Design and Concept
Week 1 Workshop
During the workshop on this first week we learned and discussed video game industry history, from 1962 to early 90's, from which we were tasked to discuss which events had the largest impact.
"Which of these historical moments were the largest impact, in your opinion?"
The 3rd Generation of home entertainment systems. Home entertainment systems for video games have been attempted before, each generation brought elements that made the 3rd generation possibly the most successful into making home video games entertainment systems popular and available for the general public. Although every moment in the video game history industry has had a long lasting impact, making video games entertainment available to everyone is one of the moments I think has the most importance to draw in attention to the industry and make it what it is today.
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The first home video game console was the Magnavox Odyssey released in 1972, it could display three square dots and a vertical line on a TV screen, players were able to control two of the dots while the third was controlled by the system. The system featured two rectangular controllers with a reset button and 3 knobs. The console came with other items such as dice and TV overlays to change the type of game. It was a console that heavily relied on accessories for the different games players could play. This console, personally, was a turning point into making video games accessible to everyone by turning playing video games into a commercially viable option, so more people could enjoy this type of entertainment and making it more widespread.
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In the 2nd generation of home consoles came another feature important for the development of home consoles, the introduction of ROM cartridges. The Fairchild Channel F, released in 1976, was the first console to have this feature instead of built-in games, as well as having and internal microprocessor. Later on, in 1977 Atari released their own version of a CPU based console, the Atari 2600, Atari had the rights to various popular arcade games, which they ported into their home console system with a more intuitive controller, a joystick and a single button. This I believe would contribute a lot to distributing video games and making the controls easier and more intuitive to play.
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Even after the video game crash of 1983, the 3rd generation has managed to pull back the traction into the video game industry. The video game crash consisting of many factors, such as personal computers with better memory and processing power, and market saturation, as there were many game consoles and games available of poor quality. One of the most famous cases of poor-quality games is E.T., labelled as the worst game in history, it contributed heavily to poor consumer confidence which brought a recession to the video game industry.
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The 3rd Generation of consoles was the generation that helped the industry both recover from the crash and boom further than before. In 1983 Nintendo released an 8-bit home console, Family Computer also known as Famicom. Later in 1985 a redesigned version was released in North America, renamed Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
With the NES, Nintendo made agreements for third party game publishers to release games to their console, which became industry standard since then. The NES used the interchangeable cartridges idea from the 2nd generation of consoles, and a very different controller model than past generations, detachable, rectangular shaped with D-pad cross shaped directional buttons, A, B, Select and Start buttons. The controllers were of a simple design but very user friendly and intuitive for any player. Other controller was released for the NES in form of a gun, the NES zapper, this controller used on NES compatible shooter games such as Duck Hunt.
The NES controller and peripherals, as well as third party developers created a huge business and commercial model, game consoles were not limited to games published by the console developer company, making games of better quality being developed, and more ways of playing games on a console other than using the regular controller, on top of it being simple yet effective, highly contributed to the popularity of the console. With the advancements throughout the years in computing, more elaborate games both visually and complex were being released into the newer systems, leaving more room for fun and creative games from third-party publishers.
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Home entertainment consoles had more focus on quality and fun, bringing back more traction to the industry, games were more fun, diverse and easy to play, easier to get into and affordable to the average person.
I do not think the industry would have boomed as much as it as if not for the fundamental work done on the 3rd generation of consoles, which gave way to resurrecting the video game market from the 1983 crash and allowing the industry to develop further into what we know it today.
Magnavox Odyssey
Fairchild Channel F
Atari 2600
Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom)
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
Week 1 Blog Post
"Choose a ‘classic’ game from the 1970-1980s and write about how this product impacted games design. Think of the ways that the game was important in terms of the history of video game development, and its impact on other titles or technologies since."
A classic game that had a major impact on the design of games is The Legend of Zelda, especially on the action-adventure role-playing genre.
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The Legend of Zelda, also known as The Hyrule Fantasy: Zelda no Densetsu, was released in Japan in 1986 as an action-adventure video game for the Family computer Disk System. Later on, in 1987 was released in North America and PAL region for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
In this game the player takes control of Link, Link embarks on a journey to save princess Zelda who was kidnapped by Ganon, in order to fight Ganon and save the princess Link has to find the fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom that are scattered around the land within dungeons.
