In class we did a brief exercise about 3 main points in a game: mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics, for this task my group was assigned Papers Please to focus on to figure out these aspects (shown below)
Papers please: I think the intention of this game is showing that you have no control over some situations because no matter what you do you are always helpless and cannot change the final outcome.
mechanics: dragging and dropping items, repetative loop of the worker you play as involves approving or denying entries.
dynamics: game loop is working at the border, you check peoples IDs and then let them in or not.
aesthetics: gloomy, dark, dull, depressing, the player should be feeling like the character stuck in a loop, the game is meant monotomous
Working on our own ideas:
This is my initial idea for how the cat would look in my prototype, I have chosen to keep the design very simplistic drawing attention to the ‘shadowy’ nature of the character and exaggerating the eyes to make them stand out: Shown below are a few frames from my initial sprite sheet
After sticking with this initial design for a while I realised that it was too detailed for a prototype so I instead simplified it and made the cat easier for me to animate at this stage:
Although the cat didnt really look like a shadow anymore this is still fitting with a design I like so it is good enough for a prototype. I made all the animations for walking and jumping as well as the idle and put them all into Godot. The tile set I made completely on my own because I wanted the game to have a specific vibe to it (dark and eerie but in the light be vibrant) which is diffucult to convey in the game type I am making at the moment but in the final game if it actually gets made I am sure this document provides enough details on aesthetics.
This is a rough moodboard which I tried to adhere to for the screen I made for the prototype: The screenshots below are taken from my gameplay in First light and Rainworld.
The reason I chose these 2 specific games ot feature in my moodboard is because I want to try to attempt to replicate the feeling I felt while playing through both games of eerie darkness and the feeling of the world being dangerous or mysterious. Based on this I changed my sprite again to fit with this type of style and simplify it down so I could animate it more easily in my prototype:
These are just some of the frames which I made for the cat sprite and upon itteration I decided that the cat would not be a shadow since it draws meaning away from the game and more towards logic, I made this descision based off feedback from multiple people:
- Raven: I like the aspects of the game you have developed thus far, I think if you make the cat just a black cat and link it to the idea of being unlucky rather then being a shadow which doesn’t exist in light then you can add a resistance to it gradually and expand on it more.
- Mum: The concept is good but I think you need to make it a little more complex rather then just a cat trying to avoid the light, maybe you could add choices or other animals you talk to who tell you little pieces about the story as you go.
Based on this set of feedback alone I chose to adapt my concept and base story in the following ways:
STORY: The cat looses its parents to a car crash, the last thing it sees is the cars headlights, therefor develops trauma around lights.
WORLD BUILDING: Keep to the same style as originally intended and rather then the world being empty include others who sometimes are in the light sometimes outside of it to talk to and gain different perspectives. I want to keep the idea of the world working against the cat to make it seem alive and fighting against the player.
MECHANICS: The player will be able to upgrade health and / or resistance to being in the light representing overcoming the trauma of their past.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: Rather then up unti the end of the game the cat not being able to touch the light make certain scenarios when you can go in it or choose to do so along side another NPC, the cat will no longer be a shadow but just a black cat. (Unlucky and link to the parents dieing because of this)
Class work (Crit)
On Friday we had our 2nd crit, this involved creating a document and putting onto it our ideas for how we wanted our game to feel like when played
On my document I included questions which I wanted my peers to help with circled and we went around the class getting feedback off eachother via stickynotes. Once this was done I filtered through them and took note of any useful feedback which could be applied to my game
1 main thing I noted was the answer to my question ‘What style of game do you think this would be best suited too’ in which majourity of responses agreed with my initial approach of a pixel platformer. This concept was already expanded on in Jordans lecture earlier that week thinking about how our game would look if it was different e.g., if it was a rhythm game or a idle clicker game or a visual novel
(screenshot of this work below)
We also discussed based off what we found what we think our prototype should look like, since I already knew I wanted a cat sprite I didn’t need to worry about what the character would be but in terms of what is the core loop of the game or key aspect in which you want to showcase which I chose to be a static screen decorated in the way I invisioned the game to be made with the cat sprite which can run and jump and a beam of light down the middle which when touched respawns the cat. This shows the aspect of the loght being deadly and how I would want to convey this, so rather then the cat ‘dying; I would instead like for it to play a scared animation and then reset the scene entirely as well as the aesthetics of the scene being shown very clearly because personally when I pick up a game I base whether I want to play that game very heavily on how it looks rather then mechanics or world building.
Personal research
Exploring different ways in which the game could be made in Jordans session reinforced for me that I wanted it to be a pixel platformer experience since it allows the light to be depicted best and most clearly, the cat can add to the charm of the game and the furthest I would be willing to stretch away from that concept would be if the game would instead be rendered similar to another game I looked into when desiging this which is Ori and the Will of the Wisp or Ori in the Blind Forest.
This game inspired me to expand my horizons when I think of a platformer because of how inviting the game looks and all of the experimentation with different colours and vibrant landscapes while still keeping the dark appearance and making the game feel mysterious. In particular these few screenshots I took while playing the game are my favourite because of how the environment glows and works with Ori:
This typ of aesthetic draws the player in through appearance alone and for my final game if it was to be made I would like for it to be something similar (not on par with because its a student game of course).
Ori also has a very good map system which helps the player navigate, I am not sure at this stage whether I want the game to be linear or have situations when you backtrack to get to different areas e.g., a pathway which was previously blocked. For this reason a map is essential that the player will know where they are going so if I choose to have one in my game I would take insiprations not only from Ori but also from Rainworld shown below:
