Exercise One: Mechanic Development

At the same time as Exercise Two, I have been exploring the mechanics I picked for Exercise One several weeks ago. For each mechanic I brainstormed the ‘character’ a game concept could be based around, the tone and age demography and different ways I could use the mechanic. From the brainstorms I drew away the key points and notes.

For the Morph Ball, some of the key points I explored were perspective (either making a 2D or 3D game) and the use of secondary character. One of the points I discovered was the transition between Morph Ball and normal mode is almost like two separate characters so I thought, why not literally make it two separate characters? The concept I drew from my notes is some kind of 2D, puzzle/platform game where the two characters both have different uses.

The Octocamo was another mechanic I explored, I knew the key for this was finding unique uses for the camo and exaggerating its power. I thought as well as taking the camouflage the player character could also take the element/texture. So if they were to take a metal texture the character would literally become metal. Each element could have different uses to solve or get around the environment.

The others had slightly less interesting results, for Game Speak I developed a concept where the player would have different languages to talk with different species in the environment. They would have to talk in game to get out of situations or get NPC’s help. Right now, the next challenge is picking a concept I will actually take and develop a level around.

Exercise Two: Finalized Mechanics + Level Concepts

After further thoughts and input from some outside influences + opinions, I have decided upon the two mechanics I will be using for each game. For God of War, I have selected ‘Achillies Armour’. It really boiled down to the Sickle or the armour but I could think of more gameplay scenarios revolving around the armour.

I scrapped the Hades Helmet early on because I thought it would be pretty boring and unfulfilling to use as most of its perks are performed automatically by the NPCs.  I decided against the Mjolnir and Sword of Attila as there are already similar weapons on previous God of War games. So really, it was between the remaining three. The shield was next to go, first and foremost because the armour did the same job but the player wouldn’t have to be weapon-less whilst using it. I also had to try keep the appropriate God of War tone. Kratos is a character fuelled with rage and violence and him using a shield to protect himself didn’t gel as well as the other ideas.

To be honest, the decision wasn’t that difficult between the armour and sickle, I picked the armour because I’m already exploring Portal mechanics in Exercise One and wanted to make sure my work has some variety. So the Achillies Armour is the winner here.

Picking the Zelda mechanics were a little trickier as I thought I had several potentially interesting ideas to pick from here. First to the bin was the Climbing Claws. Although I can imagine some interesting segments using them, they’re pretty uninspired compared to some of the other ideas. Next was the Fairy Container, no real reason for chucking this one I just didn’t take a shine to it. I quite liked the idea of using the Spear in some of the level mechanisms but the scenarios in which you would have used it would feel incredibly contrived. 

I decided against the Magic Flute as it felt like it was giving me more work than I really needed to take on. So between the Magnetic Poles and Carry Ball, I had to write and see for which of the two I could think of the most secondary uses for it. Between them both, the Carry Ball won.  So the Armour and Carry Ball are the two selected mechanics for both games for which I will create a level design for.

It didn’t take me long after making those decisions to come up with concepts for a level. I knew for the Armour I wanted a level which would constantly expose the player to something dangerous that only the armour would protect them against. I quickly thought of the idea of Light or Heat. The movie ‘Sunshine’ (a film about astronauts travelling to the Sun), gave me the idea of the level I wanted. 

Keeping with God of War’s canon, I searched for a Greek God or entity that had the power of Sun or Light. Obviously Helios is the God of Sun in Greek Mythology but he has already been a reoccurring character in the franchise so I sought for something different. I found that the Titan Hyperion was the Titan of Light, also the father of Helios. From my knowledge Hyperion hasn’t made an appearance in the franchise as of yet so I thought that would be a good starting place.

Now in Greek Mythology, Zeus imprisoned all the Titan’s at the very pit of Hades in Tartarus. That gave me the idea that the level would be Hyperion’s Prison in Tartarus, over the years Hyperion becoming so furious and insane from imprisonment he emitted an intense light around the area. I drew some rough sketches and notes for the stage.