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The gameplay revolves around exploring the overworld and dungeons in a fantasy setting, fighting off monsters with a sword and shield, as well as otter useful items that can be found within the dungeons, such as the Flute and the Boomerang. The game follows a non-linear model, the player can freely explore the overworld and there is not a specific order to complete the dungeons, whoever, some dungeons can only be accessed using some items found in specific dungeons.
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The Legend of Zelda, North American box art
The Legend of Zelda introduces a role-playing (RPG) model, in which the player plays the role of a character and follows the story of this character, due to the limitations of the hardware a lot of the story elements were only included in the manual of the game. Unlike some popular games of the time, this game does not have a score focus but instead of exploring the world, fighting monsters in real time and solving logic puzzles. The battle system had an ease of access in which the player could swap equipped item with the press of a button so the action element would go uninterrupted.
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I believe this game helped shift focus from score driven games to a more interactive story telling type of games, it showed that games do not have to include a score or have a winner to be a game.
The Legend of Zelda, served as a stepping block to the RPG genre, it served as basis for various games with its open world fantasy setting, uninterrupted action, non-linear playthrough and even style of music.
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Another element this game introduced into the design of games was the battery backup saving, this enabled players to pick off where they previously left the game without having to start it all over again. This element came to become a standard in video games later on, as progress saving would enable to players to keep their progress and eliminating the “have to start all over again” feeling, games did not have to be just a one-shot adventure.
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The foundations of this game still do serve as a model for many modern games of this era with it allowing character development, collecting gear and save function, attacking at the press of a button, exploration elements, it was truly revolutionary at the time, if not for The Legend of Zelda many of the games we can enjoy today could have been very different, quite possible the industry would not have as much reach in audience without this foundation.
Week 2 Workshop
As part of week 2's discussion, the main objective was to discuss the types of designers required for certain aspects of a video game. I decided to discuss about the Game Mass Effect.
Mass Effect is a science fiction third person role-playing action shooter video game franchise developed and published by Bioware. The first game was released in 2007 for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Windows.
The first Mass Effect game is particularly special to me as it is a mixture of interactive storytelling, exploration and action gameplay. The game features character creation and a dialogue wheel mechanic, it also has a morality system with certain options in dialogue being unlocked if the player has enough points in the specific moral alignment for that option.
Player some of the player choices in the game have consequences that are reflected on the game, one of the most impactful ones being with teammate to leave behind on one of the later main story missions. This specific choice is also reflected on later games.
Mass effect also allows the player to interact with many of the side characters, some of which are possible to romance if the player wishes, there is a character that the player can romance regardless of if they are playing as a male character or female character, while other routes are locked depending on the character’s gender.
Mass Effect is also rich in lore, with different alien races each with their own cultures and history.
The soundtracks were also a big part of the game, really made it feel “spacey”.
From my personal perspective all these elements were main contributors for how immersive the game feels as well as being an authentic cinematic adventure.
To make this game I believe took a Lead Game Designer with a very specific vision for how the game should look like, such was the role of Preston Watamaniuk.
Drew Karpsyshyn worked as the Lead Writer for this game, his role being the major role in developing the entire narrative and script, given all the different dialogue options, implication of the player choices and lore, the game is absolutely huge and rich.
Given how big the game is, it took several Concept Artists to come up with the concept for all the aeras from text to visual interpretations all under a Creative Director.
The Cinematic Director (Shane Welbourn) was also essential in how the game cinematic experience felt as well as the Audio Lead (Steven Sim) to direct the audio complementing the visual experience.
Mass Effect Box Art
Week 2 Blog Post
"Choose a specific genre of game. List all of the designer roles and considerations that would be needed to create a game in this genre, alongside any other specialist roles. State your case as to why it would be important to employ for these positions."
RPG
Among all genres of games out there, there a very specific genre that has players assuming the role of a character in all types of fictional settings. Generally, the player follows a narrative and plays out the role of a character within the narrative, this type of game is often called a Role-Playing Game (RPG) (Bostan, 2009).
There are various manners of playing this type of game, from tabletop to live action role-playing (LARP), which has players physically playing out characters in real life (Hitchens & Drachen, 2009). But the focus here is on RPGs within video games and what type of considerations and designers are needed in order to create an RPG video game.
RPGs in general have strong narratives that drive the player through the main story quest in a well developed fictional world. For example in the case of Dragon Age: Origins (Bioware, 2009), the lore is deep and rich, in the fictional world of Thedas there are regions each with their own culture and religious beliefs. This is only one part of what makes and RPG.
