 |
| Voyage Concept Art. |
DESIGN PROCESS: This is where I will be choosing a project and discussing it's design decisions over a period of time. Expect frequent updates.
So, I'm currently on break from the college life and my goals are very specific. First and foremost, I want to complete the alpha version of Dolphin Squadron, implementing the last of the gameplay features, adding a reasonable tutorial and getting some music done for the game. Secondarily however, I've had this new idea floating around in my head and I want to mess around with it.
Design Process: Day 1
So, I got home from college yesterday for my semester break. It turns out, that being in a car/on a bus for eleven hours really kills my desire to work on anything productive and I almost did nothing for an entire day! Bummer. I've been in that mood before though; that mood where you don't want to do anything, but know that you should be doing something productive. Usually, I lose and don't do anything, but this time I did something a little different. I decided not to fucking waste any time. So here I am, writing this Design Process entry. I will be spending about an hour every day for the next few weeks updating this design journal with what I've been doing pertaining to game design and development. Today, that focus will be on Project Voyage.
Project Voyage is simply a side-project. Moreso than Project Fall or Dolphin Squadron where I've actively developed the games for a few weeks, I'm just messing around and designing the shit out of Voyage. It's going to be a pretty transparent design process and the goal is to end up with a pretty comprehensive guide/discussion of how a game is conceptualized. Granted, I'm still a student of game design and I'll probably do a lot of things wrong, but I think that just being able to see the process will be a good thing for anyone who is new to game design and just wants to see how it's done.
Project Voyage
 |
| Open skies, open water, open shore. What do? Explore! |
Voyage is an artistic game where you play as a 40-something year-old man/woman who gives up life in society to explore the seven seas as a sailor. The core of the game would take place primarily on the surface of the ocean and be seen from either a side or angled frame of view. Throughout the course of the game, the player will explore the world, discovering a variety of different methods of “play”. These methods of play--things such as fishing, exploring, finding treasure and shipmates, discovering new things about the world and sea battling--will all be core to the gameplay and progress the metagame. The game will begin at a deliberately slow, relaxing pace and ultimately speed up as time goes on. Ultimately, your goal is simply to discover everything the world has to offer to you. I don't want to pressure the player and I don't want to have them feel a constant tinge of terror. I want them to relax and enjoy nature. Through it all, the player character (PC) will become more and more like a seafarer who gains control over the seven seas. Whether or not you’re a good or a bad person is both up to you, and determined by the rules that you set for the seas and for yourself.
So, the idea for Voyage came up while I was thinking of what kind of mood I wanted to evoke from my next projects. I liked the colors and oceanic atmosphere of Dolphin Squadron, but wanted to capture it on a different front; a deliberately slow-paced game was what I wanted. One where I would create my atmosphere primarily through music and animation. A stark contrast to what I'm doing with Dolphin Squadron (which is a fast-paced retro action arcade game).
 |
| Just something artsy I put together to find some more of the "feels". |
The "feels" as I like to call them, are core to any art game. They're the emotions evoked through play. You get them through a mix of music, pacing, graphics and gameplay. In a game like this, gameplay is very important, but it can't be overly complicated or frustrating. I'm not trying to break the trend or anything, but I'm trying to create a fun, relaxing game concept. Not a micromanagement survival simulator. Something that's parts Superbrothers: Swords & Sworcery EP, a little bit of TAG (Treasure Adventure Game) and maybe a little bit LoZ: Phantom Hourglass or Spirit Tracks. In discussing it with Jacques Yeates (the composer), he described a game where you're not pressured to be good. We agreed that a survival game Voyage was not.
Survival games are too micromanagement-y; and there are just too many things to worry about. We definitely don't want a game where the player is too scared to try and go somewhere because they'll die, lose all of their stuff, and suddenly be back to square one right after discovering something new and cool (like a sexy hat). At the same time, you never want a game that feels like there is no weight to your actions, so we're still determining how to give weight to character actions.
Art and music are pretty straightforward when you're doing shitty concept art and linear musical scores, but what happens when you have to give real life to them. I don't even know what the game itself is going to look like yet. I wonder if I should take a straight up 2D approach to the game (ala Another World [land] and Castle Crashers [sea]?) or do something 3D, which I'm completely unfamiliar with. We had considered a Zelda-style perspective, but then I made the concepts and they just felt "right". Now we know we need a horizon, so we're still working out the perspective kinks. I'll draw out something tonight, probably.
Musically, Jacques has made some stuff that I'll start showing in the next Design Process entries (maybe a new song every entry for a few days?). It's really good and definitely captures the atmosphere, but we're also looking at how we're going to implement it. Dynamic music? Oh boy, I can code, but I'm still a newbie with anything musical. 3D? What's that? 2D is my home. And don't even get me started on what I'll be doing with the art. Hopefully someone from ACPC Productions (a college "studio", to which I design, program and produce for) will help out. Otherwise this will take forever!
Anyway. As usual...
Expect Greatness (and daily updates).
Ryan Huggins~
No comments:
Post a Comment