DES 102 Week 4
My high concept for this brief was an espionage-based game, with my basis for it coming from what little knowledge I have of the Metal Gear Solid games. I wanted the player to infiltrate some sort of shady facility, acquire information through a set of computer terminals, and escape, all without being caught. In spy games, there are two main play styles: ‘Avoid the guards to not get caught’ and ‘You can’t get caught if there are no guards’. I decided to use elements from both of these, giving the player a stun baton in the small building in the bottom right corner of the map. This has 3 charges in it, so the player can disable any unsuspecting NPC, but you have to strategically choose who to stun, and be sure not to leave an unconscious body lying in view on another NPC. Another mechanic I employed was different tiers of unlockable doors, with each door in the facility requiring a different level of clearance card, ranging from 1 to 3. The cards can be obtained from locations stationed around the map, either on the person of NPCS or nearby, requiring a large amount of stealth to progress through the game. Finally, most guards have a low range of vision, but there are some areas where exploration without cover is impossible, and these are marked in pale red. �
Before this week, my experience with Illustrator has been very limited, due to any project I faced where I could use it, I instead turned to Photoshop as it was easier. The few times I had previously been forced to use Illustrator, I hated it. It seems very similar to Photoshop, but has so many more limitations for you to learn how to work around. This attitude has not changed. I think Illustrator is difficult to work with, at the very least for the purpose of creating a technical map. It may be good for people making digital art, it may be good for people with drawing pads, but I am neither of these people and I hate Illustrator.