PROJECT II - Prototype/Proposal

My 3 Concept game ideas

The aim of the project is to sketch and iterate multiple game ideas that will have a serious message which may regard physical or mental health plus environmental issues. We will aim to design and construct a physical prototype for our chosen game idea. We will also have to code in a digital interactive prototype of the game displaying the character and the environment. We will begin with development sketches of our game ideas and articulate the game mechanics, ideas plus the proposal.

I came up with 3 game concepts and will explain them in detail below


DRUNKEN TIME

This idea outlines the effects of binge/excessive drinking, particually during working hours. The environment portrayed in the game is a building site in South Auckland - this refers to the recent alcoholism issue in South Auckland and the environment is based on this particular area. The players character is simply an intoxicated looking guy with a beer glass in his right hand and can take a drink to heal himself by pressing a button in the top right hand side of the screen. The environment will have moving platforms (will move left to right, up & down, in a rotational circle etc.) plus moving cranes which the character will be able to walk across, flying choppers which will have landing skids that the player may grab on to etc, plus diggers, unstable buildings that will collapse as soon as the player sets foot on it. These objects would move much faster the more intoxicated the character got, and would become almost impossible at his full intoxication level before he dies of alcohol poisoning. The issue in the game I thought was clear and well address however this game didn't make the cut seeing as the aim of the game was unclear and wasn't very challenging plus the game would require a lot of time and effort to code.

Below are some concept sketches of the character plus the game objects

RED BULL RUSH

I was really keen on this idea to start with, at is has a very clear theme, RedBull, however the message in the game failed as it taught players caffeine was an energy boost and there were no flaws relating to the effects of caffeine. The game was based throughly on Robot Unicorn Dash, except the mechanic was a Mega Charge ability, which allowed the character to perform a fired up fast paced charge which would allow him to break through anything inside apart from land platforms. The ability was limited as there was a bar that would run out while performing the mega charge. The player could refill the bar by collecting red bull cans scattered across the screen. The bull has 3 specific movements, left arrow key which enables brakes, right arrow key which enables Mega Charge + space bar which enables smack down attacks. There was one or two flaws to the game though, it was quite ripped of from the Robot unicorn attack plus it wouldn't be a good idea to make it unless the RedBull company was paying us. So this didn't make the cut either.

I was pleased with the character concepts and designs however so I decided to show them onscreen below.

HYPERTENSION HEIGHTS

After weeks of decision making and choosing between game concepts, this idea finally took priority. The game outlines the issues regarding safety in certain environments, and although obvious, the level design and the aim of the game was very clear to me. The game addresses the climbing mechanic as a whole, enabling the character to climb certain kinds of rocky terrain inside a volcano with a limited time to reach the top. The character has the ability to jump from rock to rock. The character has limited energy and can restore his energy by collecting air tanks. The hot lava at the bottom of the level will slowly rise after about five seconds and the player must work their way up to the top of the volcano before so. In secondary levels falling rocks will be introduced plus enemy creatures such as bats which will hinder the players progress. The levels will also introduce ropes which will break after a few seconds and reappear again. I was happy with the level design as a whole, which will start of basic and not to challenging. The character design is very simple and will be easy to animate. The environment will consist of much more detail though. The characters abilities vary per level, and will be able to climb upside down on certain rocky areas but will not be able to climb over corners. The character has no attacks as the game is simply to dodge dangerous objects and species. The game addresses the issue of climbing without a harness in dangerous environments such as active volcanos.

Control keys are simply arrow keys to move left, right, up, down etc; pressing the J key will enable the character to jump;
pressing J while holding down an arrow key will enable the character to jump left/right/up/down etc

The character designs/concepts are portrayed below in an orderly fashion

PHYSICAL PROTOTYPE FOR HYPERTENSION HEIGHTS

The main materials I used for the game prototype was cardboard thickness paper in two different hues of charcoal, the pale hue was used for the climbable rocks and the dark hue was used for the background. The non-climbable rocks scattered around the level ere made from moulding clay and painted gold. The arrows inside the level indicate the arrow directional keys to indicate which direction the player must travel to work their way up the volcano. The prototype is quite simple as you can see, it could be made into a board game where there are several squares connecting to the arrow keys, and one must not land on a rock or the player will be sent back to start. To include more fun, the games steps can be counted and as for every step the player takes past a certain point, the lava rises towards one step at a time, and if the player gets sent back to that step for whatever reason, the player is out of the game.

The actual game will be much more complex than the prototype itself as it will include much more obstacles such as bats, falling rocks, lava & ropes etc. On the digital prototype the obstacles will be shown more clearly.

DIGITAL PROTOTYPE FOR HYPERTENSION HEIGHTS


In Game Objects:

Level Design & Gameplay Screenshot:

P1 - The Study Of Mechanics

PROJECT ONE - VARIATIONS (The Study Of Mechanics)

My 3 Chosen Game Mechanics:
Health:
I chose this mechanic because it is a very common mechanic used in video games to determine how much damage the character can withstand. Hit-points are often depend on the power of the character, in games like Pokemon, the number of hit-points are dependent on the level/stage of the character. Character (or object) health is often displayed in bars, which represent a thin, horizontal rectangle full of colour. The coloured area gradually reduces towards the left as health is lost.





Upgrade:

I chose to briefly analyse the Upgrade mechanic, because it is interesting as it also plays as a built in feature as well as a mechanic. The Upgrade mechanic has the purpose of allowing the player to change their character/object or change their character/objects abilities in order to improve combat or make them harder to destruct.

In games like Age Of Empires, the upgrade will usually commence by pressing a button installed into the game. 90% of the time, the further you progress in the game, the more upgrades available.

Editor:

The Editor is a built-in mechanic exclusive to a small number of real-time strategy games such as Warcraft, Age of Empires & Civilisation. I chose to look at this one because it is a unique and interesting mechanic. The Editor allows the player to build their own game using the games built in objects, terrain and characters. The player will simply choose each players civilisation and colour (which will code the player). To play your custom-made game, simply save your map and the game will be able to be accessed and played in the game menu.

Health Mechanic Investigation:

In many cases health can refer to the hit-points, status or lives x of the character or object. Health can be displayed in many different and interesting ways, which may not include bars, but numbers (or another unique visual aid) as a visual indicator.

The aesthetics and dynamics that accompany the health mechanic will be demonstrated in the examples of games I have chosen below.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary

In the action/platformer game, the characters health is displayed in a rectangular bar like many games. When underwater, Lara has an extra bar for 'holding her breath,' an interesting feature built on top of the health mechanic in this game.

To regenerate health, Lara must obtain bags of medicine throughout the game

Crash Bandicoot (Original)

The old platformer game Crash Bandicoot demonstrates the characters health with a visual feature - the characters mask.

The character must spin crates to regenerate health and gain lives.

Pokemon (Original Handheld Series)

In these games, the health bar will appear green when full, yellow when half full and red when low (will also let off an alarm sound at this point)

In this game health can be restored using collected items such as potions, moomoomilk etc.

Health can also be affected by status problems such as poisoning, burns etc.