Game Design as Cultural Practice Fall 2009

Interfaced - a Jewish Mothers game

Note: The text editor included with TypePad is HORRIBLE

The Final Game Pitch PowerPoint can be found here.

The team's Design Wiki can be found here. On the Wiki you can also access pictures from our paper prototyping session.

Here is a summary of the PowerPoint:

Overview

• Description:
  Interfaced (tentative title) is a puzzle-platforming game that challenges players to think outside of the traditional video game UI. Innovative puzzles will bend the way players interact with the game by making the interface itself interact and live within the game world, breaking the fourth wall in a truly unique gameplay experience.
  Narrative:
   Thus far, we are unsure if we will pursue a consistent narrative.
  Gameplay/Interaction:
   Players will interact with the environment though their character/avatar.
  Further interaction will take place though the interface in two forms:
   Informative: A stamina bar that depletes when the avatar exerts itself. A mini-map to indicate location.
  Functional: Shaking the mini-map causes the representative environment to shake as well. A stamina bar that could act like a bridge atop a gap.
  Style/Presentation:
   The team is in unanimous agreement that this game would benefit from a rough hand-drawn or cutout art style. Games that we have referenced as examples include Scribblenauts, LittleBigPlanet, Braid, and A Boy & His Blob. UI elements may use different art styles. If we want to make it obvious that the player should interact with something as if it belongs in a particular genre, we may attempt to mimic the aesthetics of games in that genre (i.e. chrome finish, transparency).
  Game Plan:
   Production: Chris Wiggins
  Design: Michael Downing & Holden Link
  Programming: Austin Walterman & Chris Sumsky
  Art: Daniel Fuller
  Writing: Chris Sumsky, Daniel Fuller & Holden Link
  

A few prototyping pictures, more can be found on the PowerPoint:

 

POV - Team Rose

Team Members

• Andrew Ho - Writing/Team Management
• Ning Song - Programming
• Andrew Brausuell - Programming
• Danielle Arabov - Art
• Rose Peng - Art

Overview

    Our game focuses on the difference of perception between people. The main character runs through the level collecting eyes and uses them to see the world through that persons perspective. By changing out the eyes, there are drastic changes to the level. If you put in the gardeners eye, the design changes to a painting type of art style. Even though the level itself is the same place, different parts are illuminated and new areas are unlocked. By putting in the architects eye the level changes to a blue print art style and a new type of system for going through the level is unlocked.
    The game play will be a platformer mixed with a puzzle. During the first section/level, you can only use one eye, and by mastering that perspective another one is unlocked. In the next level you will be able to use the new perspective as well as the old one to solve the platformer puzzle. With each mastered perspective another one is unlocked, and another perspective is opened up to the player. By the end of the game, the character will be able to see all the perspectives at once and be a fully understanding person.    

Art Direction 

    Because the perception of the player changes according to which eyeball is 'equipped' at the moment, we plan to vary our art style accordingly. While the world will appear quite dull and featureless at first, the level design will change according to which eyeball is put in. As mentioned above, putting in the gardener's eyeball will change the level to look very arboreal and green with leaves, vines and flowers everywhere, while the architect's eyeball will make the level appear to look like a building blueprint. Our artists will find examples of these different art styles and use them to bring unique aesthetic qualities to each perspective of the level(s).

Prototyping

Our group has done limited prototyping with this game concept so far, as many of our meetings have consisted of brainstorming sessions to have our idea down before moving to the prototype phase. However, a prototype plan is in the works and will soon be implemented to get feedback on the gameplay concepts in our game.

Figure 1. Team Rose in our first brainstorming session

Figure 2. Rough concept of player avatar, how eyeballs will be equipped.

 

Figure 3. Default background style without any new eyeballs, bleak with mostly shades of grey.

 

Figure 4. Gardener's perspective, a much brighter color palette and more flora in the scenery.

Figure 5. Architect's perspective, where every shape and object looks like it was measured out and planned, with the lines still visible

 

GROWTH, a videogame by Team Growth

A text document and associated images for the upcoming game GROWTH.

The game is developed by Team Growth: Mariam Asad, Matthew Drake, Tom Gibes, and Brian Hertler.

Download GROWTH Description.  A full explanation of game concept, mechanics, etc.

Download GROWTH Pitch Materials.  The current game logo, documentation of our brainstorming/early testing sessions, and a walkthrough of the first two levels.

