Mechanics

So the team sat down and had a discussion about mechanics for level 1 and for the game in general .

Scoring
the points for each level are determined in a matrix

        This is what we created for level 1. The main goal for the Kantian and the Utilitarian is to get to the minion. They are supposed to prioritize this over getting money, but there is nothing wrong with getting money so they still get points for that. The main goal for the Objectivist is to get the coins.

       We want there to be a negative penalty for time after a set amount of seconds. The penalty would be worse for the objectivist, one of the goals of the objectivist is to move quickly.
Probably wont implement this in the first level, but definitely in other levels. It is difficult to make a decision about this before playtesting of the level has happened. More on this later.
       After each level your score is evaluated and used to determine how many followers you get in the next level.

Minion Control 
In each level the player is able to control themselves and each of their minions, however the player can only control one thing at a time. If the player chooses to only control the philosopher then that is his/her prerogative.  The level ends when the philosopher goes through the goal door.

Level 1

The tutorial is mostly finished, so this week we are working on level 1.
The original sketch of level 1 looks like this  level 1 sketch
The idea behind this level is that this is how you get the first follower and you probably won't ever lose this one. In this level we also introduce the structure of the game: at the beginning of the level we give you a rule about your philosophy, probably given like a suggestion. Throughout the level you gain and lose points depending on how consistent you are with that rule. At the end we will show you your score out of the total points possible and you will have the option to do it again and try to be more consistent.

For this level you have the choice of prioritizing talking to the minion or getting all of the coins. The objectivist should prioritize getting the coins and the other two philosophers should prioritize talking to/rescuing the minion. It is not definite, but because this is the first way to get a minion we are considering having the player re-do the level if they do not score high enough to get their minion.

Next week I will go into the specifics about the mechanics for this level and for the game in general.

And as always, here is a lens from Schell's Art of Game Design   

Lens 3-  Fun
This is difficult to think about objectively and nobody has played the game yet so it is difficult to determine what is actually fun. But here is my best guess about what is fun about the game. 

• philosopher ghosts 
• animals that give philosophy advice 
• humor (once it is put in place)
• minion control/being able to control multiple units 

weekly update and some lenses

This week I am working on modeling level 1
working on the character models
and sketching further levels

I do not have new photos of content to show so I will talk about concepts and the lenses from Jesse Schell's Art of Game Design

Lens 2-Surprise (p26)

• what will surprise the players when they play the game?
• the human characteristics of animals 
• philosophy jokes (hopefully)
• animal portraits of philosophers 
• the things they learn about each philosophy 
• Does the story have surprises? 
• philosopher ghosts 
• your pet turns into other animals 
• the story isn't very developed yet, so ideally there will be more later
• Do the game rules have surprises? the artwork? the technology?
• the rules change depending on the philosophy you are following, which will be a surprise 
• the artwork is still very undecided, so it is hard to say 
• the player is able to control all of their minions (one at a time)..unless they leave you
• Do the rules gives players ways to surprise each other? 
• the rules for each philosophy allow players to surprise each other by using rules to get what they want 

Once Upon a Time...

there was a philosophy game in the making. Here is the story of that game(thus far(subject to change))

The Story

A humanoid (whose gender is currently unknown, but will be referred to as a he for now, to keep it simple) is ambling around in the mountains with his pet dog. Without warning the dog runs farther into the mountains. The humanoid follows his dog up the mountains and into a creepy temple that seemingly just appeared. The humanoid steps into the temple and does not see his dog, he does however see several ghosts arguing. The ghosts resemble philosophers which is fitting because they are arguing about philosophy. Each of the philosophers believes the fate of the world is in trouble, what they cannot agree on is which of their philosophies will save everyone. The humanoid is mystified by the temple and the arguments of the philosophers, they all spoke so convincingly. The humanoid wanted to learn more about their philosophies, but the philosopher ghosts stopped talking. They noticed the humanoid and demanded to know which of them he believed to be correct. The humanoid chooses to follow one of the philosophies and the ghost that advocates for that philosophy gives the humanoid a quest. The ghost tells the humanoid to spread the word about the philosophy and get other people excited about philosophy. Then they arrive at a problem. The humanoid does not know very much about the philosophy and the ghost cannot leave the temple. After some thought, the ghost realizes he can jump into the body of the humanoid's dog. They search the temple to find the dog and afterwards set forth on their quest.


Presumably after this more things will happen. This bit of the story is enough to get through the tutorial and the first level. I want the story to shape the levels, but I also think what I need from the levels will become clear after I finish the first one. That being said, more parts of the story as time goes. 