There are five basic elements shared among traditional RPGs:
“- The ability to improve your character over the course of the game by increasing his statistics or levels.
- A menu-based combat system with several choices of skills, spells, and active powers as well as an active inventory system with wearable equipment such as armors and weapons.
- A central quest that runs throughout the game as a storyline and additional (and usually optional) side quests.
- The ability to interact with elements of the environment or storyline through additional abilities (e.g. lockpicking, disarming traps, communication skills, etc.)
- The existence of certain character classes that define the characteristics, skills, abilities, and spells of a character (e.g. wizard, thief, warrior, etc.)” (Anon, 23 April 2020).
These are all elements to consider when creating a game of the RPG genre, and for such specific designers are required. (Blromero, 20 November 2007)
As an RPG is narrative and lore rich it requires a Game Writer and Content Designers. A Game Writer is essential in order to write the narrative and write the world and lore in text format.
Meanwhile a Content Designer is as important since they are also relatively involved in the world’s Narrative and Content of the world. They would also be responsible for elements that the player can interact with in the environment and story.
A Creative Director is a very important role on this genre, as their role involved making the game look good, an RPG set in a fictious world requires a lot of thought in how this world is presented to the player.
Perhaps one of the most important roles under the creative department is the role of Concept Designer. As their role is what brings the world created in text into a visual form by creating detailed designs of the world and visual representation of it.
A System Designer Role is also essential in this genre of game as they work on groups of elements working together within the game, it’s a more technical role involving numbers, such as weapon damage and number of items obtained in gathering, they bring a balance to the gameplay.
Programmers to program the game, writing the code that makes the interactions possible among other, they translate into code the elements of the game to make the game functional and playable.
Technical Designers which are an important connection between design and programming, their role functions as a medium in between the two to work on the technical issues that occur.
UI Designer, they design the user interface within a game, what the player sees on screen that they can interact with, as well as commands and menus. The HUD is also their responsibility, and it is important to be able to see for example the health bar and skills bar in an RPG genre of game.
Level Designer to design the levels, from walkable areas, enemy positioning, advantageous spots, their role is to plan the experience of the player in each given area.
Lead Designer, the role responsible to manage the entire team of designers, to make the decisions and set the core and features of the game. Their role is to manage the process of the game development and make sure it keeps to the vision intended for the game.
All the roles are essential in the development of a video game regardless of the genre. Each type of designer has an important role in the development, without any of them it would be very difficult to develop a complete playable and fun game.
References
Anon., 23 April 2020. Techopedia.com. [Online]
Available at: https://www.techopedia.com/definition/27052/role-playing-game-rpg
[Accessed 06 March 2022].
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Bioware (2009) Dragon Age: Origins [Video game]. Electronic Arts.
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Blromero., 20 November 2007. Applied Game Design. [Online]
Available at: https://bbrathwaite.wordpress.com/2007/11/20/types-of-game-designers/
[Accessed 06 March 2022].
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Bostan, B., 2009. Requirements analysis of presence: Insights from a RPG game. Computers in Entertainment (CIE), 7(1), pp.1-17.
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Hitchens, M. and Drachen, A., 2009. The many faces of role-playing games. International journal of role-playing, 1(1), pp.3-21.
Week 3 Blog Post
"Document progress on your physical game from the Week 3 activity. Upload any photographs and context. Write some notes regarding each of the 6 processes of creating the game and conclude with how you think the activity went overall, alongside any improvements that you could suggest in hindsight."
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Step 1 – The Pattern
Step 2 – The Narrative
Step 3 – The Mechanics
Step 4 – The Players
Step 5 – The Conflict
Step 6 – Play the Game
A Merchant’s Folly (possible title)
During Week 3 Workshop we were tasked to make a physical game. We were grouped together in groups of two to make a Race to the End type of game. At our disposal we had paper, coins, pens and dice.
For this Race to the End game we made it a type that players would have to reach the end and whoever had the most coins would win the game.
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Step 1 – The Pattern
Initially we though of making an $ shape to symbolise money, as the objective is to collect coins, with the line in the middle being a “fast travel” point, but fast traveling along a single S shape would make players skip too many steps. In the end we elongated the shape. There would be “?” spaces for random events along the way and town checkpoints as well.
Step 2 – The Narrative
As the game was on coin gathering, we thought of putting the players in the position of travelling merchants.
