Mahanu🚧 Draft — not final. This page was auto-generated as day-one scaffolding for the project and still needs a human pass before it reads as finished. The blanks and placeholders below are intentional — someone who runs this project should fill them in and delete this notice.
Game design — one page
The whole game on one page, written by the ten-year-old, in their words. Kept tiny on purpose — the number-one reason first games never get finished is that they got too big. If it doesn't fit on this page, it doesn't go in the first version.
The pitch (fill this in)
- What you do: (the one main thing the player does — jump? match? dodge? build?)
- Why it's fun: (the feeling — beating your score, a satisfying pop, a scary chase)
- You win when: _____ · You lose when: _____
- Where it happens: (the world — one screen is plenty to start)
Scope rules (the hard part)
- One core action, done well, before anything else.
- One screen / one level for the first playable version.
- No new idea gets added until the first version is finished and fun. New ideas go on the "later" list below, not into the game.
Build order
- Prototype — just the core action, ugly, but it feels good to do. (This is the make-or-break step.)
- Playtest — a friend or sibling plays without help; watch where they get stuck; fix that.
- Finish it — title screen, a "how to play", the win/lose, a restart button. The unglamorous 20%.
- Ship it — get it into a form other people can actually play.
The "later" list (ideas parked on purpose)
- (every cool idea that would blow up the scope — write it here so it's safe, and keep it OUT of version one)