around the tidal pool.

All very sensible places for things to be, so hopefully everyone will know what they need to do. The idea is that within sixty seconds, you figure out the core loop of the entire game without me having to tell you (because I can’t): look at what a dinosaur wants in their thought bubble, go find the thing in the environment, bring it back. If players get that here in the clearing, they’ll understand the rest of the game when they get to the main island.

Act 1 Done (Almost)

Once you bring the Shaman his ingredients, the ritual goes wrong, the sky goes bruised and purple, and the meteor appears in the sky. That’s the end of the tutorial, and the end of what I’m calling Act 1.

The meteor summoned in the sky — The end of the tutorial. Rex summons a meteor.

It feels like an actual game now. A very short one, but an actual game. You can play from the moment you wake up on the beach through to summoning the apocalypse, and it all flows properly without breaking.

Which means next week, I can finally start on the main island. And that means it’s time for Deinonychus and his skateboard. But no spoilers about that yet, you’ll have to come back.

Until next time!