The Full Bright Company’s 2013 game ‘Gone Home’ is an interesting look into Narrative and Level design. Where the player arrives at home after being left some concerning messages from their sister being, told not to investigate.
Overview
the idea of the game is to explore you house and follow the bread crumb trail to what happened to your sister. finding things like keys to unlock doors and messages on cassette tapes to lead you to the next clue.
Core Mechanics
Movement: Allowing the player to move around the house.
Interaction: giving the player the ability to examine objects, open doors, turn on lights and so on, allowing them to unravel the clues left for them to find.
MDA
Movement - Interaction: Unraveling the mystery as the player moves from room to room, finding the next clue as the wander all over the house creates a sense of wander and intrigue as they move ever closer to solving the mystery.
Game Loops
Core Loop: Clue > Assess Clue > Move to next clue.
Moment to Moment: Find Clue > Assess Clue.
Level Loop: Begin Game > Repeat Core Loop until Mystery is solved > Finish Game.
Session Loop: Roughly 3 hours, depending on mystery solving ability.
Innovation
Not ever seeing another character in game allows for a far more immersive experience for the player where you can really start to feel that all the tapes and little discoveries were left for you. it felt like i was discovering the families history and not that I was being told it.
Level Design
the Fulbright Company’s design of the house was really well done, form the lighting be done in both a realistic way but utilized tricks such as upturned lamps to guide the player. having the house locked right from the get go really helped set the pace for the game as well, making sure the player knew it wasn't going to hand them the answer to the problems at hand. exploring the house you begin to find its less then conventional design, such as walkways in the walls but overall it helped sell that this was your house that you know all the little secrets about.
Narrative Design
The player is given the end of the story and have to now figure out what happened to get it there. Her sister has run away and specifically told her not to try and figure it out. The premise alone is something not often seen in games, usually the ending has a twist but this one, it was exactly as she said. We just HAD to know why. Uncovering secrets of her family home and relatives both past and present, Kaitlin (The protagonist) explores her world with a new purpose and opened eyes. We, the player, are alongside her discoveries the whole way.
What Have I Learnt?
Telling a good story doesn’t mean you have to be the protagonist. It doesn’t need to be that you’re controlling the person going through the trials and tribulations. You’re the one at the end, putting together what happened after being left behind, and it’s just as compelling.
ThatGameCompany’s ‘Flower’ is a breath of fresh air in video game story telling, where you control the wind itself in an interesting and unique game play experience. Blowing flower petals around the world to revive the dead fauna in this truly beautiful and unique game.
The game is played by the means of moving or ‘blowing’ the wind across the level touching flowers as you go to add petals to your trail that follows behind you as you progress through the level. After touching all the flowers in an area in a dot to dot fashion the dead/dying fauna in the area will come to life and reveal the next area for the player to progress to.
Core Mechanics
Movement - Allowing the player to move both horizontally and vertically through the level.
Obstacles - used to block progression through the level, making the player have to find a way around. also making at times being used to damage the petals in the players wind trail.
Flowers - used as markers and objective points in the game. each flower must be bloomed in order to revive the dead area. allowing the player to make progress. also adding petals to the players wind trial.
MDA
Movement - Flowers: moving towards the flowers and touching them to bloom and receive the petals is the main objective of the game. when doing so it creates a feeling accomplishment.
Movement - Obstacles: used as a means of creating a challenge to the player in what is otherwise a very peaceful game. making the player feel a little tension as the pass the obstacle, touching the flowers as they go with the risk of losing petals. with a feeling of relief once they have safely passed it.
Game Loops
Core / Moment to moment
Locate next flower -> Move to flower -> Avoid Obstacles -> Bloom Flowers
Level Loop
repeating the core loop several times.
Session loop
2.5 hours of game play or one full play through of the game.
What Have I Learnt?
You don't need characters to tell a story, you don't need a hero or a villain to point to. you just need to tell it, the environment in ‘Flower’ spoke volumes for the world it was set in. usually I’m not a big fan of motion controls but considering the game had a unusual concept, an unusual control scheme fit really well. using the motion controls to go up and down left and right just felt great. It made perfect sense for the game play, immersing the player in the experience where for a brief moment they weren't playing a game, but were controlling the wind itself.
One of the trickiest parts of game development is making sure that its able to be played by everyone. Right from the get go Green Jellyfish was keen to make it so our game was accessible to as possible to people as possible, in particular looking at making it playable for people with color blindness.
