The entire typed document can be found on page 11 of the black sketchbook.
1.
I needed to focus, or confine, the Spirit’s journey to one area of the body, as this would make researching much faster and the whole process of making the game easier. This way, I would not be using the entire body as the game’s background. I could then see what illnesses affected the chosen area of the body and cut down a lot of time searching for said illnesses.
My game’s background could have been set in the brain, heart, liver, kidneys or lungs, as they are the five main vital organs of the human body, and if affected can mean serious illness and/or death.
The way my essential experience of a ‘frantic escape’ would then be introduced into the game would be that the Spirit would have to destroy the illness at its source before it could spread to another part of the body and get out of control.
An alternative for the Spirit’s journey presented to me was that the player could use one of the body’s systems, be it the blood, muscle, bone or nervous systems, to track the illness somewhere in the body. However, I went with the latter because it better suited the aspirations of the game’s message () and made more sense. It would also mean that I could easily identify and choose the types of illnesses in that area.
How illness spreads through the other vital organs
Lungs: illnesses spread through to the small Alveoli in the chest to grow
Kidneys: from the kidneys upwards to the rest of the body
Heart – through the four chambers
2.
I then had two main questions to ask in order to determine WHERE to base my game. I asked which area of the body would be best to base my game in on account of:
1. the area’s susceptibility and vulnerability to illness 2. which area hosts the most illnesses and the most diverse of illnesses
I was informed that the best place would be the lungs, because they do both of these things. They have the potential to pick up the most different illnesses, they are the most susceptible to attack, and they have the most dangerous consequences if attacked.
This is because the lungs get filled up and the subject can’t breathe.
I then determined that for this section of the game, the Spirit could travel from the Bronchus through into the Alveoli in the lungs. As the Spirit travels further, the environment gets tighter and tighter, linking to the fact that the tubes further along the Bronchus do get narrower and narrower. This also links to the ‘frantic escape’ of my essential experience.
3.
The Spirit would then endure more and more attacks as the tubes get narrower.
I then had to ask the question: Which illnesses affect the lungs?
I had no real knowledge of what illness usually reside in the lungs. Apparently, there are lots to choose from, with the lungs being so easy to attack.
As per my game specific of defeating the viruses inside the body, it had to be an illness not easy to defeat, but not impossible. Making a game about a tumour or HIV would be pointless, as one is currently incurable and the other needs to be eradicated with external surgery.
It also couldn’t be too many illnesses as time is of the essence.
So we considered the illness known as ‘Infection-causing Pneumonia’. The main idea is that it is a life-threatening condition if not dealt with quickly but can be beaten without external support. It is the Spirit’s job to kill the illness before it gets out of hand.
The Spirit’s Journey
- The Spirit starts in the Bronchus, the large pipe, where it battles against large amounts of phlegm, which is where phlegm usually sits.
- This is where the Spirit must duck, dodge and use the wall lining to climb over to avoid the phlegm that sits on the bottom of the pipe.
- However, the phlegm builds up, as it does in the body. In this situation, ducking and dodging becomes harder for the Spirit, again linking back to my essential experience. The phlegm is green and brown in colour, showing the severity of the condition. This is research from real-life experience, as when a chest infection becomes at its worst, phlegm does turn brown.
4.
- After the Bronchioles, the Spirit travels to the area with the fever in it. The tubes get hotter and narrower, and the Spirit gets too hot and becomes sluggish as the temperature rises. This brings forth a more frantic escape as the slowing Spirit now negotiates more attacks with a narrower tube and sluggish state.
I may add a temperature gauge at this point.
- The Spirit’s goal is to reach the Alveoli at the end of the Bronchioles. Within one of those sacs is the bug that the Spirit is required to fight.
The Spirit could now be crawling from the heat.
The Spirit’s current objective is to find the sac that contains the bug, and there are multiple sacs of about 5 or 6. Each houses a bug in which the player is required to figure out how to defeat.
5.
My current research objectives are:
- To figure out a different way the player could fight each bug in the Alveoli.
- Pneumonia is caused by either pseudomonas or staphylococcus. I need to research these two bacteria to inform my decisions on character design. Perhaps there are 3 pseudomonas and 3 staphylococcus in the sacs, and the player must fight each in a different way?
- I need to think about whether the Spirit would have some white blood cells in its pocket or could channel them to throw them at the infection, as the body usually sends in white blood cells to eat the infection. Perhaps the Spirit could also channel anti-biotics.
6.
Things to consider
· What does game end look like?
· How do you know you have won? Does the background colour change?
· What do pseudomonas or staphylococcus look like?
· Remember that viruses, diseases and bacteria are all certain shapes to fit the environment of the area they live in to do maximum harm.
· Research the anatomy of a lung.
· Consider game tone.
Thinking about and researching these inform my design decisions.
I want the game tone to be fairly light-hearted and know when to be serious. I do not want it to be serious like ‘That Dragon, Cancer’.