Gameplay rough idea 

This was my first initial idea of how the gameplay will play out: 

“The game alternates between platforming in a front-on view (e.g., Super Mario Bros DS) and puzzle-solving in a bird’s-eye view (e.g., Hades). Players use a water gun to solve puzzles and avoid or divert enemies rather than to kill. The game features one main character who changes outfits in each area they travel to. An example level involves fixing broken water management panels while evading sand or fire creatures. Players use a bow and arrow to create temporary water lines that block enemies and allow traversal, emphasizing diversion over combat.” 

Developing and expanding on this I’m going to explain my thoughts and further explain this: 

Perspective Switching – platformer and puzzles  

Within the game there are two perspectives, front on view and a birds eye view. The player does not control the switch between them, instead it changes when the player enters a different area. These areas and perspectives have different purposes in-game, when the player is front-on perspective the area is predominantly about avoiding enemies and completing easy tasks and shooting panels, switches and buttons so that you can get to the puzzle area, you can see more in depth what the front-on level look like in the Levels section. The Birds-eye view is in the puzzle areas, this involves using the weapon to slow / divert / distract enemies to complete the more in depth puzzle relating to the specific water crisis issue in that region. I have talked about what issues are in what regions in the Levels section. 

Water Weapons (See finished renditions in the Animations & Prototypes section)

One of the subtle features in this game is the removal of violence, specifically killing things. This creates a unique mechanic of using weapons as avoidance tools rather than killing tools. As such, to match the underlying games theme and essential experience, the weapons are water related to reinforce the idea of water scarcity. Moving onto the specific weapons, I’ve started to develop upon my previous ideas, and as such the weapons have been completely changed. The water bow’s fundamental mechanics remain but the physical weapon has changed. The 4 weapons are now, a water sword (Londinium), water sling shot (Nefarun), water fishing rod (Bayonara), snow launcher (Andemara) each of these weapons have a different utility. I go into more depth on the utility of these weapons in the Mechanics section. But here is a short summary of what they each do: 

• water sword (Londinium) – with every swipe of the sword it unleashes a wave of water, this creates a ranged attack that pushes back enemies whilst also being able to activate panels, switches and buttons. 
• water sling shot (Nefarun) – launches water pellets at enemies which slows them down 
• water fishing rod (Bayonara) – Once you throw out the fishing rod you have a couple of options, it can be used to activate things, grab things from a distance, but mainly can create a wall of water from point of throw to where it lands after the fishing rod is retracted which will divert enemies movement 
• snow launcher (Andemara) – simply, launches snowballs to activate out of reach sections and also freeze enemies temporarily