Because our game ‘Neon Odyssey‘ is so heavily reliant on color, we went through many iterations at the start of the project to find a color palette that worked for the most common forms of color blindness. Here is a picture of the game using a CV Simulator an app that allows you to see in real time how a person with three different forms of color blindness sees the same image with the top left being unaffected by the app.
this was a huge asset to us through out development. While far from perfect, for a first attempt I don't think we did okay overall.
Heavy Rain is Quantic Dreams multi-protagonist story, based on solving the crimes of The Origami Killer. Initially following Ethan Mars, and his journey to recover his son, Shaun from the Killer who only has a few days to live.
Core Mechanics
World Interaction:
Covers everything in the world that the various characters can interact with to uncover story, world setting, and personal information about the characters and their lives e.g. finding Ethan’s sons’ toys lying around the house or family photos.
Narrative Choices:
Usually played out through cutscenes, the player has the opportunity to affect the overall narrative by choosing how they respond to situations and other characters. This is done through quick time events.
The player is given an agenda for the current situation and part of the choice is whether they follow what the design initially intends or go about it their own way. For example, when looking after Shaun at the start of the game the player can either send Shaun straight to bed, no dinner and no TV or they can foster a relationship with him and sit down to talk together, do homework together etc.
or like in the GIF above if he wants to cut off his finger.
Game Loops
Core Loop: Interact with World - Make Narrative Choice (repeat)
Moment to Moment: Move to next Interaction - Interact (repeat)
Level Loop: Assess situation - make appropriate interaction - reassess situation - make narrative choices
Heavy Rain is a re-imagining of the Point and Click adventure games but optimized for modern 3D gameplay. Taking gameplay out, the controls were ambitious for the PlayStation. Using motion controls for a lot of the interactions seemed like a great idea on paper but the follow through just didn’t feel refined and as a result, the overall game experience felt awkward and created a disconnect between the player and the game. However, had this mechanic been polished to achieve its intended effect, it would have only enhanced gameplay. That aside, as it was it created a unique player experience.
Narrative Design
While heavy handed at times the way the gameplay forced the player to make choices that they knew were going to be an issue or come back to bite them. Putting the world in a modern realistic setting meant that all of the situations in the game lead the player to thought pattern of ‘its a video game, I know it's going to go wrong...Just how?
What Have I Learnt?
Harsh but being the elephant in the room I'm going to point it out. Heavy Rain’s controls were not intuitive and the little things like the motion control and movement being on the trigger with directing the character being on the left stick didn’t feel right. This taught me that when designing a control scheme it needs to be easy to pick up and that clunky controls can take away from the fun.
That aside, Heavy Rain showed that you can tell a rich and in depth story without long cutscenes. The player can make a discovery about the story on their own. Without having to heavy-handedly drag them to where they need to go.
today has been a very new experience for me and hopefully a small glimpse into my future. walking into PAX not as a consumer, but as someone trying to promote a game (Shadowverse), lead to an entirely different experience that gave me a new perspective on the community of gaming. https://shadowverse.com/
So I was volunteering for Cygames ‘Shadowverse’ booth as a general hand, so handing out flyers, teaching people the rules of the game, playing it with people, monitoring tournaments the whole bit. It was a great experience and I had a lot of fun, getting to know the community and see people really passionate and eager to play was really awesome and infectious. https://shadowverse.com/
However being on the other side of the coin wasn't without its downsides. watching as people would walk straight past because they didn't like the art syle or wasn't being made by a AAA studio was heartbreaking. I didn’t work on the game but over the last week or so of playing it to make sure i knew it well enough to explain it to people who were new to it at PAX, I really started to getting an attachment to it and could see how much work and love went into making it as fun and appealing as possible. I'm not usually a fan of the turn based card game genre but this one really grabbed me and opened my eyes to how just small things like making sure there is always plenty of player feedback with particles and effects make the experience so much more enjoyable. This may be a contributing factor as to why i never really gave the genre the second chance it deserved.
I could see people flocking to all of these big AAA game booths and leaving the indie games that are doing some amazing things in innovation to try and get noticed with the bigger studios. now don't get me wrong I love the big name companies as much as anyone else but if you get the chance go to the Indie booths, its where the magic is at.
So Ive just come back from my first ever GCAP (Games Connect Asia Pacific) and words can barley explain the experience i just had, Getting to talk and learn from fellow game developers and a few of my personal hero’s was truly amazing.
