Week 4 Homework

Ch 3 – Paper Design creating the level blueprint

Part A - In Class Exercise (Rapid Prototyping):

1. The process used, likes and dislikes, etc.

The idea was to create lists of word associations around a prehistoric theme for 6 different areas (scary things, friendly things, verbs, ways to die, words related to prehistoric, and words related to no. 5). 

Answers were written on a piece of paper divided into 3 sections and then passed around to different people (cue first group difficulty!). 

I personally found the brainstorming enjoyable, it took us out of the box and made us think more, and more laterally. (Or me, at least.) I would have preferred to collaborate in a more open forum, ie throwing ideas around a table, whiteboarding concepts, that sort of thing; but I recognise the limitations in a classroom setting. 

What I didn't like was everyone thinking the same thing and writing the same answers down, which I think is an issue when it's not an open forum as ideas can't flow through as quickly. The aim is just to think of things super fast and get them moving, not to dwell on the same point. Also the misconceptions over what actually construes "prehistoric" were annoying.

I also didn't like that there were an odd number of people in my group so my bit of paper didn't get passed around *sadface*. 

The end result is to gather the ideas on your piece of paper and create a basic game concept from them.

2. How was your game idea thought of, in what order, etc?

Here is my page with the word associations:

And here is the page with the game idea based on the words:

The concept I came up with was a caveman (not prehistoric, I know, but we work with what we've got) who has to run around gathering berries for food, while also avoiding a fire in the forest and attacks from predators (like t-rexes).

From the list of words a couple of things were repeated - food, berries, plants, gathering - so there is a theme already: gathering food (berries from plants). Who would do the gathering? Most likely a caveman, I can't see a t-rex gathering stuff (itty bitty arms and all). A game just gathering stuff is a little boring so we need a bit of excitement to add to it which is where the t-rex comes in. And just to add an additional gameplay mechanic to it, there's a fire in the area so there's a time limit for our caveman to gather his food. 

So caveman, being hungry, leaves his home cave to go to the forest to find berries (because caveman needs his antioxidants and all). However once in the forest he discovers there's a fire in the area which adds a time constraint - gather as many berries as possible in the shortest time before the fire burns them and him as well. Also there's been a time-space continuum warp and a hungry t-rex has been let loose in the area and is on a rampage. Avoid Rexy, beat the fire, grab those berries, and go home to your loving cave-wife and demanding cave-kids. Awesome sauce.




Part B - Weekly Questions:

1. Building on the original concept you developed in Chapter 2, create a blueprint for your level. Make sure you begin with a series of rough sketches until your blueprint begins to take shape.

2. Create at least three gameplay mechanics for your level. How do these objectives relate to your original story idea?

• Racing. This one is obvious. It's a series of races. You need to beat the competitors. You also need to better your overall times in order to make it to the grand finals and hope to win your freedom. The other competitors are also trying the to achieve the same thing, and will try to obstruct you in some way. Which leads to:
• Risk and reward.  You need to drive your chariot skilfully and take some risks in order to win. Maybe you can cut off that other competitor but to do so means you need to take that turn more aggressively, which could mean that your chariot overturns and you are out of the race. Is it worth it?
• Victory points. You need to progress by winning as many races as possible in order to reach the ultimate race at the Circus Maximus and get the chance to race before Caesar in order to win your freedom. There are also additional "style" or "daring" points for particularly well-executed manoeuvres made during races.

3. Come up with five level objectives that correspond to your gameplay mechanics. How will you identify these objectives in your level blueprint?

• Complete your first race.
• Win a race with a 2 horse chariot.
• Win a race with a 4 horse chariot.
• Win a major race.
• Win the ultimate race.