Dysphoria, by Vignesh Pro Studios

LCC 8823/4725 Concept Pitch

    Vignesh Pro Studios presents:

    Dysphoria

Team Members: Vignesh Swaminathan
    Nicholas Watson
    David Wick
    Samer Ead

Game Concept:

Dysphoria is a simulation game with a dysfunctional insomniac as its central subject and character.  However, the character is not controlled directly by the player.  Instead, the player has control over the environment (the subject’s house), with the ability to add, remove or alter objects in the setting.  The character has his/her own goals, intentions and behavioural patterns, but the player can alter these by modifying the environment.

The character, who is jobless, unmotivated and a bit anti-social, wakes up on a Sunday afternoon and commences the routine of a lazy, unproductive day around the house.  Ordinarily, the character will engage in a series of personally destructive or non-productive actions, such as over-eating, napping, drinking too much coffee and being lazy.  Modifications to the world can cause the character to alter his/her behaviour – for example, placing a newspaper on the front lawn could cause the character to pick it up and read it, which could then prompt him/her to become interested in job listings.  Unplugging the television would prevent the character from watching hours of TV on end, so that he/she might choose to do something more productive, like exercising.

There is no one set goal or win condition.  The game starts when the character wakes up, and ends when he/she goes to sleep again.  In the meantime, the player can…

· Let the character do his/her own thing (completely passive player), until he/she finally crashes from exhaustion in the early hours of the morning; or…

· Alter the environment to promote productivity, growth or better moods, such that the character gets to bed at a reasonable hour and sleeps easily; or…

· Mess with the character’s head by attempting to frustrate him/her at every turn (e.g. keep pulling out light-bulbs every time he/she tries to turn on a light), so as to produce worse moods, again causing the character to stay awake until he/she crashes from exhaustion or goes completely bonkers.

The player is not limited to the above choices, but these are the three basic play patterns that we anticipate.  The player can, of course, combine multiple approaches.  The end goal is really just to shape the story of the character’s ongoing day.  Our goal is to engage the player by encouraging him/her to make alterations that affect the character in meaningful and lasting ways.

Interface:

The interface is laid out thusly:

· A main window with a third-person 2.5-D view as in traditional point-and-click adventure games (see Kings Quest or Monkey Island), showing at any given moment one of the rooms in the character’s house.  Certain highlighted objects can be altered or removed, while other objects from the inventory can also be added in highlighted locations.  This room isn’t always the character’s location, meaning that the player can modify rooms even when the character is not present.

· An inventory window containing objects that can be added to a scene by dragging and dropping.

· An overhead map of the house, clickable so as to allow the player to pull up a different room in the main window.

· A clock indicating the time of day.  The clock starts at 1 PM when the character wakes up, and continues counting off time at a rate of six real-world minutes to the in-game hour, until the character goes back to bed (6 AM at the latest, if he/she crashes from exhaustion).  This means that gameplay should last around 90 real-world minutes.  The character can be put to bed earlier if the player makes choices conducive to an early bedtime and good sleep!

Aesthetic Production:

Main-window backgrounds will be photographed from real locations and then digitally altered.  We are going for a sort of rotoscopic or pencil-drawn effect as seen, for example, in Waking Life, to create an overall surreal aesthetic in keeping with the theme of sleep-deprivation, depression and withdrawal from society.

Foreign objects that are placed on this background will appear as cartoony computer-drawn vector graphics, so that they stand out (this is how “highlighting” is accomplished).

Throughout the gameplay, the character is without identity, appearing as an animated black silhouette against the background of the main window.  Only at the end of the game, when the character looks in the mirror just before crashing, is an identity revealed (chosen more or less at random – it could be a woman or a man, young or old, etc.).

Design Documents:

Our playtesting has thus far consisted of drawing out maps and brainstorming possible inventory objects and the ways they can be used to alter the world.  We also used Lego to model individual room-views. 

Attached is our provisional event-flow diagram for how the character behaves if the player is completely passive.  This provides the skeleton off of which we build a web of possible alterations.

 

Fig 1, a-c.  Concept work:  Interface, main view, adding an object to the game world.

 
   
 
  

 

Fig 2, a-b.  Prototyping/testing

Fig 3.  Basic story progression.

