Ryan Huggins: Design Process: Project Voyage (Day 6)

I love this mock-up style, but I think I may change it soon.

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, writing a daily blog is horrendously difficult (at least when it's focusing on a game that's not in production). To that degree, I will not be doing daily updates. I'll try to get around 3 updates a week, but daily updates are too much for me, especially since I have a social life to attend to. Haha. ANYWAY.

Jacques (who would like everyone to know that his name is actually Jack and that I'm writing his name this way to distinguish between ACPCP programmer Jack Storm) and I began to discuss some of Voyage's gameplay two days ago. (Then, I went to a party and afterwards, slept for 26 hours straight...) We broke the basic gameplay down into five categories. Each of these categories was expanded upon briefly so that we could look at all possible venues of gameplay, then remove what we didn't like/what didn't make sense with the theme of the game. We call this subtractive design.

Fishing

A fishing system implies some sort of developmental system for better equipment, lures, wires, reels, etc. I've considered that fishing will probably be a big part of the early game and that there'll potentially be a trading and bartering system so that you can actually do stuff with the fish that you have caught. This introduces the need for a system of communication with the locals and maybe a food system so that fish also serve a purpose for the player. A food system would then imply something like a health system or even a cooking system where you can get achievements for catching and cooking certain fish. Soon you see how quickly one system can develop into many, many more!

Diving

A diving system also implies some sort of equipment system where you can acquire things like diving helmets, scuba gear, a snorkel, etc. These types of things would allow for the player to dive for longer and have a greater chance of finding secret underwater treasures! This adds another layer of gameplay and exploration, all taking place underwater. This system wouldn't only exist on the seas, but potentially on islands and in lakes as well.

Finding Islands

Since finding islands and exploring the world is supposed to be a large part of gameplay, a primary method of exploring the world would be sailing from island to island and then exploring said islands on foot. This system of discovering islands relies on a deep movement system that would allow for sea, land, and interior/exterior exploration of environments. Interaction with the environment and NPCs, as well as combat with "enemies" would also be important. We determined that a land motion would be very platformer-esque, while sea exploration would be more "Castle Crashers". We want a seamless world, so designing this may become an issue.

Sunken Treasure

Locating sunken treasure is sort of a hybrid of diving and boat development. There would be a hook that grabs chests from the ocean floor, but this would be some sort of upgradeable purchase for the vessel and would prevent the player from having to dive for treasure. This system would be incorporated to allow players to just completely avoid diving altogether if that's what they want.

Sea Encounters

There would either be planned or random scripted events where you both meet and interact with sailors just like you! Just without real people behind them. These conversations imply some sort of communication system involving little thought bubbles. You could probably also challenge them to battles to steal their shit.
This system could be broken into two parts.

Combat with other sailors
Trading with other sailors

Over the next few days we will be detailing and drawing various infographic-esque diagrams for these systems. THEN WE GET TO REMOVE THE ONES WE HATE or keep them all because we suck at removing systems. ;D

Shitty Design Sketches. :D (Decipher at will.)