I wrote up a list of all the God of War play mechanics and tried to link them together to randomize and generate some order and time each mechanic could be used in the level. At the very start of the stage I want the player to see the scale of the stage from above it, so they know exactly what they are descending into.

My concept for the Zelda dungeon didn’t come as immediate as the God of War one did. I wanted to make sure the Carry Ball would get the right amount of expose so it had to be a dungeon where you had to shrink and carry things around.  Initially I drew similarities to the Carry Ball being like a giant Poke-Ball but it carried objects as well as living things but somebody made a passing comment about how it was like Kirby (a Nintendo character who sucks enemies up and spits them out). The idea of the item being alive instead of just an object seemed infinitely more interesting.

So with this idea of the Carry Ball being ‘alive’ in some way I gave some thought to scenarios. I thought maybe the item might once have been a person who had a curse put on them. Then I had to consider who would have the power to put a curse like that on someone. After a series of convoluted thoughts I came up with the idea of a ‘Voodoo themed dungeon.’ The Voodoo dungeon would have a series of curses on the rooms the player would have to solve, as well as enemies and environments being themed after witch doctors and Voodoo culture.

So with both concepts in mind, over the coming weeks my primary task is to come up with all the puzzles and environments for these levels before finding a suitable method of presenting these concepts visually. 

Exercise Two: Legend of Zelda Mechanic Concepts

Like before I brainstormed numerous mechanic possibilities for a 3D Legend of Zelda game, mainly with a dungeon item in mind that I could use to design puzzles and obstacles with. Unlike God of War I could be alot more free and unique with the Zelda mechanics without worrying about make sure the equipment had to all be combat based.

1. Magic Flute: The first concept is a Magic Flute, an item which allows the player to control NPC animals in close proximity. When played near one of these NPCs, they will follow and assist the player until the flute is withdrawn. Different NPCs will have different unique powers that can help the player, e.g. a large animal might help you lift a heavy object etc. When playing the flute enemies will stop attacking the player and dance.

2. Magnetic Poles: Two large magnetic poles. When activated the two are inseparable. The player can place the two magnetic poles in specific spots and activate the poles at any time. If the player is holding the other stick when they activate it they will be pulled towards the other pole. The magnetic poles can be useful for moving large objects or reaching out of reach areas.

3. Climbing Claws: These allow the player to climb specific surfaces and walls much quicker than normal. It also allows them to jump from a wall onto another surface. The player can also use them to attack or dig holes in damage floor surfaces.

4. Carry Ball: A large spherical object the player must carry with both hands. Certain objects, enemies or characters of sizes usually too heavy to transport can be pulled inside the ball. When empty the player can shoot a beam from the centre, sucking whatever it hits into the ball. Pressing the button again will release whatever is into the carry ball. This can be used to carry large objects, trap enemies or carry NPC characters.

5. Spear: At first glance this mechanic looks like a regular Spear but it has several uses within the context of the game. Besides being used a melee weapon, the spear can be thrown to hit objects or enemies. It can also be used to in the place of a broken leveller, sticking it in the mechanism and pulling it like a switch. It can be used in other mechanisms as switches or handles to twist and turn devices.

6. Fairy Container: A lantern like object the player can use to hold one of three coloured fairies in the world. It can hold one fairy at a time and with a fairy inside, equipping the containing will give the player a unique power. Green: Will freeze time for a few seconds. Blue: Illuminant hidden objects or writing in the room. Red: Attract enemies to the player.

Exercise Two: God of War Mechanic Concepts

From my brainstorm I selected six mechanic concepts to put into God of War and construct a level from. Above is a quick mock up of the six pieces of equipment I have created for God of War. Like I said earlier, it was important to make sure all the mechanics influenced the combat in the game but with a useful second function to solve puzzles or obstacles. 

1. Cronus Sickle: The sickle can cut portals in the environment to and from the underworld. Creature will emerge from the underworld and drag one enemies into the portal before they close. Once used again and a portal is reopened the remains/red orbs of the enemy will return to the player. The player can trap enemies in portals and then release them in deadly areas to instant kill them. The underworld portals can also be used for puzzles, pushing objects into them and making them reopen elsewhere etc. The Sickle is also a decent melee weapon.

