Spotlight Solo Mode Devlog
Thinking back to when I starting working on #Spotlight with Adam, the first thing that comes to mind is challenge. Not with him, of course, but with the game. I love how much it makes you think, and how careful you have to be not to assist your opponent. It’s a really tricky balance. Adam had shown me a few other card games he was working on, and they were equally impressive. I’m sure I told him a dozen times that day, “I don’t know how you create such interesting, versatile games with only cards.”
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A part of me said ‘yes’ to the partnership just to learn from Adam’s craftiness with cards. I was also very interested in developing a solo mode for Spotlight to see just how challenging the game could become. You see, on the surface Spotlight requires strategic card placement, but in some rounds a keen intuition about your opponent’s plan mixed with a little bit of sacrifice can really help you come out on top.The latter would be a challenge to implement into a solo experience, and I think I got it right. When I think about Light, the AI in Spotlight, I picture Wheatley from the Portal 2 video game. I wanted Light to instill that same snarky, patronizing feel as it mimics your card play and then plays an extra card. I wanted it to feel like Light was always one step ahead, or had a wrench for every part of your plan.
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And in that gameplay, which the player is aware of, you start calculating against someone who doesn’t even exist. I love the idea of that. All of this banter happened internally during development. There was no one to go, “Hmmm” or “I see what’s happening.” It’s all in the player’s head. You’re left to question your plan, and potentially psych yourself out of a lot of points. And if you don’t do those calculations, do you worry that maybe you didn’t think your moves through?
I think this personification of Light really helped. It made me ask myself, “What would the world champion of Spotlight play like? And how can I make this experience challenging, but still easy to understand and play?” It took quite a few adjustments. Originally, Light could use Spotlight cards. That became tedious, and just... not fun. A few other shifts were: the number of cards Light played each round, and which suits Light won.
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