Parker included a variety of basic core mechanics for the game throughout his GDD. Most of these are based around the concept of physics or lack there of.
The player character has different abilities that they can charge throughout the game. In his GDD Parker established that these abilities should be charged up through the player exploration and collecting energy shards as they progress through the level. These shards will add up and give ‘charge’ to the different abilities the player character can have. According to his games design document the players are able to select different areas this ability is able to effect, they can choose to have an ability to effect a single object, multiple or more of an area of effect.
Powerup ability selection
- can effect a single object or multiple
- can have a radius of effect
The player should be able to easily and intuitively be able to grasp how the mechanic works. – should be an introductory tutorial or information given regarding this as it can be quite complex.
The different power ups
- Posssession
An ability where the player is able to ‘possess’ an object. Having the ability to move it around, moving this object also directly effects the player character as it takes the same course of movement as the object.
- Gravity
The gravity mechanic should affect one specific area of the Gameworld with the player having the ability to place this using their charge from shards. This gravity mechanic should last for roughly ten seconds and extends both up and down infinitely until it reaches a surface within the game.
- Velocity
sets the velocity of an object or the player in a direction indicated by an arrow.
- Friction
includes both low friction and high friction surfaces, with the visual indicators being jagged lines that change based on the level of the surfaces friction. These visual indicators should also align with the direction this mechanic is going in.
- Elasticity
This refers to how bouncy a surface is within the Gameworld. The visual cues for this type of surface should be indicated by circles within the surfaces texture. The larger a circle more more elasticity the surface has.
Having these core mechanics broken down into something more concise and readable is important to be able to refence onto later in the production stages of the game. Also considering how many of these mechanics have visual indicators for their ability this is something I personally should refer back to when designing some of these elements for within the game.
Due to the complex and four dimensional nature of these mechanics I don’t feel as though i can sort them into just one of the different industry categories I had researched. I honestly feel as though these mechanics span all three main sections, action, strategy, and exploration.