As merchants they would have to travel along the map and pass cities/towns where they would sell their goods for coins. At the end they would reach the destination, a bank, to deposit their coins, with players getting a deposit bonus depending on the order of arrival, with the first player to reach the end getting a larger bonus in coins than second, or third.
Step 3 – The Mechanics
In other for the players to move, they would have to roll a die and walk the number of steps shown on the die. If a player were to fall on a Random Event space they would have to roll the die again for an outcome, they could be negative, positive or neutral, with positive events giving the chance of getting more coins at towns, and negative chances meaning losing coins of getting a movement penalty.
Players would start the game with 2 coins, on each city they would pass, they would get 2 coins, possibly more depending on the outcome of the random events.
Fast travelling would be possible if the player stopped on a fast travel space and spent 2 coins in order to go to the next fast travel spot along the map area. Players could also spend 1 coin to lay a trap for players behind to hinder them, for example, the next player that would pass that trap would get a penalty on number of steps taken on that turn.
A mechanic we thought but did not implement was terrain penalties, such as mountains and lakes having an effect on player movement.
Step 4 – The Players
The game was designed to be played from 2 to 4 players.
Step 5 – The Conflict
The main conflict would be between players, as it is a race to the end type of game. As players could spend coins to hinder players that would add to this conflict.
On fast travelling spots the players would have to decide whether to spend 2 coins to fast travel and at the same time missing on passing one of the towns, in this manner they would miss on earning those 2 coins form the town, the pros for the situation being ahead for a chance at first place for a bigger deposit bonus.
Random events were made to add conflict, for a possibility of good, neutral or bad turn of events.
Step 6 – Play the Game
Although we did not have a chance to play the game ourselves, upon observing our colleagues playing the game I thought more conflict chances could have been added, such as more random event chances and more random events.
Overall, I think the game played smoothly with the coin system being balanced enough to create rivalry between the players as intended.
The features of the game could have been improved, in specific the random events since during testing players hardly ever stepped on these spaces. And with more spaces adding more variation to these events, for example rolling 2 dice so the total number of different outcomes could be 15 with rolling a 2 giving really bad scenario and rolling 16 a really good scenario. Perhaps instead of rolling dice making cards with different outcomes in this manner creating more game replayability.
Game Rules
 Board |  Board draft |  |
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 System rules 1 |  system rules 2 |  rules (unfinished) |
 Coin calculations for balance |
Week 4 Workshop
"Workshop: Mechanics of Play
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Step 1 : Start with a Profession
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Step 2 : Create a Goal
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Step 3 : Work backward to Dynamics
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Step 4 : Identify Mechanics that might produce this Dynamic
Can you turn this into a tabletop game, or a plan for a video game?"
The task for this workshop was to pick a profession and try to turn it into a type of game. I picked the profession of Astronaut. From that I set as a goal for the player to fix the ship and go home.
The game would start with the ship breaking down, a random set of things would break down at the beginning of the game. For example in one instance the ship's engine or life support system would break down. From there the player would have a time limit to identify the issue and use the help of a manual that would tell the player information on each type of system, a troubleshot guide and which tools the player would need to fix that system. The player would then need to find the tools that would be spread around the ship, get to the area of the system that needs fixing and follow the instructions on the manual, some of which purposely illusive so the player struggles to understand the instructions a bit.
As Tabletop
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As Video Game
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Week 5 Character Design
I had a medieval setting in mind with a cool, strong, and experienced character, which would mean slightly older.
I wanted this character to be independent and stubborn, so much one could say it was a boring type of character, not very protagonist like. A character that struggles with emotions and not very adventurous, although circumstances would lead to venturing away. Through these circumstances, developing a liking to adventure of some sort breaking away from short sight and finding more pleasure in life.
Medieval Setting
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Core Details
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Name: Signas
Age: Early 30’s
Gender: Female
Voice: Mature, with foreign western European accent
Sexuality: Gay (hasn’t come to terms with it and would be discriminated for it)
Aesthetics/Visual Notes: Dirty blonde hair and deep blue eyes; Strong and somewhat intimidating looking; Has a scar on right side on the jaw line to upper neck; Leather armour with straps for leather plate and possibly carry large weapon on the back and waist weapon strap for longsword and dagger
State of mind (at the beginning of the story)
Needs: Closure from her past, although she does not realize it.
