Game developers are trying harder and harder to not only create new game styles but reinvent classic games. But there’s always something you can innovate on in the game industry. One such example is with “Dreams of Star,” a game developed with Cocos Creator.
"Dreams of Star" is an action-like puzzle game developed by Xiamen Tianmeng Technology Co., Ltd., which is recognized for its creative game design, great art, great music, and more. WeChat selected the game as one of it’s “WeChat Creative Games.” This is one of the many games picked to be part of the WeChat Creative Series.
The game tells the story of one star’s goal of guarding his sweetheart Dorothy. The game perfectly combines platforming with puzzle-solving.
Interesting Gameplay Adds More Complexity
The game has your player catching a special star found in each level. But with the many puzzles placed in front of you, you’ll need to use your special powers that allow you to make copies of yourself. By creating a clone of yourself during different actions, your clone will either stand still, keep walking, or jump up to new heights.
All of this helps you to either turn on and off spikes, wake up purple monsters, or grab stars in places you couldn’t get to. The game has multiple levels with scaling difficulty.
Some developers in the industry have praised the game. Mr. Lu, a game producer with 10 years of experience, said, “The cloning function echoes the theme of the story, and it is full of changes. In addition to the wonderful functional design, the game is excellent in terms of art, music, and completeness. ”
In addition to the story mode, the game innovates by adding a build-a-level mode to allow players to design maps, arrange traps, and create unique exclusive levels according to their own preferences. Players can name their work, and their friends can search for your levels among the many custom levels available, created by other players.
Team Interview
Today, Cocos had the opportunity to interview the creative team and developers at Xiamen Tianmeng Technology, about their game.
Cocos: Can you briefly introduce the production team?
Tianmeng: The project was completed between two guys who made outstanding contributions: Game design by “Acti”, and the programming by “Bu Ku Hen Nan“
Acti was directly responsible for the planning of the game, designed the art, and storyline. Most of the level and interface interaction design was done by this group as well. “Bu Ku Hen Nan” helped to make Acti’s ideas a reality with the backend work.
C: Why did you decide to make it a WeChat mini game?
T: It started as a native game. It has always been prepared to go the casual game route and also accepted that there would be a need to customize the game.
After 2018, due to the limitations we faced and the booming development of the WeChat mini game market, the team shifted its focus to WeChat games.
C: Why did you add the cloning system? How did the idea come from?
T: At the beginning, we wanted to design a two-player cooperative game, but considering that the game has certain requirements for the player's timing and judgment, we thought it would become unmanageable. Luckily after referring to similar games popular in China, we decided to make the game single-player and adapt it for mobile phone users who would enjoy having the idea of a multi-player game.
C: How did you design the "story mode"?
T: It was moderately difficult. When each new skill was acquired, the player will have two to three levels to familiarize it. Also, we had to have simple levels that familiarize the player with the mechanics and operations, there also had to be levels that require the player to integrate the skills that have been mastered. These levels will present a certain challenge to the player. The skill level of the story mode shouldn’t place high demands on the player as long as the player's thinking they can successfully pass the game.
C: How did the idea of customizing the level come to mind?
T: Considering the majority of the players and the user base of WeChat games, the difficulty of building levels is actually adjusted several times so that everyone can enjoy. However, there are some "hardcore players" who like to challenge the development team. They are dissatisfied with the ease of the game and are keen to create challenging levels. So we built a place that allows players to design levels in their own creative space and challenge levels designed by other players and their friends.
C: How does the team define “creative”? What things should you know and skills do you think you need to do creative work?
T: Creativity is not self-indulgence, and some personality styles are too extreme or too avant-garde and leave most of the players. For games, I think good ideas should be the derivation, reorganization, and a certain degree of filling the emptiness of missing pieces to an existing concept.
The accumulation of creative in the game industry should come from the love of the work and the input you get at your job, keeping an open attitude towards the game development and opinions, remaining curious about everything that can happen.
If you love games, research to improve your skills, and have experience with Cocos Creator, you can create creative games like us.
If you'd like to try the game out, download WeChat and scan this QR code. The game is free, so it's definitely worth the time to try.
