Concept

The GDD that we have to come up with must be based upon the essay we did before christmas, my essay was based upon the MAVEN nasa mission whihc is set to launch late 2013.

The mission is going to circle mars atmosphere for one year collecting data about the rate of loss of its inner atmosphere, which from research findings is one of the reasons for the loss of the planets ability to sustain life, they then want to use this data to backtrack and see if they can pin point at what time mars would of been habitable.

in my essay i explored the concept of the researchers discovering that earth has a similar fate awaiting it as mars and the reprocussions that would have on our planet as a whole in a future scenario.

before coming up with a certain game idea we came up with three loose concepts that would make up the base for the final Games design document concept.

i decided to try and make my three concepts as diffrent as possible and keep an open mind and see if i could keep one particular idea from becoming the final one before reciving feedback.

The three ideas that i concepted consisted of:

Earthly Resort

Game overview

The player plays as a Martian alien that has followed the maven probe back from its mission. The small Martian has been sent by its employer to see if earth is the right kind of place to set up a holiday resort for his people.

Genre: Open world adventure

Style: light hearted comedy toon game.

Players: Single player experience

Sequence: An open world game

Mechanics

·         World mapping – the player has a small scanning device that allows them to map out the earth collecting data about the plants animals and different environments that the player will discover

·         .Small guys make a big impact – Martians are tiny and can easily find themselves trapped lost and in danger from things in this strange new world, they player must refrain from being detected by the inhabitants of the planet in case they decide not to set up a resort here, so the player can’t go around killing things and being seen by locals.

·         .Stealthy – the player can use items in the surroundings and items that have been picked up to help them evade capture or detection.

·        . Inhabitants – at points in the game the player will have to take down and disable the locals to evade detection or being caught by the FBI, the player must then wipe the recent memories of the inhabitant so they don’t remember seeing anything

Atmosphere

A light hearted toon style game with bright colours

3D game

End of Days

.Game overview

Based on findings of the MAVEN mission it has become knowledge throughout world leaders that there is now an expiration day on the planets ability to be habitable. The player plays as a country of their choice acting as the leader for that country, they must decide how they will deal with the information and take their country forward to preserve either their country in the last remaining days or work towards finding a way to preserve life on the planet.

Genre: An RTS simulation game.

Style: Serious.

Players: Single player experience.

Sequence: The game is not linear, the player can take different routes and decisions that make the game, and it’s in game events and its outcomes unique to the player.

Mechanics

·         .A top down map of the world in which the player would have a side menu in which options can be chosen

·         The games option menu is split up into categories such as environmental, social, economic, international relations, Military, Science and research, engineering and International trading and business.

·         The player has complete control over the games direction they can choose whether they want to focus their attempts on research into ways to sustain our environment, military strength, ways to colonise other planets are just some examples.

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·         Public standing- the player doesn’t play as a world leader but more as the country itself, as the player takes control of a different world leader as they come into power their influence and credibility will change along with it, so some things that are possible with one leader may not be possible with another, international and public relations always play a part.

·         .Other countries – the player can choose to try and bring other countries into the fray through mediums such as the UN to try and sustain the planet or work alone or even against the other countries, other countries may be hostile at certain times in their history as well and may attack and try and take over the players territories, as well the player may decide the easiest way to attain resources may be to dominate the other territories.

·         . End – the game will end if the player’s country is completely taken over by another, the country falls apart through things such as economic failure, famine or maybe a virus or something as simple as the world becomes inhabitable.

·         Every action – The player will have a set of actions that they can choose to take at any point or choose not to at all, these actions will cause drastic knock on affects positive or negative depending on the circumstances in the country around that time, for example, making the findings and impending doom of the planet public knowledge it could cause mass panic and riots or it could be the kick the world needs to begin working together towards a common goal.

M.A.V.E.N

Game Analysis

The player controls the MAVEN probe during its mission, maintaining it, setting its daily missions fixing any problems that may arise.

Genre: A casual simulation game.

Style: The games style will be a realistic shown through a mission control screen.

Players: The game is a single player experience.

Sequence: The game is linear.

Mechanics

·         Time lapse orders – player revisits the game at their leisure and gives the MAVEN probe orders and jobs to do while it is orbiting mars, different orders can only be carried out at certain times of the day and along at the order is given it will be carried out.

·         Technical difficulties – at certain times the game will bring up notifications to the player of technical difficulties with the probe, such as a dust clog stopping instruments working correctly,  debris knocking into the probe or just losing its coordinate data and roaming aimlessly.

·         Live images – every now and again the probe will send live images of where it is to the player, the player can share these images or keep them saved in a data file.

·         Changes – the player can alter and change the paths and order in which the probe will do its duties.

·         Relax – the player doesn’t religiously play this game its meant to be a quick pick up and play game while relaxing, similar to a tamagochi.

·         Results – as different information is collected and the player passes it on to the correct people results and findings will become public knowledge.

·         Leader board – the player will be able to share their achievements at the end of the mission on a leader board and be able to see what other people found out at the end of their missions and statistics showing what they prioritised, their level of maintenance and how efficient they were.

 
After getting feedback i looked over the three designs and with the need to fill a 30 page GDD document i decided to go for the real time strategy game and expand more on the mechanics.