Wants: Stability and some form of structure in life, although part of her wants to leave everything behind and go back to the village she grew up in, which defies the structure and routine she already built over the years in the foreign town she currently resides in.
Objectives: : Find stable work that suits her desire for order and stability, such as guard duty.
Motivations: To be useful with her skills in upholding what she values, such as justice.
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Personality Traits
16 Personalities – ISTJ (https://www.16personalities.com/istj-personality)
Independent, closed off and socially indifferent/inept, has difficulty trusting people. Down to earth and realistic.
Stubborn with a strong sense of morality and duty. Prefers to get down to business than idle chatting.
Not adept at making friends. Does not care for personal social standing or reputation. Prefers to have a good well-rounded plan to tackle a situation and keep her things organized. Cautious and logical, capable of remaining calm in most situations unless there is something that could potentially trigger her past traumas, in such cases she finds it difficult to remain logical. Signas prefers to do a good and thorough job which sometimes can be overwhelming, but she will still try to keep a good standard. Takes pride in the work she does even if sometimes it goes against her personal beliefs, work is work.
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Character’s Relationships
Has no notable close relationships has she does not trust people easily, she is familiar with the leader of the guard, Reynaldo, as sometimes she gets shady jobs from them.
Although Signas dislikes idle chatting she has found herself to be enjoying small interactions with Miranda, the daughter of the tavern owner who works there most evenings and has offered to teach Signas how to read and write.
Mother, Regina: Her mother who abandoned her and is now estranged from, she does not know the whereabouts of her mother and feels like she will always resent her for abandoning her and her father.
Father, Henry: Holds profound respect and care for her father who she believes to be deceased.
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Character’s History
Signas lived in a village with her father who was a farmer, so she was used to work the fields making her physically fit, on her 8th birthday her mother had abandoned them to seek the comfort of living in a town.
One day when she was 12 her village was being raided and her father send her on their only horse to seek refuge with an aunt from her mother’s side. This aunt a couple months after, sold her to a travelling merchant for a few silvers as she did not want the burden of caring for her.
The merchant often mistreated her so one day she ran away and has been living in the streets of a city unknown to her, where they spoke a language she did not understand.
In order to survive she stole food and other items to sell them for money as well as fighting off when trouble came knocking. Once she gathered enough money, she bought armour and equipment as well as shack on the outskirts of the city and tried to find some work with the city guard. When the city guard was not able to provide work, she undertook mercenary work that took her from place to place within the country.
Signas grew not knowing how to read or write, but the daughter of the tavern owner who is a scholar has recently begun teaching her, so at this point Signas is only able to partially read and write simple sentences.
Story Arc
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Overview:
One day Signas gets a job to protect a noble lady from Signa’s home country, this noble lady turns out to be her mother Regina.
Regina appeals to Signas to reconcile each other, even though they have been separated for so long they were still family, mother and daughter, something that Regina asked Signas to keep a secret.
Signas eventually left the city with Regina to keep working as her personal escort. During the trip back to their home country Regina asks Signas to deliver important letters to specific people, generally influential people as Regina was often too busy to deliver them herself.
They reach the western country, Signas discovers she has 2 half-brothers, the elder one a 20 year old with an inclining for politics and a 19 year old who seems to always get in trouble an often feels responsible for looking after him even if he could not know they were in fact siblings.
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A couple months after being in the Western country a civil war breaks out which results in the Northern country intervening and occupying the land. The culprits of war being the influential people Signas was asked to deliver letters to. They were caught and tortured, before being hanged for treason they gave Signas description who was immediately apprehended. Regina denying knowing about this, essentially using Signas as an escape goat for her plans, whatever they were.
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Luckily for Signas, the 19-year-old had taken a liking to her and believed her to be innocent, so he bribed a few people and managed to sneak Signas out of the Western capital. However, she would be on her own.
SIgnas betrayed by her own mother not understanding why is on the run, wanted for treason, dead or alive. Her mistrust for people aggravated even more, but not completely destroyed as there was at least someone who believed in her. She got involved into something bigger than her and was not sure how to get out of the situation. She decided to return to the only place she knew like the back of her hand and away from the western country, to try and come up with a plan to both prove her innocence and find her mother’s plans.
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Intro to story
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Signas daily routine involves going to Reynaldo the captain of the guard to ask for work, when that proves unfruitful, she spends some time around the tavern and city center for other types of work.
One day Reynaldo himself came looking for her as there was a job that required special attention and a particular skill that the usual guard did not have, knowing the western language.
