Always guided by roundness, these mice rotated their fate and that of all existence to achieve their ultimate goal:
C H E E S E!
Rotato is a minigame compilation controlled exclusively with one input, the mouse wheel. Every minigame in Rotato is centered around rotation.
Full with pop culture references filled with comedy and surprise, you can play Rotato, and its sequel, Rotato Disc Jam right now!
In Rotato, I took care of:
Game design:
Along with my design partners, I designed and documented the main mechanic of the game, that of using the mouse wheel to rotate different elements.
Level / Minigame design:
I took care of designing the minigames themselves. From coming up with the idea of the rotating element, to the design of the puzzle / minigame, and finally review after each iteration until the minigame was finished.
On the flow of the game:
Since the minigames are so short, it was essential to make them impactful, and we used the comical element of the game's aesthetics to make that impact, so the player would quickly be engaged in the minigames. But it was also necessary to make them intuitive, so the players wouldn't get stuck and frustrated easily.
The only control being the mouse wheel helped make the minigames more intuitive, since there is only one input option available to the player. Even though the controls do something different in every minigame, a few seconds of experimentation from the player shed light on what it is they can and have to do.
The concept of rotation is another constant, and is reinforced by rotating elements controlled by the player on every minigame, the only input itself being the mouse wheel, and even the game's title. Using all of these little details as tools help convey a certain uniformity in control without it necessarily feeling forced nor excessively repetitive.