Inspirations
When first creating the characters of Ripple and Frawg, it was clear to us that the main movement mechanic for Frawg was going to be a jump, a well-recognized video game mechanic that is also associated with frogs. However, finding a movement mechanic for Ripple (a stoat) wasn’t so simple. From the very first pitch of the game, Ripple and Frawg were supposed to be asymmetric; that is, to have different abilities that set the characters apart while also being used in tandem to solve puzzles. One of the most recent examples of this type of gameplay is It Takes Two, a game where, in each level, both players are given two new abilities that differ greatly, such as one who can throw nails and another who can hammer them into place.
So, we got to thinking, what is a mechanic that could let Ripple reach areas that Frawg couldn’t using her jump, but could also be associated with a stoat? Mechanically, we wanted something that could let Ripple go under small gaps or move up and around walls. While allowing Ripple to climb would enable one of these, giving him the ability to Dig both on the ground and on walls could do both. When pitching that Ripple’s movement mechanic be Dig, I compared it to the Burrow mechanic in New Super Lucky’s Tale, which let the player burrow into the ground to collect coins, travel underneath gaps, and pop out to get a burst of height.
Implementation
Once we decided that this was the mechanic we wanted, we also determined the three main things that Dig would give Ripple access to:
Ripple can Dig under gaps that Frawg is too tall to go under.
Ripple can Dig up paths on walls, travelling to areas normally unreachable using Frawg’s jump.
When exiting Dig, Ripple will be given slight momentum upwards, which will help the player go over small bumps in the terrain but not give as much height as Frawg’s jump.
This decision would influence much of our design going forward, as not only were many levels built to take advantage of the Jump and Dig mechanics, but Ripple’s Drum would later be made to create shockwaves associated with the ground while Frawg’s Flute would create gusts associated with the air, tying each back to their movement mechanics. Our hope is that these mechanics make both Ripple and Frawg feel unique to control and equally important for solving puzzles and progressing through the world.
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