Brent sez, "Raph Koster (game designer of such great titles like Ultima Online and Star Wars: Galaxies) shares on his blog the vestiges of a game idea. The game involves flapping around the screen with a bird learning to fly." Raph also wrote the magnificent Theory of Fun, which does for games what Understanding Comics did for comics.
What I ended up with, though, felt a little different than I had envisioned. When you held one wing, you slid sideways after releasing the wing, not while pushing. Basically, it felt as I was messing with it, like you were flying into a headwind. And that changed my conception of the game mechanic a little bit.
On the other hand, my kids immediately shouted "birdie!" and spent a cheerful 45 minutes just flapping and learning the controls. As I messed with it, it felt like a different and fresh control dynamic. Still somewhat clunky, but good enough to start with.
(Thanks, Brent!)
