Let’s talk Mighty Goose

Let’s talk about Mighty Goose

(This is a mirror post from Patreon)

Hey all, it’s been ages since I wrote anything on Patreon. Sorry for that! For a long time I wanted write a post, but simply didn’t know what to write about. Creative energy wasn't flowing so to speak. I want to get back into the habit of writing posts and the best way of doing that is just doing it I guess. So, lets catch up. Currently I’m working on a few things.

  • PixelBasher (just ongoing updates)
  • Job (random illustration works and some frontend dev)
  • A new Mighty Goose project
  • A new game which we shall label as ‘Game 3’ for now

This pretty much fills my weeks and weekends completely. I find I have to take special care to find some for myself and relationships in this all. When the sun sets I try to step away from the computer and I try to plan excursions together with my wife. You know, to actually leave the house haha. Last summer I actually went on a holiday for the first time in ages, man what a recharge that was.

About that project list, let's zoom in on games. Specifically MIGHTY GOOSE. To make a long story short, I want to make another goose game. If you’ve been lured to this article by this pretty mockup. That’s actually not what the game is going to look like! I have something else in mind for Mighty Goose 2. Below you’ll find a short write-up on why that is.

A critical look at Mighty Goose

Whenever I think of starting a new project, one of the main goals I always have in mind is blowing people away with the presentation. The things you see, the things you hear, how it the game reacts to input, etc. As an artist I tend to focus on those things. You could say that for me, presentation is the most important aspect of the game.

One of my weaknesses as a designer is I tend to use presentation as a tool to hide flaws. This is a great skill to have of course, games will always need some of that. But the risk is to become lazy, and abuse that power.

Mighty Goose at the core is a very simple run and gun game. The formula is tried an tested. As long as I make it look, sound and feel awesome, people will perceive the game as awesome. This is 100% true, up to a certain point.

Mechanically Mighty Goose doesn’t really have a unique hook (or a gimmick if you prefer). If you look through the visuals, at some point the gameplay ultimately becomes stale.

Luckily the game is short, so for most players this never becomes apparent. The different flavors of enemies bring a decent variation to the gameplay. So for most, it’s just a fun Kirby-esque game to blast through and forget afterwards. However for some players, the game becomes boring faster. Maybe even before getting to the final boss. This is of course a shame.

Metal Sloog

For the design of Mighty Goose I took Metal Slug as a base template. A true arcade game. The only true purpose of this game is to eat your credits! So it was safe to say it was pretty hard. I wanted Mighty Goose to be accessible though. At the end of the day I want my games to be fun for many types of players. So I implemented several features to help struggling players. Heck, the game even straight up defeats the final boss for you if you die enough times during the fight!

All this accessibility means the game is over quite quick. If you are a ‘good gamer’ you’ll probably beat the game without extras within 3 hours. For me personally (i.e. ‘old’ guy with job, multiple projects, a family, etc.), I really welcome games that I can beat in a few sessions. But for most players, that just doesn’t fly.

Even when comparing the game to Metal Slug 3 with an average time to beat at 1,5 hours, there is a definite expectation of players to get more game for the amount of money they have spent. I definitely understand that angle. This is the entire reason we made the Waterworld ‘DLC’ free! However if I where to do it all again I’d definitely spend more time designing replayability features.

Sequel?

So yeah we made an arcade game. With arcade style replayability. Still, for an arcade game it was a great success in my book. It started out right here on Patreon, as a stupid joke goal. It turned out to be a real game! On Game Pass and even in a Limited Run box.

Personally I had an awesome time creating the game. There's a certain lighthearted fun about Mighty Goose that matches extremely well with my soul. The game was received well and I've even been asked a few times if there will be a sequel. It fills me with joy that people enjoyed the game in such a way that they'd ask that. Awesome! The characters, not only the goose, seem to have appeal. So yeah, I've been thinking about a sequel and have been experimenting with ideas for a while now.

If Blastmode were to make a Mighty Goose 2, it would need to be different from the first title. Making exactly the same type of game, but better; Would probably end up being too much of the same. Which is not only bad for the player, but also bad for the artist making it. That wouldn't give creative satisfaction. What warrants the creation of a new goose game? Finding the answer is is a real challenge. But I think we're getting somewhere.

I've been posting hints on twitter. Will there be a Mighty Goose 2? What will it look like? I’ll talk a bit about that in the next Patreon article 😉

Thanks for your support and thanks for reading. Hope you have a great day!