 

 

Dysphoria, by Vignesh Pro Studios

LCC 8823/4725 Concept Pitch

    Vignesh Pro Studios presents:

    Dysphoria

Team Members: Vignesh Swaminathan
    Nicholas Watson
    David Wick
    Samer Ead

Game Concept:

Dysphoria is a simulation game with a dysfunctional insomniac as its central subject and character.  However, the character is not controlled directly by the player.  Instead, the player has control over the environment (the subject’s house), with the ability to add, remove or alter objects in the setting.  The character has his/her own goals, intentions and behavioural patterns, but the player can alter these by modifying the environment.

The character, who is jobless, unmotivated and a bit anti-social, wakes up on a Sunday afternoon and commences the routine of a lazy, unproductive day around the house.  Ordinarily, the character will engage in a series of personally destructive or non-productive actions, such as over-eating, napping, drinking too much coffee and being lazy.  Modifications to the world can cause the character to alter his/her behaviour – for example, placing a newspaper on the front lawn could cause the character to pick it up and read it, which could then prompt him/her to become interested in job listings.  Unplugging the television would prevent the character from watching hours of TV on end, so that he/she might choose to do something more productive, like exercising.

There is no one set goal or win condition.  The game starts when the character wakes up, and ends when he/she goes to sleep again.  In the meantime, the player can…

· Let the character do his/her own thing (completely passive player), until he/she finally crashes from exhaustion in the early hours of the morning; or…

· Alter the environment to promote productivity, growth or better moods, such that the character gets to bed at a reasonable hour and sleeps easily; or…

· Mess with the character’s head by attempting to frustrate him/her at every turn (e.g. keep pulling out light-bulbs every time he/she tries to turn on a light), so as to produce worse moods, again causing the character to stay awake until he/she crashes from exhaustion or goes completely bonkers.

The player is not limited to the above choices, but these are the three basic play patterns that we anticipate.  The player can, of course, combine multiple approaches.  The end goal is really just to shape the story of the character’s ongoing day.  Our goal is to engage the player by encouraging him/her to make alterations that affect the character in meaningful and lasting ways.

 

Interface:

The interface is laid out thusly:

· A main window with a third-person 2.5-D view as in traditional point-and-click adventure games (see Kings Quest or Monkey Island), showing at any given moment one of the rooms in the character’s house.  Certain highlighted objects can be altered or removed, while other objects from the inventory can also be added in highlighted locations.  This room isn’t always the character’s location, meaning that the player can modify rooms even when the character is not present.

· An inventory window containing objects that can be added to a scene by dragging and dropping.

· An overhead map of the house, clickable so as to allow the player to pull up a different room in the main window.

· A clock indicating the time of day.  The clock starts at 1 PM when the character wakes up, and continues counting off time at a rate of six real-world minutes to the in-game hour, until the character goes back to bed (6 AM at the latest, if he/she crashes from exhaustion).  This means that gameplay should last around 90 real-world minutes.  The character can be put to bed earlier if the player makes choices conducive to an early bedtime and good sleep!

 

Aesthetic Production:

Main-window backgrounds will be photographed from real locations and then digitally altered.  We are going for a sort of rotoscopic or pencil-drawn effect as seen, for example, in Waking Life, to create an overall surreal aesthetic in keeping with the theme of sleep-deprivation, depression and withdrawal from society.

Foreign objects that are placed on this background will appear as cartoony computer-drawn vector graphics, so that they stand out (this is how “highlighting” is accomplished).

Throughout the gameplay, the character is without identity, appearing as an animated black silhouette against the background of the main window.  Only at the end of the game, when the character looks in the mirror just before crashing, is an identity revealed (chosen more or less at random – it could be a woman or a man, young or old, etc.).

 

Design Documents:

Our playtesting has thus far consisted of drawing out maps and brainstorming possible inventory objects and the ways they can be used to alter the world.  We also used Lego to model individual room-views. 

Attached is our provisional event-flow diagram for how the character behaves if the player is completely passive.  This provides the skeleton off of which we build a web of possible alterations.

 

Fig 1, a-c.  Concept work:  Interface, main view, adding an object to the game world.

 

Fig 2.  Prototyping/testing

 

Fig 3.  Basic story progression.

 

 

Daydream Overview - Team ADD

Daydream

Overview:

Daydream is a visual-oriented casual game where the player takes on the role of a bored student daydreaming in class. Throughout the course of the lecture, distractions and waking hallucinations will try to lure the player into interaction. If engaged, these 'mini-games' will cause the room and its inhabitants to change, ultimately drowning out the professor and the classroom setting. At the end of the gameplay, a test will be administered who's difficulty will be determined by how much attention was paid to the lecturer. 