Also I will probably pick up with the lenses again next week.  

Tutorial Photos and Lenses from "Art of Game Design"

Tutorial Update

As of right now there is a rough model of the tutorial because we want people to play it and see if the instructions make sense.

 As you can see, they all look really similar to the sketches. I plan to change the aesthetics once we work out the major bugs. The most important thing right now is that people play test the instructions and mechanics.

We are still working on putting the ghosts in scene two and getting the information about each philosophy to show up when the player stands by each door. Initially I wanted the ghosts to look like the animal philosophers but since I have not finished the models for those yet I had to improvise, so for now the ghosts look a bit like the Pac-Man ghost. They are an amusing place holder.




As for the third scene, there is a similar one for each
of the philosophers. Once the animal models are
finished the text in the blue boxes will be replaced
with photos.

In addition to working on the game and updating this blog I have also been re-reading Jesse Schell's The Art of Game Design  

It is described as a book a lenses, where each lens is a themed set of questions to consider in regards to your game. The book has 100 lenses so I thought I would go through a couple each week to get a better picture of the game . 

Lens 1- Essential Experience (pg 21)

• What experience do I want the player to have?
• solving philosophical thought experiments as different philosophers
• being introduced to different philosophies in a non-serious way 
• What is essential to that experience?
• in order for the player to handle things as different philosophers they need to know about the philosophers
• so a little bit of education is essential 
• in order for the experience to be non-serious it is essential for there to be humor throughout 
• How can my game capture that essence?  
• Because the game is a platformer we are going to utilize the scenery space and the platforms for small bits of education 
• we also used the story to set up a mentor relationship so it makes sense for someone to follow the player around and give him advice, which is really education about the philosophies 
• our game captures the non-serious essence by using things like the arguing ghosts in the tutorial and the concept of minions 
• both of these things are presented in a way that seems humorous 
• We also hope to use aesthetics and comedy to keep the mood light
• I am not sure if this is all, if not I reserve the right to change it as the game progresses. 

More lenses and such next week

Tutorial Sketches

Hello!

This week we are working on completing the tutorial so people can play it and we can make sure our game makes sense thus far. I have been having issues getting all of the textures to show up, but the other day I finally got it! Wheee! For your amusement I will provide the very rough sketches of the tutorial that I drew on some computer paper during class.

 The tutorial, as well as the following levels are intended to follow a story. In a future post I will put the entire story, but for now know that...

 the main character(the player) follows his dog up the steps and into a creepy temple.
In this scene the player learns how to walk and jump and use doors.










Inside the temple the philosopher ghosts are arguing and they ask the player which of them is correct.
In this scene the player walks to each door to learn a thing or two about each philosophy and chooses a door to walk through based on that philosophy. 

Once the player chooses a philosophy the player learns that the ghost of the philosopher she/he chose is inside his/her pet dog and will guide them on their quest.
Here the player learns that they can take advice from the animal following them around because the animal is an authority on the philosophy. The player also learns that the quest is to practice the philosophy and teach others. 



Currently we are working on the part where the player can walk past each door in the second scene and information about the philosophy will appear at the bottom of the screen. We also need to figure out how to make the philosopher ghosts because right now I am unsure of how to achieve that.
And then after figuring out those things- the models are not all finished so the tutorial will first be played with cubes and spheres-hopefully people can overlook that at the beginning.

some other miscellaneous things on my mind about the game :
The theme of the game is philosophy, cannot forget to always be reinforcing the theme.
I want to figure out the aesthetic of our game. I know it does not matter right now- but I still want to figure it out.

In the next couple of posts I will put up some pictures of the finished tutorial, write out the story and work through Jesse Schell's The Art of Game Design 

More Progress and Some Issues

        I.            What’s new?

a.       The game now has a story! Which provides a frame for levels

b.      Vague concept art  for characters , levels and start up screen

        Otter ; the Kantian ; the Utilitarian ; Minions

c.       A few unfinished models

d.      A prototype for multi-character movement

  picture of the prototype!

      II.       

            What are we working on?

W

a.       Finishing touches of the prototype

b.      Completing the tutorial so people can play it, finally!

c.       Level design

d.      Character models 

    III.        

    I          Issues?

a.       Remembering to update this blog (ha)

b.      Want to design levels based on thought experiments-how to set that up in a way that fits with the game?

c.       Keep levels progressively harder, still interesting and related to the philosophies

d.      The game needs a title

e.      And we need some play testers who haven’t heard us talk about the game every day for months. Any takers?