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The job was to join some of the experienced guards as an escort a noble lady of a country in the west, Signas home country. It was a well-paid job and possibly a breakthrough to officially join the guard, so Signas did not hesitate in accepting.
Reynaldo took Signas to meet the lady, Signas upon seeing her, found her face rather familiar, although she was not able to tell from where. The Lady introduced herself as Regina, also a familiar name. Signas brushed these impressions off, as she was here to provide a service. Lady Regina also denoted that Signas looked familiar to her.
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A week had passed since beginning the escort work, on this particular night, Signas was tasked to stand guard by Lady Regina’s quarters in the Lord’s estate. That was the first time Signas was on duty by herself, usually would be the Lord’s guards but Lady Regina herself asked for Signas personally.
Upon reaching the door Signas was supposed to guard, the door opens and Regina invites Signas in, reluctantly she follows through, closing the door behind her and standing by. Regina walks towards the lit fireplace in the room, with her back turned to Signas and then remarks that Signa’s eyes are exactly like her father’s, and why she looked so familiar…
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Signas Character Turnaround
Week 6 Branching Narrative
For the branching Design Narrative I have used Twine, but before that I wrote a rough idea of how the interaction between the character and another character in the world would go like.
I wanted the player to have the impression that they could leave the conversation at any time, this would lead to one of the endings.
So far I have not included the name of the little girl in the story itself as I wanted it to be known later, in one of the pathways of the story.
Narrative Design
Characters:
Player (Signas)
Little Girl (Marcella)
One normal morning as Signas goes in the city towards the guard barracks to ask for work, she is stopped on the way by a little girl (Marcella) who offers her a flower.
Marcella tries to charge a silver for the flower. The player may wish to refuse the flower, throw it back to the girl or ask why.
If asked why Marcella tells Signas that she is trying to get money to support her sick mother as her father had run away from a debt he had acquired from gambling, and the people he had lost to were knocking on the door to collect.
These people dressed like guards.
Marcella's Flowers v_1
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Download html and open on your browser.
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Outside the workshop, I drew a rough flowchart on paper to have a better idea of how to approach the branching story and use it as guide line while making the passages on Twine.
I then made a more clear version using Miro (https://miro.com/)
I do not think my narrative story is very interesting but in any interaction in reality is not straightforward, any interaction is depending on so many factors. From the character's personality, the location where the interaction is happening, the setting, what each's character's purpose in the interaction is as well as their background. Having all these factors taking into account a more fluid interaction can be worked out and designed, linear on non-linear.
There is a wide range of tools that can be used when designing a narrative. Twine, the one that we are currently using, can be used to create text based stories with branching narratives factoring Variables, Booleans, Macros and including various elements to style the text based story. Twine allows the story to be created in HTML which makes it extremely easy to share online.
Ren'Py is also another tool accessible, it is a Visual Novel Engine that allows the creation of visual novels. which are essentially text based but with visuals of characters and a background. It allows the creation of a more visually rich interactive story.
RPG maker is also another tool to make Japanese-style role-playing game. It has tile-based art which lets users make and find visual assets, this tool can be used to make adventure games.
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These are just a few of many tools available that allow for the designing of narratives. Each provide a different approach to a narrative, with twine being text based and RPG maker being more proactive allowing players to explore beyond the narrative if the game were designed that way.
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Week 7 Game Narratives, Dialogue, and Advanced Tools
I decided to try and make 3 pathways that could be connected to each other, and allow the player to decide which path to take, which would have implications.
For example if the player had a certain item or knowledge of something, other options of action/dialogue would be available.
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My first concern is to make it functional first and only after make adjust the presentation.
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Marcella's Flowers v2 is still an incomplete version with a few additions that will have consequences later on.
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I added more endings with some variation depending on how much the player went into the dialogue with the character.
Marcella's Flowers v_2
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Download html and open on your browser.
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Week 8
Final Twine story
Further down the branching story on twine I tried to use some more of the twine's tools. Some parts in some of the passages have been changed so they change depending if the player has seen that passage before or not.
Overall I think I overcomplicated the branching story with too many variables and too many endings. I invested most of the time on a working model with multiple options and possible endings that I lacked HEAVLY on presentation.
I did enjoy working with Twine, I believe it is a very powerful tool that is easily accessible to everyone with a lot of features that can be explored both in visual terms and branching variables.
