HautDeForme

Hello out there.

First off, I gotta thank you for reading this page. It really means a lot to me personally. I've had a series of failed game projects, most of which never made it past designing concept art and notes. Keyboards Kanundrum is my first, real stab at game development. I'm not a professional. I'm not an EA defector that formed their own studio. I am just a guy who's really into game design theory trying to put out an original idea. And I think this game has potential.

The idea for KBK could have only originated at one of two times: When I am showering, or when it's 3 in the morning and I can't seem to sleep. Those, for whatever reason, are my two best thinking times. This idea come to me at the former time.

I had been without a computer for a couple of months, and I was dying to get back into developing. My last project, which I've put on hold until after KBK is finished, would have to be rebuilt from the ground up, since its files were left on my old, dead computer. I was re-evaluating the project, and I just figured it was too ambitious for a first indie project. I refuse to accept lowering a projects standards for the sake of my inexperience, so I knew I needed something different. Something simple.

My biggest fault is my ambition. I come up with an idea, and I can't possibly realize it in my current state. So really, the solution to that is to make a project that has such a simple concept that it's hard to over complicate it. Throw out everything that complicates a game. Power-ups, lives, camera controls, everything. What do all games have in common, and what do all games have that make themselves fun?

Interaction and Progression.

People feel satisfied when they are in a game and feel like they are moving forward. Nobody likes not doing anything in a game. And people interact with games. Pressing, swiping, waving, anything that means doing something and having the game respond. KBK is, for all intents and purposes, a game about pressing a button to progress in the game. Easy to program, and easier to understand. But that alone is boring. So how does one make that idea fun? Not knowing what button to press, and needing your wits to figure out what button needs pressed.

And I think that is what makes my game fun. I hope you try it out and see what I see.

-HautDeForme