If you follow this blog from last week, you’ll see that I was talking about an idea I had for the game. I made a mindmap over the week which were two ideas I found interesting. Even though I am leaning towards one idea, I wanted to expand on the other one anyway. So this week, I continued to expand on the ideas I had from the previous.
The first idea was a game called “Tourist Trap” based on the idea I had from the experience workshop we did. The premise of the game is that you’re a drunk tourist who “accidentally” falls into the ocean after being pushed and lands ashore on an island off the coast of the city. The island is dimly lit, and it turns out you are in a village full of grandmas. They are welcoming to visitors-maybe too welcoming- as they usher you to stay the night until you feel better. A night turns into days, weeks and you slowly realise that you weren’t supposed to be here for long. You must find your way back to the city without startling the grandmas and eventually make your way back home.
I’m not into horror games very much, but I thought this would be an interesting premise for a game. A horror game based on grandmas (who are also demons?) who just want to feed you delicious sweets and cooking? Sign me up… or not, because I didn’t choose this game idea in the end.
The idea I decided on was the game idea on the left. In my previous post, I touched on what I’m interested in. While I like watching horror games, I realistically can’t stomach the idea of making or playing them. Knowing my limits as a game designer is important because I ultimately want to choose an idea that actually pushes, inspires and motivates me to do better.
Expanding on my Idea
There’s no title for it at the moment but it is called the “Rat Game”. In this game, you are a rat who must find a nice place to stay indoors as you have grown tired of staying in the hostile outdoors. You’ve heard exhilarating tales of past Rats who have found cosy places to stay indoors, living a life of “luxury, freedom and food”… so why wouldn’t you want to try it out yourself? You bravely depart from your beloved nest, in search of a new place to call home.
Here are the key elements of the game:
- 5 Levels and 5 different houses to stay at and they progressively get more difficult each time
- Your Currency is called “Cheez” – use this to buy upgrades, clothes or food.
- Objective: Steal food and survive the level
- You can befriend animals: pigeons, dogs, other rats and squirrels
- You cannot befriend (easily): Cats, Foxes and Owls
- No permadeath, only checkpoints at different stages of the level
The origin of this idea isn’t from this week but from a year ago when I submitted my portfolio to the school. I had a dream from the perspective of a Rat, I was invading people’s houses and trying to stay alive. This inspired me to write down everything I could remember from the dream. This game would have a cutesy pixelated art style, while also dealing with some pretty gruesome things. After all, you’re a rat invading people’s houses and they will probably want to deal with you (in some rather unsavoury ways…)
Gameworlds Lecture – Monday
We had a gameworlds workshop on Monday on the importance of the world of your game. Successful franchises have complex worlds that can be translated into different formats. A gameworld can also be a social (roleplay) hub and exploration hub, helping to immerse the player into the game atmosphere.
We did a task where we made a game world using prewritten sentences to make an interesting combination. The final text is below, I had a lot of fun making this with my classmate, Gabby. We picked the most interesting sentences.
The reading for this week talked about a term coined by Henry Jenkins — “Transmedia Worlds”. In The Art of Game Design, they explore this concept more:
Some part of us wants to believe that these worlds aren’t just stories in books, sets of rules, or actors on a screen, but that these worlds actually exist and that maybe, someehow, someday, we can find our way to them.
The Art of Game Design, 3rd Edition
I think being able to translate a game world into different formats is what can make it successful. In the world my classmate and I created, we compared it to Greek Mythology which are legends that are often adapted into plays. Nothing is exactly original, but being able to pick different aspects apart and gather from various sources of inspiration can make your world stand out which is what I want to achieve.
Breaking down the Gameworld. . .
On Thursday, we had a lecture from Oguz Doma, a guest with a background in Architecture. I learnt about the distinction between work and play, one that I had been struggling to define for a while, but the guest put it in simple terms:
“Work is what to body is obliged to do, Play is not.”
I found this an interesting statement because working often has a goal, is not aimless and usually has a time limit. Play is the opposite of that, you don’t have a goal and might not entirely have an explanation for what you are doing and why you derive fun from it. So how do you create a balanced line of “work” (the objective, what the player is obliged to do) and “play” (exploration, what the player is not obliged to do)?
The environment/gameworld is what we use to distinguish this; the objects, what you can interact with and not. Therefore, Architecture is inherently important to game design as it helps build the world and setting. We had a few examples of asset breakdowns, for example: rocks – what type of rock – whether its an interactable rock or not. In a high-budget game, these assets can spawn into the 1000s, so stripping them to their bare essentials is what most developers need. Even as an indie developer, we should work smart, not hard.
For our task, we chose a biome or domain in our game ideas where we break down the interactions, objectives, atmosphere and visual sensory details of the area. This gave me more clarity on how I want my game to be. I chose the “Tree” domain, as it would be a massive hub for trading inter-species items. The tree would nest squirrels on the lower branch, Pigeons on the middle and Owls on the top. There would be a “hierarchy” of sorts between the animals, where the items they trade become increasingly more valuable the higher the player goes up the tree.
I thought about having a “climb” skill which allows you to unlock the higher levels of the tree as you keep gaining XP for that particular skill. I think the atmosphere would change with every branch, as I’ve detailed below. The lower regions would be more colourful, then it would gradually get more desaturated and neutral to exude a sense of “power” at the top, much reflecting the structure of our society.
I’m not sure whether I would add a “deep” analogy about this structure, but it’s something that would probably be familiar to the player.
Overall, I’ve learnt more information about architecture’s ties to games, trying to reinforce the idea of “learning the rules before you break them” to myself. Visual-sensory details (lighting, colours and sounds) are a game designer’s best friend!
Thanks for reading and stay tuned!