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Marcella's Flowers Final v1
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Download html and open on your browser.
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Week 9 Game Cinematography
As part of this week's workshop activity we quickly wrote script of a scene between our character and another. I wanted to make a scene that is more action based and right down to business. In this case an event that would be the aftermath of a previous event. A shady figure looking either coming for revenge or fulfil a contract to get rid of Signas.
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I opted to storyboard the beginning of the script, I think that first meetings/Interactions are very important moments. It's the moment in a narrative where the player would be trying to figure out 'what is this character's deal?'
EXT. NEAR TAVERN - AFTERNOON
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It is a normal day in the city of Eberus, Signas is passing thought the city's tavern when she is interrupted by a dog running towards her barking.
The dog comes to a halt in front of her barking and growling then a Shady guy comes from the corner of the tavern.
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HERBERT (SHADY GUY)
(smug) Good Dog.
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The dog stops barking and just stares at Signas growling.
Signas turns to the the shady guy and asks:
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SIGNAS
Is this your dog?
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HERBERT (SHADY GUY)
Sort of. (pause) No matter, I have been looking for you.
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Herbert starts approaching Signas, his right hand reaching behind him for a concealed dagger on the back of his waist belt.
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Signas notices this behaviour and stands at ready with her hand on her sword handle ready to sheathe her weapon.
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SIGNAS
You can say what you need me for from over there!
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HERBERT (SHADY GUY)
(As he dashes towards Signas) No need, this will be quick!
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[Gameplay] in a timed event, the player can choose to unsheathe the sword or not.
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OPTION 1 - Unsheathe sword
As Signas sees the sun light being reflected off the dagger in Herbert's hand she quickly unsheathes her sword. She quickly swings for his neck as she takes a step forward the moment he is within reach.
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The sword makes a clean cut decapitating him. His body falls to the ground and in a split second so does his head.
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OPTION 2 - Do not unsheathe sword
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As Herbert fast approaches Signas does not react. Herbert jumps Signas with the dagger in his right hand and using his left to push it giving it enough strength.
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He pierces through Signas leather chest piece reaching her heart. He pulls out the dagger, blood gushes out.
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Signas body falls and Herberts runs off.
1 - Signas passing through the tavern; Over the shoulder POV
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2 - Focus on the dog who starts growling and starts moving as it starts barking
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3 - Dog comes barking and stops in front of Signas
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4 - Herbert Emerges from the Corner of the Tavern; Herbert Dialogue - "Good dog."
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5 - View from behind the dog and Herbert slowly focusing on Signas
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6 - Camera focus on Signas only, moves slowly up and Stops on Signas Face; Signas Dialogue - "Is this your dog?"
Week 10 Introduction to the GDD
This week is when we started work on the Game Design Document, so far I only did a draft with the main ideas of the game.
On the feedback given it does seem that this game idea is too big and doesn't have a set game core.
I have to rethink what the game is really about and focus on just a few features that fit within the core I decide.
Week 11 Game Design Documentation
This week we learned more about the structure of a GDD, for the workshop we had to write a game mechanic, I wrote about the mechanic for movement
Game mechanic
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Movement
The player can walk, run/jog, sprint, jump and crouch
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On PC the player can move the player character using the WASD keys, on Xbox and Playstation controller, the player can use the left joystick.
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Walking - walking produces less noise and is a slow movement, can be toggled on pc between walking and running with the TAB key. When using a controller, by pushing the joystick lightly the player character will walk.
Running (jogging) - Running is the default speed of the player character when moving through the world, it produces more noise than walking.
Sprinting – Sprinting is a fast-running speed, allow the player to cover more ground but is limited by stamina, sprinting is extremely noisy and makes it easier to alert nearby NPCs. On PC the players can sprint by holding the Shift key, when using a controller, sprinting can be activated pressing the left joystick button.
Jumping – The player can jump using the Spacebar on PC, they can use button X on Playstation and A on Xbox controllers. The moving speed affects the distance and height of the jump, if running/sprinting the player will jump higher and further.
Crouching – Allows the player to crouch, making the player less visible to NPCs. The player is able to move while crouching with a penalty to movement speed. Walking while crouching produces almost no noise, running while crouching produces some noise.
GDD - WIP
For the GDD I started with the Executive summary that was done in Week 10 and tried to optimise it from there.
I named the game "The Outsider" since the protagonist is a foreigner and in her story arc she goes on the run.
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