Game Selected!!

Finally the school have made the decision, our Robot idea had been chosen for this semester! XD Everyone seems happy about that, that's great. So we need to do some research and concept art this week, in order to generate a style for our game. :]

Other Concept Art

Here is the collection of William's concept art, who is another artist in our team, the digital work of his is great.

Concept 1: for Car Nage

Concept 2: for Horde Pitch

Concept 3: for Gravity Sphere

Concept Art

Here are some concept art I did for our group, they are for game idea 1 & 3. We haven't been told which game to focus on yet, so basically the concepts are just for visualizing our ideas to the peers.

Concept 1: for the Gravity Sphere

Concept 2: for Car Nage

The 4th Idea

A fourth idea had been generated last weekend, just in case of the other 3 ideas are not stable and suitable for this semester project.

Game 4 - Reboot by Daniel Falconer

Robot Game: Single player.  Working title = Re-boot.

Key Themes: Dependency, Vulnerability, Risk and Reward.

Synopisis: The game has the player assume control of a Robot character who needs a power supply to remain active.  The power supply acts as a sphere of influence – an area which the Robot will be powered in.  If the player leaves the area of power then they will shut down and lose the game.  The player is required to navigate the environmental obstacles with their power supply to reach a goal. 

Environment obstacles will inhibit the carrying of the power object and therefore the player will have to think of ways to negotiate the landscape whilst maintaining connectivity to the power sphere.

The aim of the player is to collect parts so that they can repair the environment they are playing within.  Repairing the environment unlocks new levels.

Gameplay: Users will navigate in a 3rd person perspective around an environment.   They will be able to manipulate the location of the “power field” by interacting with it and carrying it to a new location. Some elements of the game will require the player to move out with the vital power giving area – introducing the risk element of the game.  When the robot “shuts down” it remains a physical element – A sphere which can freely role around the environment.  If the robot subsequently roles back into a power area they will be re-activated and the player will resume control.

This will add a thought process to some levels – where the player will be required to consider where they can be safely powered down in the knowledge that they will end up in an area where they will be re-activated.

Other mechanics could then be introduced to offer a variety of environmental puzzles, these could include:

• A depleting power source, as the player moves with the power source the area in which the player can navigate will be reduced.
• Power-supply isolation – The player could be removed from the “moveable” power supply forcing the player to navigate between other stationary power sources.  This could add a traditional spatial puzzle element as a player navigates between toggling (on/off) timed or moving power supplies.
• Power supply abstraction from the player – the player could interact with elements of the environment to move the power supply – they would then need to move with the “area of power” to progress. 

A collection mechanic would form the basis for the structure of the game.  Within the environments players would have to collect parts to repair the game world.  This would be based on a percentage based system where new levels would be unlocked when enough items have been collected.

Key Features:

• Environmental puzzles.
• Characterised game world.

Inspiration for Gravity Sphere

Game Idea 1 - Gravity Spheres

Here is some rough research about relative games of our 1st game concept.

Existing Game examples:

3 GAME IDEAS

Here are the 3 game ideas we generated for our next Monday's pitch.

Game 1 - Gravity Spheres by Stephen Lingham

Description:

In this game the player starts on a platform and jumps off and falls constantly as he navigates his surroundings using gravity spheres that pull him towards him and change his trajectory. Also if he collides with one of these spheres then they repel him with great force so act like extremely bouncy surfaces. If he falls to the bottom then he gets teleported back up to the top of the area, so it acts like a wrap-around map in 3D space. The game is single player and the goal is to collect as many coins/points as possible. Once one is collected another one spawns in a random location, so the player needs to be good at navigating his surroundings to collect the coins as quickly as possible without accidentally throwing himself off course. The two main methods of navigation will be bouncing off spheres and using the gravitational pull of the spheres to guide your trajectory. But of course it won't be a case of just jumping into the arena and letting the forces of physics take over, the player can also control himself during this process, nudging himself in a given direction using the arrow keys. Once the player has jumped off the platform in a direction he wants to start in the platform disappears until the time is up. The goal of the game is to collect as many coins in the allotted time as possible. 

Why it's good:

This game has a unique game mechanic, one that would feel good to play and lets the player learn how to use the mechanic over time as they increase their dexterity. I believe the game would be addictive because it would feel pleasing to smoothly fall and bounce through the arena, in the same way it feels good to play any other game that requires dexterity, once the dexterity is acquired then it becomes fun to simply navigate round the world. Some examples of this are: Trials, a stunt bike game; 1080 Snowboarding; Tony Hawks Pro Skater; the bunny hope and rocket jump mechanics of Quake 3 arena; Robot Unicorn Attack. I think the potential mayhem created from a new user trying to learn how to navigate the arena would be extremely fun, it would be the kind of thing people would try as a party game, and compete to see who could learn it the fastest while mocking those who spun out of control. The benefit of having a wrap-around map in every direction means you can spin out of control as much as you like and you won't die, the only consequence will be that you miss the coin that you're trying to collect. This means it won't be frustrating for new users to pick up because most of the fun will just come from seeing how fast and furiously you can bounce and swing around. 