Gameplay:

Daydream will not be objective based at any intrinsic level. The mini-games are not designed to draw the user in by their content, but by their presence. For example, the interaction with the games will be simple motions (pressing up and down in the keyboard, or clicking on a random spot in a poster) so as not to create micro objectives in themselves. The goal is to let the user distract themselves and shape their own experience.

Art:

At this point, we are planning to give Daydream a very simple, cartoon-like style in order to better facilitate the wide variety of art assets that will most likely end up in the final product. Because this is a visual-oriented game, the aesthetics that we choose will have a large impact on the overall experience it imparts. Will we test a variety of different art and animation styles in our prototyping phase to help narrow in on specifics.

Prototyping:

Because Daydream has no gameplay objective, prototyping is going to center around UI and the aesthetics. We plan to do interaction mock-ups and art style spreads to begin seeing what resounds with playtesters.

Team ADD:

Richard Shemaka - Project Management

David Poore - Design / Writing

Dan Spaventa - Design / Writing

Alex Scarlata - Programming

Anton Sigety - Art Direction / Assets

"GENEVIEVE" Game Pitch - JSZTD Game

"Genevieve" Introductory Design Doc

Genevieve wakes up in her bed. At the front door a mysterious figure knocks. The rooms in her house are empty and bare, no objects to capture the memories of her life. The world is in grays and browns, until she steps out the door to her room and is suddenly plunged into a memory of herself as a young child, chasing after the footsteps of her departing father. She tries to chase the giant footsteps but she can only crawl. She is 3 years old again. The feet of her father are gigantic, colossal. She crawls frantically through time and memories, crawling through her first, second, and third birthdays, faster and faster until she is stumbling uneasily on her two legs, then running with reckless abandon the way a child does as she chases a disappearing father. The feet of her father departing grow smaller, more distant, more real. Genevieve makes a leap...

Summary

Genevieve is an experimental two-dimensional platformer where themes of memory, identity, and choices are explored. Each level serves as a metaphorical depiction of a life changing moment for Genevieve, captured by her maturation from toddler to adult. We relive the memory of her experience as we play, and depending on how we do her memory will play out differently; perhaps she catches up to the departing footsteps of her father and grows up with a mother and father, or perhaps she misses him and lives a broken childhood of an absent father and negligent mother?

Gameplay

The core mechanic of the game builds off the established rules of already-existent platformer games and lays its metaphorical rhetoric over the established actions of running, jumping, and hiding. As stated earlier, each level is a surreal and symbolized actualization of one of Genevieve's memories, and as she traverses the level her abilities will change: as she moves from left to right, the avatar will age from one stage of life to another. So during the first stage we begin with Genevieve as a toddler growing into a child as she moves through the experience; the avatar change captures the process of maturation and aging, with time collapsed with left-to-right movement. Furthermore this mechanic lends itself to a naturally rewarding and progressive teaching style: as the player begins they start with little abilities, but growing from toddler to child may add the ability to run and jump, while growing into a teen will add more intricate abilities such as grabbing and rolling, etc. With this format, the mechanics naturally build off one another and reward the players by giving them more agency as they continue.

Although in any given level the "goal" may not be reached, this does not cause a failure status but simply provides one kind of result of the memory over another. For example, if Genevieve fails to catch her father, the level will end and the memory will play out as "Genevieve's parents divorced when she was little". This will make is so in the next level, the level may be of her being chased by an abusive step-dad vs chasing after the butterfly of her innocence. By doing this we encourage "King's Quest" replayability such that people may go through the game several times and intentionally "fail" levels to see what alternative stories they unlock.

The game begins in a home-base screen, which is a side cut out of Genevieve's house. As she travels from room to room, some will open up into memories which become levels; the avatar will change from the standard state to an appropriate life period (toddler, child, teen, adult), and then the level will play out. After it is over, Genevieve will return to the house and certain objects will be added, such as a picture of her family, a snow globe, etc.

Narrative

The game opens with Genevieve in her bedroom in an empty house. A silhouetted figure knocks at the front door, and all we can tell is that it is a he. As we have no idea of her identity, there is nothing to fill the house. Each memory she lives through though will unlock furnishings that will reveal more about the kind of life she lived. For example, a stable life will result in fine curtains, idyllic settings, and a well-furnished house. A ruined life though will result in ruined rooms and furniture inexplicably piled against the front door (perhaps to keep the knocking man out?)

