Planning Cornhole EX-W

Cornhole EX-W was conceptualized in two phases. When I first started voting for themes for the Crossroads Jam 24, I was inspired by the second most popular theme in the poll, "Corn." I knew that I was interested in making a quick Playdate game since I've been working on a more long-form project for the console and thought it would be fun to make something small and release it quickly. I pretty quickly imagined a Cornhole game because of my fond memories of playing it at family gatherings. I also wanted to make use of the crank in a fun way, and imagined using the crank of the Playdate to directly control the swing angle of the player character's arm when throwing the bag.

I also started conceptualizing a Story Mode idea for the game where the player character casually chats with the other AI opponents with small quips between every few tosses. Once the official theme was announced "Extreme Weather" I realized that it could inspire the direction of this Story Mode, and I started reminiscing on my family gatherings at my Grandma's house in the country outside of Fort Wayne, IN.  I have many memories of listening to the TV emergency weather service blast with the color bars from the image on the TV painting her walls with its colors.  I always felt some mixture of excitement, worry, and coziness.  The incoming storm was scary, but I felt safe in her house.

So,  Cornhole EX-W will be a Cornhole sports game with a Story Mode that follows an adult returning to their grandma's house and the awkward conversations that often happen when you haven't seen your family in a while. In between Cornhole bag tosses you'll chat with your nearby relative opponents and occasionally get updates about an incoming storm from your grandma calling from inside the house.

Cornhole Gameplay

The main Cornhole gameplay will be structured in 3 simple views.  The first is where all of the user input will be tracked to start the bag toss. The player character will be viewed facing away from the screen with their right arm extended down with the bag. As the player moves the crank, the PC's arm follows its angle. The player holds the "A" button on the Playdate to grab the bag, and swinging the crank at their desired speed, they let go of the "A" button to release the bag. The player can also tilt the Playdate left and right to determine the throw's left-to-right angle. The speed at which they swung the crank, along with the angle of the PC's arm on the release of the bag will determine the distance and arc of the bag's throw.

The game transitions to the second view of the game to show the bag traveling. It will be a Medium Closeup of the bag flopping through the air starting towards the bottom middle of the screen and arcing up and to the left or right depending on the angle of the throw and then falling back down. Speed lines and sound will enhance this moment. All of this will only last a few seconds.

It then switches to the third and final view with the satisfying sound of the corn bag slamming down and sliding on the Cornhole board. The view will be a top-down of the board. The bag's landing position will be determined by the speed, arc, and angle of the throw. If it lands on the board it slides a distance dependent on the angle of the throw.  The higher the arc, the less slide there will be.  The bags already on the board will also collide with each other to stop the thrown bags slide and the sitting bags can take a bit of the sliding bag's momentum and move a bit themselves. If you're familiar with Cornhole, you'll know that this is important for strategizing where to throw bags.

After prototyping the image layout for the landing, I realized that it will be more visually appealing if I have the camera as a closeup on the board as the bag lands and slides, therefore I'll need to have the camera pan up as the bag lands and slides to stay with it.  This makes it a bit more complicated to implement but I think it'll be worth it in the end.  Since the bag can land on the grass around the board I should have a nice grass texture as well.

Since this is the start of the jam, I'll first be focusing on implementing the plan above. I want to get a nice feeling game of Cornhole playable as soon as possible so that I know have a game before I start adding the narrative system.

More on that later!  Thanks for reading. Happy jamming!