Benefits of the game:

The game is based around one simple mechanic which means we can really polish it and hopefully end up with a fun game. I think this is preferred to biting off more than we can chew and end up having loads of functionality in a game, for example a strategy game, but not having it balanced, fun or polished in the end.

Game 2 – Mashed type Racer by Daniel Falconer

Racing Game

Synopsis Based on the concept of “Scrapyard” or modular racers. The game is a multiplayer combat orientated racing game in the vein of popular PS2 racer “Mashed”.  Players race customisable vehicles and collide with one another in order to gain advantage in classic race modes.

Gameplay:

 Car handling and physical nature are exaggerated to produce an arcade feel to the experience.  Races would be played out over small track environments, resulting in quick frantic races which can be played multiple times. Collisions in the races would maintain the exaggerated feel and would be used as the main component to gain advantage in a race.  

Social elements:

The core of the game revolves around the above premise however; there is opportunity to extend the game socially.

 Most racing games are enhanced through shared experience – games such as mashed relied on the game being played locally with friends to be truly enjoyed.  With the expansion of the gaming market into areas such as social networking there is a unique opportunity to harness the social aspect of the racing genre through integration with sites such as Facebook.  

We propose that this game would benefit from such a link between the game application running on a system such as PS3 and a social networking app. The social and game experience would exist as separate entities which communicate together to provide a feedback loop for the game, as in, players play the experience to post social elements such as status updates or screen grabs to Facebook and in turn the user plays the Facebook game to enhance the core game.

Social core game:

This would harness the power of a system such as PS3 to provide an enjoyable standalone product.  Integration with Facebook would allow users to perhaps capture screen shots of a pertinent victory to goad their friends to challenge them at the game. The player would be able to use items ‘discovered’ in the Facebook game to enhance their car.

Facebook app:

This could be in the contemporary Facebook game style where players spend energy or resources over periods of real time to gain items to add to a “garage”.  These items would be scavenged parts which could be accessed from the main product to enhance the players’ vehicle. The players ‘garage’ could also contain elements such as an AI driver who will race on behalf of the human player whilst offline – to add to the personal aspect of the game. A player could also assign friends to elements such as scavengers and gain bonuses from increased interaction with the Facebook app. The app could also harness the revenue power of facebook. Main features:  - Customisable cars – scavenge parts from destroyed foes or from a scrapyard to improve your vehicle.  - exaggerated arcade racer - play locally with friends.

Game 3 – Horde Pitch by Daniel Falconer

Synopsis: The game is a FPS/RTS hybrid game with a multiplayer focus where players take control of a customisable group of AI controlled enemies and try to defeat other players units.

Before a match begins players can spend accumulated resources to enhance the abilities of their Horde  - adding stronger Units, weapons or armour for instance.  Once play begins players switch between RTS styled controls and first person controls. 

Main gameplay: The bulk of the game will see the player transitioning between two perspectives in order to gain an advantage over their opponent and win the game.  AI units will benefit from the presence of a human controlled character to encourage maximum transition between the two play styles.

RTS mode: This is used by the player to direct their horde to various locations on the map.  Units are limited at the start of each match so players have to think tactically about how they deploy them.  Players can then choose a specified unit to control from a first person perspective.

First Person mode: This acts like a traditional shooter where a player can fire upon enemy units and use their skill to turn the tide of battle. When transitioning from the FPS to RTS modes a timed penalty will act upon the player to discourage “unit hopping.”

Reward and progression: Players will earn credits to spend on areas of the game dependant on their performance in aspects of the game.  For example – if a user’s AI team kill enemy units the player will be rewarded with credits to spend on their horde.  Contemporary units of measurement for FPS performance – such as number of headshots or accuracy - will also reward the player with credits to spend on the player controlled elements.

Environments: Environments will be open and have specified control points – areas to dominate for tactical advantage.  These areas will be important to control for defensive minded players and other game types such as “King of the Hill” or “Search and Destroy” could also be implemented around these points. 

Key Features:  - AI armies - First person mode – turn the tide of battle! - Customisable armies

Week 2 - Intro

This week I have met my new team mates, Marnie and I are still in the same group, other guys are cool as well, I am very happy have a chance to work with them.

In work first unofficial meeting we have talked about our game ideas, and after the meeting we had narrowed our ideas to 3, here is a link to our facebook group page, the very 1st post by Steven is the draft design document for our first game concept.:
http://en-gb.facebook.com/groups/142867165829871/permalink/142916965824891/