Week 4 (22-29/11)
The title menu and in-game interface.
During the last week I just simply polish and try to make sense of the gameplay, did much more in depth research to story related information such as ;the different stages of coma state, also I dug up details of the gadget’s capabilities; 2 main ones are called Gyro+accelerometer and Multi-touch functions, and slowly compiled everything into the PDF file needed for submission. Got most of the main controls done as a manual as well. Also did some made up ‘screen-shots’ in Adobe Photoshop, to show the interface and how the game is going to feel like.
Overall, although it might be slightly heavy for a casual handheld medium, it would still make quite an enjoyable, interactive and unique experience.
Week 3 (12-21/11)
Beacon concept that I did in Adobe Photoshop
I named the protagonist ‘Beacon’, symbolic to the meaning of light. I came up with a story that beacon is in a coma, and the levels that players explore are actually his mind. Influenced by Silent Hill 2’s Pyramid Head and distorted nurses which are the manifestation of James Sunderland’s Guilt and sexual desire; I created an enemy which represents Beacon’s guilt and fear. I created ‘shadowy-baby’ creature that reflects Beacon’s guilt for causing his girlfriend’s (Abbey) miscarriage in the accident that resulted in his coma state. Throughout the game, player will also be hearing Abbey’s voice which serves as a gameplay guide or puzzle hint. However none of the accident and coma will be explained in the game properly, even at the end of the game where Beacon wakes up in the hospital bed with his girlfriend beside him the whole time for 4 years. I’d like to keep the information to minimum to let players have their own interpretation of the story like in games such as Portal & ICO, but the main moral is that love and patience can be so painful yet rewarding.
Players will start with a simple matchstick and rewarded with better lighting devices as the game progress. The aim of the game is to solve each level puzzle and ‘light his way’ to the end and hence I named the game, ‘Light My Way’. Beacon also has an ability to do ‘Lightburst’ which enables him to stun enemies and solve puzzles.
I did some sketches this week on the stuff I mentioned above.
Week 2 (8-14/11)
Initial sketches.
Based on the initial idea of exploring 3D space with lighting devices, I have now decided that it will be a psychological-horror-survival-first-person game. I came up with a basic story where the protagonist is somehow trapped in this claustrophobic-maze like dungeon and have to traverse each level using only lighting devices. Enemies cannot be killed, can only be blind or stunned or trapped. I wanted to instill a sense of fear and helplessness for the players, forcing players to think and plan on the go, instead of going ‘Rambo’, I see this as a balanced gameplay. This serve as an emotional part of gaming experience as well, which I think is really important. Players will then have to solve puzzles to advance to the next levels, which means that the map system would be somehow staged. Portal by valve inspires me to have levels that are accessible for revisit and not too long in length; considering this game would be on IPad/ITouch, it would be somehow lighter than console games. For now ITouch/IPhone would be my main gadget, simply because it looks like the player are holding them like torchlights when they play, whereas it would be much clumsier with the IPad.
I then looked back at some older games that influenced me such as; ICO which inspired me for the ‘shadowy-undead’ enemies and also Silent Hill series and Amnesia : the Dark Descent, these games definitely had the feel and atmosphere that I’m going for, so I took some time to re-examine them.
Week 1 (1-7/11)
The first week we were introduced to our new project; which is to conceptualize an Apple Interactive game. Its an individual project that involves fair amount of research, a creative design and well presented conclusion.
So to start off, I looked around the internet to find inspiration from existing Apple games, this gave me the chance to also study what have been done before, what is possible and what might be possible to create for Apple, I wasn’t too concern about the market and target audience at this point, to refrain from restricting myself from ideas. I learnt that I can go for IPad, ITouch and IPhone as my mediums.
Some of the games that caught my eye in IPad; like the racing ones, require the player to tilt the screen left and right to ‘steer’ the wheel and I thought that, it is interactive, but its too plain and slightly boring. There were also first person shooter (FPS) that I thought would be too messy to have all the buttons on the screen instead of controllers, but it is actually possible, might not be too comfortable to play, but possible. Lastly I came upon Augmented Reality, which is basically a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated sensory input such as sound or graphics, I’ve played some games that involved this function before so that definitely helps me to understand this a lot more. However, I didn’t go into further detail yet at this point, again, so as not to narrow down too much of my ideas to the mediums.
What really motivates me is to create something that utilizes the touch screen and motion sensing capabilities of IPad & ITouch, that’s when I came up with a concept of a First Person game, where the Players will be using their IPhone/ ITouch/ IPad as if they are using a lighting device; torchlight, lantern & etc, to explore a 3d space in the game. Players will be able to rotate their gadgets in front of them, which will directly reflect on the character’s movements in the game.