GCAP is the fist half of Melbourne International Games Week where a bunch of game developers all come to Melbourne to talk about games and give conferences on all areas of game development and share their knowledge and experience with other game developers.
despite having some serious imposter syndrome I went in with my business cards in one hand and my note book in the other determined to make the most of the experience. 2 days later and I walk out with a note book full of notes, lots of ideas to work on and a bunch of contacts in the industry.
the theme of this years GCAP was the ‘ripple effect’ and how one thing will lead to another and another. I can already feel the effects of GCAP as I’m now more inspired then ever to make games and work hard so next year ill have something to show off. maybe even do a talk myself in a few years.
Like with any team it has a list of pros and cons. but this however is a problem I didn't anticipate. I have an amazing team who produces high quality work at an alarmingly fast rate, which is a problem because it leaves them with little to do. Meaning the producer of the game (myself) has to find more and more things to add.
when working in a team you assign X amount of hours to each person to work on a task, with X amount of tasks to do over the project. however when the team continues to complete all the work in less then half the estimated time. your left with a game that has everything it needs and bunch of time to kill, so what do we do from here? for the purpose of the assessment I have to make sure there is enough work to go round. so on the bright side our game is getting bigger and more awesome but on the downside I’m struggling to find enough work to give my team.With the would be nice list slowly turning into the things to be ticked off list we head ever closer into gold.
Neon Odyssey Sell Sheets, Makes explaining easier.
As part of the assessment for our presentation we needed to make a few sell sheets to help explain the game and as a hand out, like you'd get a convention.
But what exactly is a sell sheet? what does it need? what makes it good?
well as we found it has a lot to do with making your game play clear and giving the reader something to get excited about. Which meant a lot of pretty pictures to make the whole thing pop. (credit to Jess Murphy for the artwork).
We wanted as few words as possible on the sheet along with pictures that clearly displayed what the game play was going to be about. We opted for a sort of action shot where a number of the mechanics are explained, Shooting, blocking, matching colors to do damage and so on. with just a few short sentences to compliment the pictures. trying to briefly explain the story and mechanics in a elevator pitch fashion.
Now designing and making the sheet look nice is only half of the battle, the other is printing. because like a box of chocolates you never know what your going to get. in and out making minor tweaks to the document to get it to print just right is the real challenge when making a sell sheet. Much like making a game it needs a lot of rapid iteration.
going from the comfort of explaining the game to our teachers who knew the game and have seen all the bumps in the road, to a panel of industry professionals was a little more then nerve racking. But it definitely gave us as a team a few things to think about.
if there was anything to be taken out of the industry panel presentation it was that clarity is key. explaining the game to a bunch of industry professionals was enough to give me a little bit of a nervous stutter and shaky hands. but despite this the presentation went fairly well, only missing a few details here and there with no real pauses or miscommunication to be had.
However the thing is when you say dog, chances are the person your talking to is thinking of different breed. the few details we missed combined with perhaps overlooking explaining the mechanics as in depth as we could have left the panel with some questions, asking things like, did you mean this?
overall it went great and the feedback was really good making us look at the game in a different light, allowing us to fix the flaws before the became an issue for us. giving some unbiased feedback to us gave everyone on the team a moment of ‘oh yeah..that doesn't really work does it’ bringing the issues we had blinded our selves too into the foreground.
Green Jellyfishes artists have started to take the teams idea of what the game could be, and whipped up some concept art.
this little art piece was sent to our team by one of our artist Jess Murphy. Watching both myself and my designer @lockylab jaws drop as we saw what only a few weeks ago was an idea, start to become a reality.
this little artwork did more then just give us an idea of what the game would look and feel like, its motivated the whole team into overdrive. with more concepts and work being sent back and forth and being iterated on, all in the name of getting pre production done so we can get stuck into making this picture a fun, playable game.
Team Green Jellyfish are in the thick of pre production right now. which means as producer of the project I’m starting to get busy in the best way. When I’m not typing away at a document I’m talking to the artists with the designer about the concepts they coming up with, or the programmers about how different elements need to be implemented.
Keeping me on my toes for sure but loving every second of it.
Being producer on the project so far has meant that myself and the designer have been the go to guys when it came to anything regarding the game. which has meant I’ve had to face one of my biggest personal flaws, making an objective decision about someone else work.
I’m always glad to give feedback and tell someone if I do/don't like their work, but as producer I have to be able to put my foot down and say “its great but its not what we want/need for the project” and that's going to be a challenge.
