Initial limitations and goals
- No stressing elements like timers or point systems.
- Keep with the wholesome theme of the rest of the game.
- An alternative to fishing minigame.
Considerations and decisions
I started out with thinking about what we could do instead of fishing. Almost every game has a fishing minigame but it did not fit with the theme of this game (taking care of creatures).
I decided that I wanted a minigame involving flowers/plants since the player will be crafting remedies using herbal components. Completing a minigame would result in that the player received resources that could be used in medicine and/or quests.
We didn’t want timers or stress in the game because one of the core pillars was relaxing gameplay and a wholesome atmosphere.
Using pen and paper I brainstormed different mechanics that could be used. Initially I thought about using a spatial puzzle mechanic in the lines of match 3 but decided against it in favor of something less potentially frustrating and more relaxing.
Eventually I landed on a sorting mechanic. Sorting can feel calming and cathartic while doing it and usually leaves the player with a feeling of satisfaction and completeness when they are done.
Mechanics
The player is presented with a 2d representation of a flower and is tasked with sorting the petals in order of hue. Below is an image of the three stages of the mini game, unsorted, being sorted and lastly completely sorted.
Complexity can be added by using multiple rings of petals. After sorting each ring by hue the player needs to rotate the rings so that a petal from one ring is adjacent to a matching hue in the other ring. That way, the hue sorting continues over rings. Below is an image of a flower where the rings align correctly.
The difficulty can be adjusted by changing the number of petals in each ring and by how much each hue differs from the previous. Maybe different flowers have different numbers of petals and rings.