Hoshypot
Role
Game Designer, Programmer
Engine
Unreal Engine 5
Genre
Experimental
Platform
Itch.io
Year
2024
Design Pillars
Novel Gameplay,
Board-game Aesthetic,
Intuitive Controls
Hoshypot is a great example of my particular skills as a designer. That is, combining mechanics in a way that is simultaneously completely innovative, and onboarding players onto this innovation through intuitive signifiers and tutorialisation. All of this while maintaining a fun core game loop. Because of this, I believe Hoshypot is the kind of game I can design in a way most others can't.
I decided to generate a unique game experience by focusing on scoring as gameplay, with player's having to notice the points available within a time limit in order to learn that point. The concept was simple but original, and I helped onboard players using the familiarity of six-sided dice.
This was my first game developed in Unreal Engine 5, and I utilised the engine's graphics and animation capabilities to create a striking aesthetic. I have often overlooked form in favour of function in other prototypes, so I dedicated myself to strengthening my visual design abilities with this project.
To understand my Design Process behind the Core Loop of Hoshypot, we first need to examine the basic loop behind a simple dice-rolling game, shown here.
Randomness can be fun, but a game with pure chance and no skill or decision-making can be uninteresting to a lot of players. Many popular board games take this loop and tweak it to include more phases that add skill and strategy to the experience.
Some games, like Yahtzee and Five Thousand do this by adding player choice into the first phase: Roll. These games allow the player to choose which dice to roll and which dice to keep as they are, adding both strategy and risk-reward.
Other games include a dice-rolling loop as a small section within a larger strategy Meta-Loop, such as Dungeons and Dragons or RISK: Global Domination.
However, I wanted to make something unique, and that is why Hoshypot focuses on turning the Score Phase of the loop. This is how I developed the concept of making the player recognise dice patterns within a time limit to score points.