Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Homework 11

Chapter 15
  1. True, a goal with no obstacles feels obsolete and unrewarding.
  2. The relationship between the main character and the goal is the story. The story guides the character to the goal, and gives him incentives and reasons to pursue it.
  3. The puzzles are the main obstacle between the main character and the goal. Some are simpler puzzles, intended to guide the character or to provide story, other are harder intended to challenge the character.
  4. The obstacles will overall increase in difficulty, however since we often use easier puzzles to further the story, not every puzzle will be harder than the previous, but overall they get harder.
  5. We have not fully decided the details of the characters transformation, but we intend on the character realizing that they are part of the story and of the town, and may even use this to solve later puzzles.
  6. The real world is infinite, the game world is limited to only what the player needs to see, so there isn't a full town, just different scenes of one.
  7. The camera is the transcendent power we give the player, it allows them to alter the present and see the past.
  8. Our story isn't heavy science fiction, so the weirdest elements are the magical camera, and the realization that you saw your past self in photos that you took.
  9. The magical camera is explained early on in the game, and the seeing oneself in the past becomes normal once the player understands the camera sees into the past.
  10. We believe they will because the story will be suspenseful, interesting, and will lead to very impressive realizations.
Chapter 16
  1. The player is free to move around in the scene, so the player should feel very free, as they are only limited by the limits of the scene, and the puzzles they need to solve. 
  2. Other than the terrain constrains we have not yet designed any other constraints, so the player shouldn't feel constrained. We may later implement some constraints such as a limit in the number of photos that can be taken, this will constrain the player but also add to the challenge.  
  3. We would like the player to explore the environment they are in, to begin photographing different elements until they realize what the puzzles are, and to solve them to continue on in the story.
  4. Yes, we have physical and puzzle constraints, such as a bridge that needs to be photographed before the player can continue.
  5. We are able to force the player to do what we want via the game-play and game world.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Homework 8

1. The space in our game is continuous. The player can move around in three dimensions and can exist anywhere within the space.
2. Our space is three dimensional.
3. Our space is bounded by the different scenes the player will be in. The player cannot leave a scene, only transition to another scene.
4. Our player character has five verbs. Walk, look, jump, raise camera, take picture.
5. Raise camera interacts on a camera object he is holding. Take picture interacts on every object in the view. The other actions only interact with the player.
6. This has not been fully determined yet. We might take the approach of a few seemingly different ways to reach a goal, which end up being the same process.
7. The player only controls the player character.
8. Our general idea for side effects that change constraints is along the lines of taking a picture of certain key objects will alter them in such a way that the player can use those objects to achieve his goal. For example, taking a picture of a broken bridge might reveal the bridges state before it collapsed, allowing the player to walk over the bridge to continue.
9. Walk, look, jump, raise camera, take picture.
10. The resultant actions are not all fully defined yet, but may involve situations similar to the bridge example.
11. We would like the taking of pictures to also project the ghost/illusion of the previous residents living their normal lives. (This can be done in blender, but is an incredibly huge amount of work animating)
12. The ultimate goal of the game is to learn about the city and uncover the secrets about what happened during the destruction and what happened to its residents.
13. The players short term goal is to explore each scene and move on to the next scene. The only long term goal is the ultimate goal.
14. The goals will mostly be presented to the player through the story. The player will be told that their purpose is to explore.
15. The foundational rules of the game for the most part are only that objects remain in a destroyed state until photographed. Photographed objects will temporarily return to a healthy state.
16. The first rule is the basic state of the game. The second rule is enforced by changing the state of objects based on the players actions.
17. No.
18. Our game should ideally develop puzzle solving skills.