Blanket Fort Games Blog

Inspiration, the game I had hoped would prove a worthy successor to Influence, is dead. It is definitely deceased. It is not resting, stunned, or pining for the fjords.

What happened was this: I had the idea at MineCon to make a thematic prequel to Influence, in which one would experience the formation of a great idea. I put together a demo showing off the mechanics I had in mind to illustrate this process in January of this year. The mechanics seemed fun, and all that was left was to design some compelling levels. Unfortunately, that’s where the wheels came off. It would be hubris to assume that nobody could successfully design fun levels out of the mechanics I put together, but I certainly can’t. I can be certain because I tried quite a few times, and all the levels were either boring of frustrating. It was impossible to hit the fun-and-challenging sweet spot.

Refining design by throwing out what doesn’t work is a key principle at Blanket Fort Games, and in this case, what doesn’t work is Inspiration. I have posted here the final demo, showing that my best shot at a complex level (the third in the posted demo), despite being intricate and requiring thought, isn’t fun.