HW 04 - Readings

Chapter 2

• Forgetting about the game, think about your player. What are the experience(s) you want your player to have?

• What are the essential element(s) of that experience. 

• Suggest a few ways your game might capture those experiences.

a) I want the player to experience themselves through a lens that they may not have considered in the past. It's easy to play disaster games when you feel like you can do something about the Great Evil (be it killing zombies or finding a cure, etc.) But in real life we are not great marksmen, guns aren't lying around, and when something cataclysmic happens we don't have super powers to stop it. I want the player to feel human, vulnerable, and terrified. They should want to survive no matter the cost, but I want them to analyse what that cost was after they finish the game.

b) Essential elements are the feeling of smallness and insignificance, a constantly chaotic environment, and a fast pace driven by immediate threats.

c) Immediate and constant danger can be made with elements such as collapsing buildings, antagonistic NPCs, and the threat of being discovered by the giant if you are not stealthy enough. Also, The level design will make the player feel small next to the city buildings and tiny next to the giant that towers over them. 

Chapter 3

• Discuss a few ways in which you might include surprise in your game

• How will your game be fun? 

• Discuss the goals of your game (as it stands now).

• State your thoughts on how you will make the player attached to your game, or motivated to play the game. 

• What problems do you expect the players to solve in your game? 

a) The NPC enemies, sidequests, and the final sight of the giant provide a lot of surprise for the player. Also when lights or radios randomly start blaring the player has to find them and break them quickly lest the giant come. This will shock and motivate the player to move quickly.

b) Like a roller coaster it will be scary and fun at the same time. The thrill of narrowly avoiding death and making difficult decisions will entertain the player.

c) The goal of the game is to answer (as well as a game can, allowing for people who behave entirely differently in game environments) how do you act when something terrible happens, or more essentially, what kind of person are you when it's do or die. Other goals are to inspire a feeling of "awesomeness" as with the original definition of the word. The giant should feel insurmountable, massive, and majestic, and the collapsing environment beautiful and terrible. The player ideally will feel terror and wonder at the same time. While The limits of the class will significantly draw back on our ability to make the game incredibly aesthetic, I hope with our demo we can still inspire some of that feeling.

d) The player will be motivated by the idea of surviving despite the odds. The core value of survival in human nature combined with the internalized perception that only the most "fit" survive will push the player further into the game to prove to themselves and their friends that they are cunning enough to beat the game. 

e) The player will face stealth challenges (navigating the map around the giant), avoiding ANY damage (your HP will be practically nonexistent), search and destroy challenges (finding and destroying things that bring the giant closer), and moral dilemmas (sidequests - As you go to escape you will run into people you can either help or leave, and your actions will determine the end of the game).