Preface:
This piece of work was created after I had a very long discussion about developing my main game idea with one of my lecturers. I had been planning to talk to him about this issue for some time, and wanted to get my game idea to a much more comfortable position before the Christmas break on the 13th December. These are the notes I made as a result of that discussion:
Sketchbook (page 20 - 21)
(page 20)
Different environments
Hidden buffs within an environment
Lots of ways of getting around the problem
What kinds of things can players interact with? (Safe, beer glass etc.)
What does your character start with?
Different environments (Bank, Ranch, outside, town in general, saloon, gang hideout)
What 'interactables' are in that environment?
Safes (lockboxes, coffers, strongbox)
Whiskey
Beer
Chairs
Tables
Bank vault? Maybe you try to access the vault as a common goal?
Money
Bullets/shells
Knives
What ways can each of your characters get around problems?
What items do your characters start with? (Depends on the character)
What interactions can these characters have?
Come up with a list of reasons as to why your characters are there
(page 21)
This page details the design of an alcoholic Cavalry officer I sketched on a whim because I originally intended for him to be a person that players would have to bargain with in the first version of my game idea. I needed to draw what was in my mind before I lost the thought, and that sketch is the result of that.
I also wrote down some design annotations, as is usual for me when I'm designing something;
Alcoholic, hungover Cavalry officer
Unshaven, large, untidy beard, scraggly hair
Smell of stale alcohol on his breath and clothes
Untidy, wrinkled uniform
Stature sort of leaning, slumped over on his feet
Muddy boots - weathered
Cap set close and low over his eyes, people can't see them when facing him
Gives you the impression he's completely fed up with his position in the army and has not had good sleep in days
Looks dead on his feet
Can interact with whiskey or other strong spirits
Backlog (page 12 - 13)
Tuesday 10th December 2019 (Week 11)
Today I plan to work with James to further develop my game idea into a more comfortable position before Christmas break on the 13th of December. Need to start prototyping ASAP.
Had talk with James.
We constructed a simple character-based interactive game in Unity using simple Unity functions as dictionaries, character lists and prefab objects to make a rudimentary environment that our characters - 'Bandito', 'Rancher' and 'Mayor' could interact with. We put a safe, or lockbox, in the environment and made it so the Bandito and Mayor could interact with it but the Rancher couldn't, as befits her character.
He told me to go and make my own environments with their own lists of interactables to make more scenarios many characters could join in on, capitalising on my main idea of creating a character-centric game. I came up with a list of questions including:
What ways can each of your characters get around problems?
What different environments can be accessed?
What hidden buffs are there within that environment?
What items do your characters start with?
What interactions can these characters have?
I'm coming up with these now in my sketchbook.
It's frustrating because I am meant to know these things and yet I am struggling
I might make a list of these questions and attribute answers to each character class.
For example:
How can a gunslinger solve the problem of scaling a building wall?
Gain access some other way
Look for a ladder
I still believe things are missing, but I feel that my game idea is coming along slowly.
Can characters use items to persuade or bribe other people? (An
(page 13)
alcoholic Cavalry soldier is guarding a fort you need to access, the gambler has whiskey in his hip-flask to bribe him to look the other way)
It's good that I know everything about this subject because I can create as many characters, environments, encounters and interactions as I like.
I really like the Cavalry officer idea, so I've drawn a rudimentary character design and labelled everything according to how I see him.
This list can be found in the sketchbook.
I wanted to draw this before I forgot it.
Week 10: 02/12/2019 - 08/12/2019
Week 11: 09/12/2019 - 15/12/2019
Week 12: 06/01/2020 - 12/01/2020
Week 13: 13/01/2020 - 17/01/2020
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