Taking Shape

Play now at takingshapegame.com

Taking Shape is a web-based daily puzzle game inspired by Wordle.

My goal was to create a game that incorporated…

• a daily, globally-shared solution

• 2-5 minutes to play

• high win rate (+90%)

• non-spoiler score sharing

• no need for quick reaction time

• can be played on mute

• luck mixed with strategy

In June 2024, I built a prototype and shared it around to get feedback on my game idea. I received heaps of ideas, issues, and confusions. (THANK YOU EARLY PLAYTESTERS! 🙌) My biggest takeaway was that the How to Play section had to be perfect. If people can’t figure out how to play right away, they won’t bother. Most importantly, once people “got” it, they seemed to enjoy playing. It seemed as though the core game concept had something to it. Onward.

Over the next couple of months, I reworked the gameplay mechanics, integrated new ideas, and attempted to alleviate pain points. I did a lot of research on best practices for game design, and tried to figure out what the best platform/structure was to build the program.

Taking Shape is a web application built with Godot, an open source game engine. I ultimately chose Godot because of the extensive resources available online. There are tons of in-depth tutorials, good documentation, and a lively community. As a first-time game developer, those were key aspects.

Learning the programming language and coding the game took about a month. Another couple weeks for squashing bugs and optimizations.

Version 1.0 released on October 17, 2024. I realize that this is really just the beginning of the game’s lifecycle—not the end—but I’m very excited to have a tangible, functioning version out in the world for all to enjoy. I’m looking forward to adding features, finding more bugs, and having this project continue to take shape!

Inspirations & resources:

figure.game - A beautiful daily puzzler by Sumul Shah

Sokobond - Minimalist puzzler with a really creative concept

Streamline - Fun puzzle game, evolved into Jetstream

Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games - Incredible series from a video game legend

GDQuest - Free materials that will teach you Godot

Harvard University’s CS50 - How is this free?! FULL course on programming

ProtoPie - The free prototype maker that I used

Interview with Josh Wardle - Creator of Wordle

Juice it or lose it - Like a TED talk, but for good game design