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2. Flooded Village – Create your own Flow
Concept
The concept of Flooded Village was scribbled in 30 minutes on the white-space of a spare piece of paper. Dig holes, redirect the river, flood tiles close to a house.
Already mentions most concepts present in the final game, such as the different tiles, the anti- goal (don't drown the villagers) and implementation based on tiles influencing their neighbors.
Advice:
Break every rule in your game at least once. 2 2

3. Flooded Village – Create your own Flow
Prototype
Using my minimal knowledge of Flash and ActionScript, I created a working prototype.
A green block represented a house touching a water tile, the water needs to be redirected to touch the red blocks as well.
Advice:
Do not think for too long, build a prototype to test.
Secret:
The houses were later replaced by dirt (orange) and grass (green). That is why there are no houses in a game called Flooded Village. 3 3

4. Flooded Village – Create your own Flow
Filler Artwork
Before I was able to show the game to other developers, I used art from the internet. In this case, the PlanetCute set by Daniel Cook (Triple Town)
Advice:
Don't buy artwork unless you know what you want.
Secret:
This tile-set caused the distinctive look of the game. The final tiles look too similar to the inspiration. 4 4

5. Flooded Village – Create your own Flow
PixelChunk Sketch
Rather than tell the artist what to draw, I asked their vision on the game, and worked from there.
Advice:
Make sure your team shares your vision.
Secret:
The animator completely forgot to draw the pirate mustache. 5 5

6. Flooded Village – Create your own Flow
Final Artwork
I loved the goat and bird so much, they became bonus animations.
Advice:
Take a step beyond the strictly necessary.
Sometimes you should do something unexpected. 6 6

7. Flooded Village – Create your own Flow
Audio
One early fan of the game was Reece Millidge, who made WonderPutt. He was unable to animate, but introduced me to his brother, audio engineer Dan Millidge.
Advice:
Build connections, a great team is everything.
Secret:
All characters (including the goat) are voiced by Dan. 7 7

8. Flooded Village – Create your own Flow
Sale
Bidding started slow, and eventually I had to personally contact sponsors for later bids.
Development took 5 months, bidding only 3 weeks. I was too eager to finally release the game.
Advice:
Be patient and assertive. 8 8

9. Flooded Village – Create your own Flow
Sequels
Creating a sequel is a great opportunity to keep in touch with your audience, fix previous mistakes, and create variations on the original gameplay.
Xmas Eve explained why frozen trees are worth points, introduced a scrapped mechanic (breakable ice), removed a mechanic (fill a hole with sand) and introduced the triple highscore system.
Advice:
Add new material to make it fresh, but also remove elements to keep it clean.
Secret:
Xmas Eve was created and released within 10 days. 9 9

10. Flooded Village – Create your own Flow
Video! 10 10

11. Flooded Village – Create your own Flow
Questions? 11 11