Essential Experience

Establishing the essential experience for the player can be very important in developing an engaging game concept. Conveying the experience of a specific emotion creates a unique game experience for the player.

Based on the feeling of imposter syndrome, a game could extract this experience through the idea of constantly ‘keeping up a front’ through shapeshifting.

Based on the feeling of anxiety, a game could extract this experience by being constantly attacked without knowing how to defend yourself, and the moment you finally figure out a way to deal with the creature, it stops working. The player has to add more and more steps to compensate but everything stops working eventually, representing the unhealthy development of coping mechanisms and safety behaviours.

Making an antagonist and protagonist based on something I hate:

• anxiety
• minimalism
• calls
• spending money
• scented candles

anxiety – the protagonist and antagonist are the same person, but you don’t know? or just personified anxiety that follows you around?
minimalism – min vs max, the great eraser loves destroying worldly possessions to liberate the world. They become less and less complicated as a character until they eventually disappear.
calls – radio man, the disembodied voice that follows you and asks you questions you aren’t prepared to answer
spending money – tinkering friend keeps breaking everything you own until you have to spend more money
scented candles – pyromaniac and candle duo? absurd villains that keep each other in check. Gas?

I decided to expand upon the minimalism vs maximalism idea, playing with the idea that the antagonist is trying to save the world, and as they overtake the world, the art style becomes more and more simple, as does he. The maximalist protagonist was designed based on harajuku fashion, specifically the decora subculture, since it’s such a maximalist, colourful, fashion style, although my own character is much more simple. I also played around with the idea that the world would change art styles dependant on who was ahead, from realism, to impressionism, to Lichtenstein comic style, to simple cartoon, to geometric abstract and minimalism.

My final idea for the essential experience is the feeling of leaving for Uni or moving away from family for the first time – letting go, moving on and being forced out of your comfort zone. Based on the narrative of someone being forced out of their home after living a very sheltered life in one place, the player character ends up joining a circus, a completely unfamiliar environment. This idea was inspired by seeing street performers in the Winchester city centre, something I would never see at home.

Supporting the experience with aesthetics, story, technology and mechanics, I wanted to focus on the idea that the game starts with a completely different aesthetic. The concept of a circus brings to mind bright colours and big crowds, where I want to contrast this with the start of the game which starts with a much darker and duller colour scheme. Considering the essential experience of feeling out of place, I liked the idea of a shapeshifting mechanic representing a want to fit in.