Кафе Front Porch

FF_Valentin

05/13/26

BPM (Bionica Pro Mortis)

BPM - Devlog #2 - GDD use case with IMS Creator

-> link to devlog#1

From Discussion to Formalization

One of the key challenges during this jam wasn’t technical; it was alignment.

With four contributors actively engaged, naturally, everyone starts doing game design on its own. 😅

This is both a strength and a risk. It creates constant questioning and helps uncover design flaws early, but it also means that each person tends to develop a slightly different mental model of the game at any given time. After our first major pivot, when we stripped the prototype down to its core rhythm loop, we realized that keeping that alignment intact would be critical.

To address this, we relied heavily on a tool: https://ims.cr5.space/

It is a game design documentation tool that helps teams formalize mechanics, systems, and progression in a structured and readable way. Beyond documentation, IMS Creator supports structured data tables that can be exported as CSV or JSON, enabling designers to manage balancing values directly in the design document and share them with the development pipeline.

The goal was simple: Turn our evolving ideas into a clear, shared, authoritative version of the game design.

For each important decision, I would formalize it in the game design document; it would be validated by the game designer, then shared with the rest of the team as a reference. This process introduced something we were initially missing: a single source of truth.

Instead of saying, "in my opinion, this is how the mechanic works", we could say "this is how the mechanic is defined in the GDD”.

IMS Creator was especially useful to lock down and iterate on our core gameplay loop, which we revisited multiple times throughout development. Every time I had to rewrite the core game mechanics, it helped clarify edge cases, remove ambiguities, and ensure consistency between design, code, and visuals.

Bridging Design and Implementation

Another very interesting aspect of IMS Creator was its ability to go beyond documentation and move toward something more “production-oriented.” We used it to create structured data tables describing game objects properties. These could be exported as CSV or JSON directly in our GITHUB repository with the idea of integrating them directly into our Unity project.

This was a more industrial approach to game production that we wanted to experiment with in this game jam.

In theory, this creates a powerful workflow:

Balance the game in the design document
New data gets synchronized in the game project
Launch the game within the engine
Test and repeat until you get the game feel right.

By the way, what do you think about our game?

→ https://flowerfield-games.itch.io/bpm

Leave us a comment!

Next 'jam, we'll definitely try to get further into this production pipeline.

A prototype becomes a game when everyone agrees on what it is. Documentation is how you get there.

Misha

04/22/26

Klondaik - en

Klondike development continues - Days 24-43

We're hard at work developing the new version of IMS Creators, but we haven't forgotten about Klondike – we're still slowly polishing it. We've reached the first version of the prototype, which you can already play with.

What's changed since the last post?

First, we've changed the look of our prototype. Since it's still a prototype, it doesn't purport to reflect the final version's visuals. However, it's now much easier to distinguish between the different types of tiles on the map, and the different types of events are more visually appealing. In other words, it's now easier to understand what's happening in the game and why.

Second, we've redesigned the map generator and the logic for resource consumption on different tiles. Maps are now built with more alternative paths to reach the goal. And when making a move, you can now not only choose the shortest route from point A to B but also avoid obstacles.

Third, we've added more random events. We added hints to the random events themselves, indicating which resource loss might result from each choice. To avoid complicating the event scenarios themselves, we made these hints automatically based on which trigger nodes follow each choice. For this purpose, we created an additional inspectGraph method in our open-source dialogue library, imsc-script-js, which allows you to "look into the future" without executing the script itself.

Fourth, we implemented additional mechanics such as making a camp, scouting, starvation, and so on. The only thing we didn't have time to implement was the "Dynamite" card with per-cell activation.

Fifth, we cleaned up the interface a bit, added a welcome pop-up, created a web build, and uploaded it to the IMS Creators platform. You can run our prototype on the 🎮 project page. We welcome your feedback on the game.

What's next? We'll be collecting feedback, adding even more random events, balancing, and experimenting with mechanics.

borparo

04/08/26

Template

Node Hierarchy

One thing I like about Articy:Draft is the way to structure flows inside each other. You create a node in the flow graph and you can go inside that node to create a new flow within it.

It is possible to have similar behavior in IMSCreators using trigger nodes and adding an Asset Parameter where you select the script that will be contained.

As showed below. Create a first graph where you structure your quest or dialog in blocks. These blocks are trigger nodes (or could be speech nodes too), used to select the asset that is contained in them. Because IMSCreators displays the assets content you can open them and work your way down in the hierarchy. To return or go up, just close the current opened node.

This allows you to have a clean progression of your mission, quest, etc... while keep developing it's contents.

If your block container nodes need more information, you can use the Speech nodes instead and set asset fields for your quest and contained dialogs for example, but the principle stays the same. Using 'assets' let's you work in a hierarchical manner to organizer your game contents.