At the end of the game, we get a replay of Genevieve's life based off on the results of each level. We will see the literal depiction of the event each level; for example, the first level where the child Genevieve chases after the father's departing footsteps will result in scene where Genevieve watches her parents fight and acts accordingly. At the end, we discover who is knocking at the front door: it could be a concerned son or husband, knocking out of concern. Or it could be an abusive husband or step-father, which is why the furniture is piled against the front door. We also want to explore the gray areas between "good" and "bad"; if the player does everything that gives Genevieve a stable life and trouble-free one, it may lead to an ending of a feeling of unfulfillment and dissatisfaction.

Art Aesthetic

Our overall style will be a highly stylized surreal and abstract style where we depict objects and locations according to Genevieve's emotional relationship to them more so than a real depiction of what the objects actually are. The tone can be as idyllic as the opening levels of Braid or as dark and demented as the levels of American McGee's Alice. For the house where the player begins, we decided it should be cast in shadows, monotone, and/or silhouette until more and more memories are unlocked, then color and definition is added into that world.

We've decided to pursue a vector art style that is both iconic (as opposed to representational/literal) and surreal. Our reasons are both practically and artistically motivated. We want the graphics to be simple so that players can better relate to the avatar. We also believe that a strongly pixellated look that is reminiscent of Nintendo or Atari graphics would add anything to our game, while the flat look of vectors can allow for a strong paper doll look that plays nicely with the cutaway dollhouse style of the house. Vectors also allow us to do animations by pieces, instead of creating individual sprites for each frame of action, which will make our work easier on the art end. Vectors are also more appropriate for the kind of surreal environment we want to create, and most of our team has more experience working with Illustrator and implementing vector graphics.

Within the next few days we will be posting concept art and sketches of ideas for characters, locations, and objects for our game.

Proposed Schedule

Our first priority is to implement three different stages for our avatar: child, teenager, and adult. Then if we have time, we may implement a toddler and elder stage. Our goal is to have a working prototype of three different stages and a branching possibility of three different endings.

Oct 15th - Game Design Doc Due
Oct 19th - First Paper Prototype up and completed
Oct 26th - Basic input, action, collision programmed in;story script finished
Oct 29th - Iterim Team Evaluations
Nov 3rd - Final Design Doc
Nov 6th - First Draft of game finished - at least one level fully programmed out, no assets
Nov 17th - Almost Final Iteration - game is playable, most assets finished and implemented
Nov 24th - Final Team Evaluations

Dec 1st - Final Presentations begin!

-Jason Lee, Stevie Fredrick, Terris Johnson, David Kim, Zach Antoine

T-totalers

Game: T-totalers

Group: T^2 (Team T-totalers)

Download T-totalers Here is an in depth description of our game.

Download Game_Design_Presentation This is the powerpoint we showed in class.

Milestones/Schedule

MILESTONES

Week of 25-31

Management:
    -29th schedule
Programming
    -install flash
    -become familiar with Action script 3
Game Design
    -29th basic level design (4)
Writing
    -work on assets list
Art
    -start sketches for:
        -menu design (Jerry)
        -character design
        -map design (Lisa)
    -create dummy assets
Playtest
    -29th testable maps
Class:
    -29th: Group eval due, schedule due

Week of 1-7

Programming
    -show WASD
    -increment/decrement drunk meter
    -menu (Jerry)
Game Design
    -final version of maps
        -agro stats
        -movements
Writing
    -finish asset list
    -begin item descriptions
Art
    -final concept art
Playtest
    -test all maps
    -test game mechanics
Class
    -5th: Final Design Presentation/Post Design Doc

Week 13 (8-14)

Programming
    -basic engine
Game Design
    -developing assets
Writing
    -developing assets
    -documentation
    -storyboard (narrative)
Art
    -continuing with assets
Playtest
    -do more :)
Class
    -10th: Available as in class playtest

Week 14 (15-21)

Programming
    -engine
    -all interactive elements
Game Design
    -developing assets
Writing
    -developing assets
    -documentation
    -storyboard (narrative)
Art
    -continuing with assets
Playtest
    -do more :)
Class
     -NA

Week 15 (22-28)

Programming
    -debugging
Game Design
    -extra features
Writing
    -final narrative
    -finish all assets
Art
    -final assets
    -extra art
Playtest
    -5-10 outsiders play it
Class
    -MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS DONE

Week 16 (29-3)

All material should be finished and working properly.
Class:
    -1st: final prototype due
    -3rd: final team evals due