Game Idea 1

Game Idea 1: Elements & Consequences 

Overview:

It’s a 5 minute interactive experience where players manipulate fire, water, and wind through an aesthetically satisfying interaction, with the twist being that the camera shifts to reveal that they’ve been creating environmental disasters. By creating the game in this way it removes any player agency over the outcomes to showcase the beauty yet devastation natural disasters bring. 

Gamifying the theme:

• The core mechanic in this game would be a delayed consequence and perspective shift to create an emotional impact. 
• Each element would have its own unique mechanic with fire being able to be drawn on a black canvas that would spread over time to create an environment of creativity. Water would allow the player to create waves and fluid motion through dragging which would create satisfying sounds and visuals. In the wind section the player can create swirling air currents so create satisfying swooshes. 
• After each of these scenes the reveal happens where the camera shifts from benign a top down view to a front facing view that shows the environment and revelas how the wildfire has burnt the forests down, the tsunamis have flooded the coast lines, and the hurricanes have destroyed communities.

Core game loop:

I read over Don Norman’s emotional design principles in which there are different stages to design. The visceral level that creates positive affect  is followed by the reflective level creates a memorable impact that’s stronger than factual teaching. This backs up my idea of creating an experience where no matter how the player interacts with the screen, disasters happen.  

Player Feedback Loop:

Ethical framework:

Gamifying any disaster requires sensitivity to avoid the mistake of exploiting a tragedy. This concept addresses the ethical concerns through the design choices. By utilizing abstract elemental interactions it avoids looking at the impact on any victims of the disasters. 

Moodboards & Visual Identity:

Hand Drawn rationale:

• The only reason I chose this for the visual identity was due to emotional design. Stylised visuals create stronger empathy than photorealism due to the abstract nature of hand drawn work being able to be processed emotionally without becoming overwhelmed. (Isbister, How Games Move Us.)

Visual Influences:

• Studio Ghibli with its expressive environmental story telling, and their attention to the beauty in nature
• Nine sols, Spiritfarer are both hand-drawn indie titles that have received critical success due to their aesthetics 

View Full Moodboards here

Market & context:

• There has been a growing number of short form narrative games that are being released on steam and itch.io. Players nowadays are tending to prefer games that are sub-30 minute games that have social themes as the core pillar. 
• Papers Please, Before Your Eyes are a good example of this, similarly although slightly longer, Gris, Journey, and spiritfarer also fit some criteria whilst also being comparable to my game idea with these games focusing on the reveal mechanics, wordless stories, and heavy themes depicted through art.
• However, my game still has its unique selling point, it focuses on player mastery and removes the agency, which position is more towards an awareness experience than an entertainment game.
• Looking at the viability of this project, its a small and narrow scope so the issue becomes less of development and more of visibility, itch.io is the best platform for indie games however, WebOs games are seeing a continual increase in popularity which could allow me to access a wider playerbase. 

Industry Process & roles:

• Agile approach: Research → Problem solve → Ideate → Prototype → Test

• Team/roles: 2D artist. Programmer, sound designer
• Skills required: Unity 2D knowledge, scope management

Reflection:

• My environmental geoscience background and my strong system thinking and research approaches can create a good prototype, but for the final game a dedicated artist would significantly improve the visual quality. From my prototype I have proved that my technical skills are sufficient for a project like this but I would prefer to have a dedicated programmer and a dedicated artist for this project.