The Horizontal Slice

Comments · 115

• MR

  @mrmacken · 2 years ago

  The concept of “horizontal slice” as you describe it reminds me of storyboarding in movies

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• RE

  @Rekettyelovag · 2 years ago

  Vertical slice is for demonstrating purposes (basically building up the end product), horizontal slice is for devs (estimations, experimenting, communication with different departments).

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• MI

  @MikeGemi · 2 years ago

  Im going through every Tim video right now. It feels like im having a really long conversation with a mentor who is doing most of the talking its been amazing. Learning a lot of great stuff so far

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• _S

  @_Simoose · 2 years ago

  As a designer, I've felt the need for a horizontal slice so many times but was never able to put into words so effectively why and how. Thanks Tim for yet another brilliant video.

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• MA

  @mattwhitedev · 2 years ago

  I made and shipped a game myself, (as an indie dev), and the vertical slice was absolutely essential to getting the game published. From there, I did indeed build the game out in kind of a "horizontal" way initially. I worked to get the entire game world (my game is one where you can explore a big world, it's a "metroidvania") linked up and in place and working in a very visually simple way as soon as possible. This provides a framework to get the game going and make some judgements about what it's like to play through, particularly as it pertains to spacing and pacing.

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• RO

  @RobertDoman · 2 years ago

  I have done this on my own games without having a name for it, so thank you! I will now think more critically about how I have done it in the past and how I can address it better moving forward.

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• MA

  @mandisaw · 2 years ago

  Recommend folks also check out the GDC talk, "The Vertical Slice Challenge", from Volition (formerly of Saints Row fame). Talks about some of the insights to be gained, like checking art/pipeline vs target performance. There are also level design vids that discuss something like Tim's h-slice, using labeled greyboxes for sanity-checking scope and pacing curves.

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• TO

  @TonkarzOfSolSystem · 2 years ago

  Everyone Tim me hi it's.

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• MO

  @monkeeee · 2 years ago

  The 80/20 rule is really intuitive. I’ve never heard someone mention it before but that’s a great baseline to start from.

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• AN

  @aNerdNamedJames · 2 years ago

  Interesting to think about that 80/20 rule in conjunction with Todd Howard&apos;s rule of open world design that you want to remember how &quot;some players are going to do <b>everything</b> <b>but</b> the main quest, and some players are going to do <b>nothing</b> <b>but</b> the main quest.&quot; While those two rules might superficially sound contradictory, I actually think they might be able to be complimentary.

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• HJ

  @Hjorth87 · 2 years ago (edited)

  Now I wanna se a finished game where you have an area of people who at just delusional. Standing and saying &quot;I&apos;m a building&quot;. You have a guy named Door who you need to get to move before you can get to the merchant, who has a buddy named Cupboard who holds the actual merchandise.<br><br>Hmm, actually, if you make that the whole game, and in the end you get to drink something that turns the people village into a normal village, it can be an interesting ambiguous ending. Did the PC go crazy with the rest, or did they just drink the cure to their own delusion?

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• YA

  @YarGolubev · 1 year ago

  Remember in Cyberpank 2077 they made a vertical cut based on the quest &quot;A Descent into the Maelström&quot; in 2018 and this is still the most thoughtful and diverse quest in the whole game -<br>It was he who showed what СP77 could be but what he did not