Design Process: Project Voyage (Day 5)

VISUAL SPLENDOR. ;P (Clusterfuck or Rebirth concept)

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.

Sadly, it seems like we may be coming to the end of concept art for a little while. I'm getting to the point where there's pretty much nothing else left to conceptualize visually (for now besides objects and stuff). If I do any artwork now, it'll probably be for my other projects which actually require ridiculous amounts of concept art and I'll plug them in here at the end for the visual SPLENDOR.

Ahem. So, I didn't do any actual design stuff today because I'm getting into the swing of coding some stuff for Dolphin Squadron and there aren't enough hours in the day to spend time (seconds) with my family, work on Dolphin Squadron, procrastinate and then work on Voyage with enough time to blog! So, what I'm posting today is something that I said while I was talking to Jacques and my friend Joe (Distorted Travesty) about Voyage. These things give you a pretty fucking raw look at how I sometimes choose to explain projects to people and justify my design decisions and visions for the games I've worked on. Be forewarned that these are IMs, so my grammar/spelling may not be spectacular.

This here is me rationalizing (to some extent) why basic combat should be included in the game; I also kind of touch on some aspects of gameplay elements. Something interesting that I've noticed about having these conversations with Jacques is that about 90% of the time, I haven't actually considered the ideas that pop up (and then pitch to him) while I'm rationalizing things. Almost every single one of my games has been fleshed out in this way at some point or another. Even City Across the Sky went through this process! The issue with that game was just the botched production phase. The design I think was fairly solid. Anyway. Here is Part 1 of 2 (and some music to go with it [vertical re-orchestration]).

1. I think that players will want to be able to like see a crab and let it scurry away, or murder and eat it though
2. Nothing serious
3. Maybe there's a dude on a bigger raft
4. or like a legit pirate ship
5. that one day you want to overthrow and take the crew
6. Or you just avoid them
7. and explore the world
8. the message bottles say something that peaks your interest
9. They're out of order and you piece together a little mystery
10. relaxing, nothing dire
11. you find a shipwreck and a skeleton
12. You wonder where such a big boat came from
13. since you just have a raft you can't go far
14. you're like, "That'll be me one day, just not dead. Hopefully."
15. The first night, it's cold. Your character shivers while he sleeps. You're like, "Oh, that's sad. He needs somewhere warm".
16. Etc
17. That's what I want. A game with little to no words.
18. at least spoken words
19. Just player thoughts. A player making connections with the world.
20. The music soothing them. The gameplay enticing them to explore more of the world.
21. The early game has to be filled with the character making a bunch of small discoveries that have actual meaning.
22. So the player knows that, in this world, things matter
23. You're not going to find a crashed ship for no reason.
24. I hope I'm explaining the idea/feels well enough

After this, I go on to try and clarify some of the problems that Jacques brought up with some of the concepts. Nothing serious, but this is a much more structured idea being explained. It also, in my opinion, almost completely describes the type of game I'm trying to create. This response was directly related to Jacques heckling me about liking science fiction as a way to describe things "different". Haha. Part 2 of 2

1. What I imagine is a dude who, for whatever reason, decides to abandon his life in society and explore the seven seas. He gets as far away from society as possible, builds a raft, and just goes. He ends up somewhere and yeah, you play the game. The sci-fi aspect was just a way to say, it doesn't happen on a planet where society has taken over everything.
3. Anyway. As you're playing the game, you explore, you find some message bottles, you uncover like, let's say, a stereotypical treasure map. In the context of the game, that's fun, but only if you establish a desirable atmosphere or something that you can be. Think megaman X, you're megaman, you're cool, but Zero, Zero is a fucking baller. You wanna be just like that guy.
4. Zero (as a concept) is like some benevolent, elderly pirate that maybe teaches you something at the very beginning of the game or just drops you off at your destination and sails away.
5. He looks cool, he acts cool, he is cool. (He says nothing)
6. But whatever, you want to explore and shit
7. You've got your raft.
8. So this treasure map leads you to a cool hat or something. You put on the hat. Now you're an explorer. That wasn't so hard, but it's a pretty shitty hat.
9. I don't want this crappy hat
10. The old seafarer had a dope hat
11. You want a hat like that
12. But you only have this hat
13. What do?
14. This happened the night that you realize that your character was shivering at night or something pressing, but subtle.
15. Now what's important is making a life for yourself, but this island is shitty
16. You want to go somewhere else
17. You travel to the end of this small island where you saw on the map that there might be something, there's nothing there, but there's nothing anywhere else. You've got to explore.
18. You set sail
19. Now the aesthetic is very important.
20. You're sailing and eventually you find another island
21. It doesn't matter which of the nearby islands it is, but it's an island
22. You mark it down on your map
23. This exploration positive cycle happens for a little while with a bunch of other cool, soothing things and then one day, while you are sailing you see another boat. It has a flag. Then suddenly, you realize, wait." I don't even have a boat..or a flag. I'm really sad aren't I." Those pirates see you floating around and they sail right past you. You don't even matter. The dude on that boat wasn't as cool as the elderly guy, but he was still cooler than you. It's like, maybe...maybe I can get cool like them, etc.
24. You see this whole pirate thing
25. is just a metaphor for growth.
26. When these bigger boats pass by, you see your character like, just stare at them.
27. You want to make him/her that cool so you explore, you discover things, maybe you even discover things that haven't been discovered before.
28. You're not trying to change the world. You're just trying to understand it.
29. You're having fun and relaxing as the player and hopefully, if done correctly, unlocking that feeling that children have
30. Just like the wonder of discovering something you maybe can't explain.
31. Imagine a game where you are the fucking dude who like discovers magic
32. But you don't know it
33. Yeah
34. So, if you read that
35. I wonder if that explains anything other than my vision for the game. haha
36. There aren't pirates necessarily
37. There are like
38. other people seafaring
39. Maybe while you are sleeping one of them steals your hat
40. You don't have a hat anymore
41. you're exploring and you see this fucker with your hat
42. So you follow him, but he gets away
43. you keep sailing in the general direction and you end up at a new island
44. behold
45. a new land
46. Then you find a new hat
47. and suddenly your old hat doesn't matter as much? Or maybe it still matters
48. and you get (steal) it back
49. and then you feel like, "Yeah fuckface, don't steal my hat"
50. And then you're on your merry way

Whether or not I'm going to allow the player to actually "lose" things like with the stolen hat (this is a negative experience and I'm advocating the positive), I'm unure. However, if you think about it, setting up the player with loss, and then having a quick positive reinforcement (finding the new hat or something else cool) might be even more uplifting if the loss comes first. There might be severely scripted events like this in the game, but I may try to avoid that as best as possible.

I have to look at the goals of my game--my theme, per say--and determine what kind of gameplay, or "everything in the game" as Joe says, should compliment that idea.

For now, that idea is this: "Trying to convey the feeling of discovery that you feel as a child, but lose as an adult because of science and shit." I don't think it gets much better than that!

I'm running out of concept art. Haha. Alas.

Expect Greatness.
Ryan Huggins~