So far the team has been pretty on the money, only needing slight nudges back onto the path. But its been interesting to be the one that is doing the pointing even if it has only been for minor adjustments.
Now that we have an awesome logo, thanks to our talented Artists. We just need to work on making the game to tag it onto. if the speed and efficiency of the team making this logo is anything to go off its going to be smooth sailing on our way to Alpha.
with our idea approved its go time! the beginning of a long road of writing document after document as we work our way through pre-production.
Things like GDD, Scope document, working with the artists to create an art bible and the programmers for a TDD. I’ll be spending the next couple of months tickling my keyboard.
But whats the idea?
well I’m glad you asked, after much deliberation and discussion we have decided on a 2 player co-op, side scrolling, twin stick shooter, set in a cyberpunk style floating city.
The game is going to be focused on combat, utilizing a switching mechanic that allows you to damage enemies based on the colors you switch between. which will create a tense experience where players need to work together to survive.
Its going to be a challenge to make, but with all the team 100% on board with the idea and eager to get started I’m confident we can make this awesome.
Playdeads 2016 puzzle-platformer ‘Inside’ is a game about a boy in a dystopic world. like the companies 2010 game ‘Limbo’ the objective is to solve puzzles to survive.
Overview
the player inst really told much about the boy they play as only that you start by sliding down a rock face and heading into the forest before immediately getting chased by mysterious masked figures.
Core Mechanics
the main mechanics of the game are your movement and the puzzles.
the movement allows the player to traverse the levels and the puzzles present an obstacle for the player to overcome to continue.
all of the puzzles are designed in a way that you quite often will die from not knowing what to expect from the challenge, such as being shot by an enemy or a piece of the floor falling that you weren't prepared for. despite this not giving any real warning to the player, they don't feel cheated or like it was unfair for them to die.instead the player feels like they now have an edge and a much better chance of survival. this does however make the player feel nervous going into a new area but also creates a rush as they run past an enemy that killed them before with the new knowledge of what to expect, or intelligence as they overcome another puzzle.
Game Loops
Core Loop - heading for the end of the level and completing / solving puzzles.
Level Loop - solving 4-5 puzzles while heading to the next area.
Session Loop - completing most / all of the levels, that takes around 3 hours.
Design
the design in ‘Inside’ takes the side scrolling story telling to a whole new level, where despite moving in one direction the whole game. it feels as if it is part of a bigger world for you to explore.
the setting is quite dark in color with for the first few levels of the game being grey scale with only the boys red shirt to contrast against. but as the player progresses little streaks of color here and there get introduced, such as the yellow cables that lead to secrets.
the simple models in the game are perfect for the kind of story telling Playdead were trying to tell. when the boy hides and runs from enemies you cant read his face (he doesn't really have one) but you can see in his body language that hes scared and knows that if he doesn't keep going he will die.
when the boy does die, its often in rather graphic ways. this is part of what Playdeads games are known for. but it also helps convey the story that this isn't a game but a story about a boy who is lost and in real danger. it helps create an attachment to the character without knowing anything about him.
the sound in the game is designed to make the player feel on edge and unwelcome at all times, from the barking dogs to the marching of feet it all points to you needing to get as far away as possible if you want to survive. the music in the game was recorded by routing sound through a real human skull to create a sombre quality that complements the games visuals.
what is there to learn from Inside?
aside from being great puzzle design the game really points out that the environment can tell so much of the story to the player, the game has no dialogue and no text but there was so much for it to say. the subtle use of color and sound working together to create a unique and compelling story is hard to do. but simply by progressing through the game I was given a story about a boy who was thrown into a dangerous world that was unforgiving.
So today was the beginning of the end of year project. I'll admit I was a little nervous going to meet my team. However my fears were quelled when I met with five awesome like minded individuals who are bursting with talent.
After we got introductions out of the way, we did a quick show and tell more to the point, blow my mind with your talent and watch me try to act casual about it.
A few mood boards and discussions later and some game ideas really started flowing. I'm really looking forward to working with our new game dev compadres, Green Jellyfish is going to be a riot.
with the testing module all wrapped up and in the bag we move onto the next module. Production. where ill be trying my hand at a producer role, while not my strong suit I’m hoping ill have expanded my skill set a little more by the end of the next two months. Ive been paired up with the talented game designer LockyLAB for the project. Tomorrow we’ll be Introduced to our artists and programmers and if I’m to be honest I can’t wait.
2087
tangentwithtanner
gummygunk
areudirty
izzy806
annaxmalina
discoholicmusic
janainaart