Sunday, September 18, 2016

Bomboy - First Video Game Proposal

Image result for i wish i were the moonImage result for mark of the ninja
     This week's sketchbook page is just me declaring and showing you what I have so far about the game I am going to make. First of all, I want to make a 2D platformer with cut-scenes and dialog. More specifically, it is going to reflect the classes typically found in fantasy worlds such as Dungeons and Dragons. So the first levels of story arch are going to follow a rogue and the second is going to follow a wizard. This concept allows for a lot of different options in gameplay and the ability to keep adding on features and classes.
     In regards to the first story arch (rogue), so far my main controls are as follows:
Space = jump
W and D = left and right movement
Return/Enter = attack
S = hide in objects
W = climb walls
     Some other features I am brainstorming are possible hooks to pull the player places (I need to figure out how to do this); I want to implement assassinations as the only way to kill enemies (so you have to sneak up and get them from behind) so I have to figure out how to make that happen; and since, as a rogue, the main fighting style is avoiding enemies and detection, I need to get the enemies to react whenever they "spot" the character (I have an idea of how to accomplish this). So while I have most of the mechanics down, I still have some others I need to research, but in the mean time the basic features should be enough to start coding.
     Also, most 2D platform/story games usually have a serious theme or idea as the whole drive of the story and gameplay. For example, To the Moon is a 2D game that explores the theme of grief and mental illness. It also has a bittersweet ending that is mostly sad. It reaches out to the player's emotions. Therefore with my game, I have the theme of no matter what you do - no matter which option you choose - there will always be critics. At the start of the game there is going to be an unnamed "voice" (words that show up on screen) asking you who you think you are, ending with the question "Are you one to fight from the shadows?" Which will lead into the rogue story, and your told goal is to assassinate a figure head of some kind and the player will purposefully have no information of why. Once the player reaches the person, they will receive the option to either kill or don't kill. If they choose kill, the voice will shame them: "Why, you didn't have to do that... You don't even know why you killed him. Tsk tsk. We haven't even gone through all the options yet..." Or, if the player chooses to not kill them: "Coward. You can't even do one simple thing." While I do acknowledge that the player may get upset from all of this, that's the point of the game. At the end I may have a statement talking about the criticism everyone faces daily and that there is no way to stop it, so just be yourself. Haters gonna hate. As for the wizard, the idea I have so far is that the player is going to have to choose whether or not to return a rare and precious tome to the rightful owner, which will be hard since a wizard's main goal in life is to seek knowledge.
     Anyway, after getting this far I decided to do research on how to do the tasks I'm unsure of. And I found some YouTube videos by Lewis Clark and Tabular Elf that I believe will help me. Not only that, I found a video by the Extra Credits (if you don't know them, they are a group of game design people who put together videos on how to make good video games) titled "What Makes a Good Stealth Game?" I received some good advice from watching the video: keep stealth STEALTH (not much action - it's a puzzle); good stealth games are puzzles with more than one solution (traverse, not combat); time as a "score" since there will be waiting (which gave me the idea to reduce your time score whenever you are "spotted" by an enemy); the world resets (predictable movements after observation); and triumphing despite weakness (this follows the typical stealth game story line where the minimal one could just be "I'm small and weak so I have to put the jump on stronger people to prevail"). Also for research, I found a very good stealth game to study for mine. Mark of the Ninja is a very popular and successful 2D platform stealth game right now and I intend to buy and play it, or watch videos.
     That's all I have so far in the brainstorming period so my next step is to create my GDD which is going to be slow and painful but beneficial in the end when I need it during the creation process of my game.

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