Getting there...

So here's the format that I'm planning for this blog thingy, that I will probably immediately break. The plan is that there will be at least one update each week that is just random game design type stuff, or my opinions on it, at least, and then another one near the end of the week that is an update on what work I've done. This last one may slip to less often, depending on how busy I am with other things going on in my life. Like living it.

So, this week I worked on Polarity. Got quite a bit done, for once. It's hard to work on the side and expect to make regular progress, but I feel like it's actually coming along. I'm almost at the point of making a version I can send out to people for early playtesting. That is exciting. It's at the point where it's actually fun. I love that point in making a game. Where you actually can play it and want to keep playing, just for the sake of playing and not for testing.
So what have I done so far, and what do I have left to do? I like to work off of a to-do list style design, at least when I'm doing it all myself. It helps keep things organized, while not having to write out a full design doc. Since it's all coming out of my head, I don't really have to wonder what I meant by "Make it move like the one in that other game", cause I know what I meant by "it" and "that other game". No need for anything more. So, that's what you're going to see here. Actually, it's going to be even worse than that. Just a brief breakdown of the overall goals of the project. Here's what I have so far, with the completed things crossed off.


Make two paddles on the screen that move with the keyboard.
Make them move by tilting phone. 
Make a ball start in a random direction from just above the bottom paddle.
Make the ball bounce off walls, bricks and paddle.
When the ball bounces off paddle, the direction is determined by where it hits the paddle.
Bricks should break when the ball hits them.
Bricks should sometimes drop items that move in the direction (up or down) that the ball came from.
Paddles are different color, representing different charge (positive or negative).
Items will also have different charge.
Make items have easy way to see different charge, but more interesting than just changing color.
Make paddles look more interesting than just different color bars.
Items:
Electron/Positron - If it hits the opposite color, paddles switch polarity. If it hits same, lose points.
Length - Makes paddle longer or shorter.
Multiball - Makes extra or lose balls. Only lose if enough left. Doesn't kill you.
Extra life - Gives life or kills you.
Can't remember the rest right now.
UI:
Reset button in level (only for testing)
Play menu.
Pause Menu.
End of level screen
Game over screen
Use phone's buttons in menus correctly.

That's it for now. There's more that I'll add later, but I need to go. This should give a pretty good idea of what I've done and how much more there is. Obviously some of these lines involve more than others.
About half of that crossed out stuff was this week. Also got some work done developing a curriculum for a class I'm going to start teaching soon. That will be fun. Can't wait to get it started.