Development - GDO710 - Week 4
Updated: Jul 24, 2022
First development log! Still not sure about the layout of these journals. It might be easier to create one journal a week and have different sections for each one of the core topics, IE; Research, Activity, Development & Planning.
I'm sure as the degree progresses, I will find a rhythm and flow to structure these.
Tasks to be done this week: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Review the theme.
Brainstorm concept for the demo.
Think about scope and feasibility within the time frame.
Decide on a format for the demo (IE: Paper prototype / Unity build).
Set up project management & create task breakdown.
FLESH OUT THE IDEA!
Development: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXX
Before we got announced to the theme, there was some information on how Rapid Ideation works. Provided was a list of diversifiers, I found a couple of themes particularly interesting and I wanted to try and include some of them into my game as an added challenge.
I have participated in a couple of game jams before so I thought this would be a good way to up the stakes. (That being said, I have enough to juggle.) Here were some of the Diversifiers which I was interested in.
Language-independence – create an artefact that can be understood regardless of which language the player speaks.
In ink – use only black and white colours in your design. There should be no other colours, not even grey.
Basics covered – all of the top four most commonly complained about accessibility issues are addressed; configurable controls, any text is large/clear, does not rely on being able to hear & does not rely on being able to tell colours apart.
Artefact can be completed in 30 seconds or less.
The theme was death. Rather morbid but an abstract concept to work with which can lead to multiple different interpretations.
The first thing I did was jot down the "Death Tarot" theme into a bubble and then create a mindmap. This is a screenshot of my thoughts
I then looked at all the diversifiers that were provided, and game them a distinct color coding system (which works in my head) so that I could see which ideas would fit which diversifier.
From there I started to develop some ideas (some not written down) and found that 30s or less would be too difficult within the team frame.
I then decided to create a list of the games which reminded me of the theme, as you can see in my scrawlings on the right side.
I detailed the game's main themes, and how difficult I thought the scope would be to create something of that caliber and then slowly developed the ideas further.
I really liked the idea of using cards and attempting to make a card game, similar to the likes of inscription. To further make this challenging thought that the Ink diversifier would make things interesting!
From Inscrypion game, the theme, and the diversifier, I started thinking of creating a black and white game. I wanted to make it understood regardless of the language, however, I quickly realized that it was going to be super difficult because I would need to understand universal imagery better.
A couple of days passed and I ended up writing more ideas on a notepad on my phone, one of them sparked something and I ended up with an idea that I really liked. I then proceeded to write down the initial concept in my workbook.
The name of the game is going to be "Brink". The idea is to create a grey box environment & a possible tutorial level which demonstrates the major mechanics. The core concept of the game is the following:
Gaining health is bad. You should aim to be on Half a Heart (Aka: Brink.)
Now I love this idea, but coming up with mechanics for a game which goes against normal gaming conventions is tough. Players will always want to gain health, how do I design a game/prototype in which the player NEEDs to lose health and they understand that gaining health is a bad thing?
I was stumped.
I spent a couple more details thinking about ideas, brainstorming, mind mapping and more until I came up with the following:
By this point, it was approaching the next week's online video lecture and I was still in the conception phase. My project management for this week was quite honestly:
Appalling
I should have started on the actual project this week but work kept piling up now I'm behind on the project and behind on my learning journals. Producing them weekly is proving to be tough. That being said, I believe I have a solid idea which I am looking forward to pursuing in the upcoming week. I need to ensure I allocate enough time at the end of the week.
The plan is to allocate 4 x 2 hours on Tuesdays, and 2 hours on Monday and Friday. This should (hopefully) give me enough time to produce SOME work. Sadly this term is just very busy.
Tasks to be done this week: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Review the theme.
Brainstorm concept for the demo.
Think about scope and feasibility within the time frame.
Decide on a format for the demo (IE: Paper prototype / Unity build).
Set up project management & create task breakdown.
FLESH OUT THE IDEA!
References: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXX
A, Tookey. (2022) Authors own. Mindmap for rapid ideation 1. [Image]
T, Marks. (2022) Inscryption Review. https://me.ign.com/en/inscryption/191072/review/inscryption-review. Accessed 1st July.