2. Helmet of Hades: When worn, the helmet allows the player to see astral objects and undead spirits in the environment. Any undead souls in the area will flock to the player and protect/fight them in battle as well as assisting them proceed in the environment.

3. Achilles Armour: The Achilles armour makes the player invincible from all damage from enemies and the environment. The armour will appear on Kratos when selected and disappear once magic/stamina is depleted.  The armour greatly increases the players weight making them run slower and attack slower. On the plus side, the immense weight of the armour can prevent the player from being pushed, blown or pulled off a ledge. On top of that jumping from a height whilst wearing the armour can smash a surface or object below it. 

4. Sword of Attilia: A massive sword the player can use in combat to defeat enemies. Made from steel the sword also has the ability to conduct heat and electricity. Conducting heat in the sword might help the player melt ice paths or warm up water, conducting electric might trigger mechanisms in the environment.

5. Svalinn Shield: A defensive and offensive weapon the shield can be raised to protect the player from enemy attacks and projectiles. The shield can be thrown like a boomerang, cutting down all enemies or objects in it's path. It can also reflect beams of light or lasers into other objects and surfaces.

6. Mjolnir: The Mjolnir is a powerful hammer, the player can attack with normal swings or swing and smash down to the ground with it. When the Mjolnir smashes into the ground it can create shock waves which might effect the environment around the player. It can smash large boulders or walls that might block the player.

Exercise Two Brainstorming

Exercise two is taking an existing game and adding a unique mechanic created by me, then designing a level within that game to show off the mechanic. I thought this exercise would be easier than the first but when I actually started thinking about it I soon noticed it was trickery than I thought. I had to make sure the game mechanics I selected were appropriate for the game.  For example, if I picked Resident Evil it wouldn’t be appropriate to have a mechanic which revolved around platforming as that would completely go against the rest of the game.

I had a look at some of games and mechanics from my exercise one brainstorm to see if it would trigger any ideas to which games I should look into. I wanted to pick different types of games so that mechanics I created for each would have to be exclusive to that game and not something I could apply to another title.

The Legend of Zelda was my first obvious candidate. Not so much because there is alot of variety in the tools and mechanics but because Zelda games are made up of dungeons which revolve around puzzles and enemies requiring you to use the new piece of equipment you gain in each dungeon. That alone sounded like a good match to show off a level design using my own mechanic. 

Each dungeon introduces a new piece of equipment the player must use to solve puzzles and beat the boss at the end of stage.

My second thought was the God of War franchise. The reason I thought of God of War is because the mechanics and equipment in God of War usually have dual usage. Almost every piece of equipment is used to both solve puzzles/obstacles in the environment and to bloody defeat enemies. As mentioned in an earlier blog, I’ve always liked mechanics that have one than one obvious use.

As with Zelda, I brainstormed some mechanic concepts in a God of War fashion, it was important to make sure they felt consistent with the rest of the series, the equipment being primarily combat oriented. I started by researching some mythic object/weapons from Greek mythology but it soon became apparent the series has already exhausted the most obvious/coolest Greek mythic concepts. So I looked into other mythologies to find some ideas that God of War hadn't used yet.

I tried coming up with different uses each mechanic might have besides fighting (some alot more interesting than other). My next step for this exercise is to define each of the mechanics with specific features and from there pick the one best suited to design a level around.

Exercise One Brainstorming

As stated in the previous blog, Exercise One is for me to create some unique game concepts based around existing game mechanics. The first thing I did was brainstorm as many games with interesting/unique game mechanics I could think of onto a piece of A3 paper. I tried to avoid obvious mechanics found in a broad range of games and stick with ones that are mostly exclusive to the title they are found in.

From the brainstorm I picked several different mechanics that sounded like they had enough weight to base a game concept around. I collected some reference images from each game and compiled them together below.

MORPH BALL: From the Metroid series (specifically Metroid Prime), the player has the ability to transform into ball allowing them to roll around the environment, access smaller areas and rolls up ramps. The Morph Ball also has the ability to drop bombs and climb 'spider tracks' to reach otherwise inaccessible areas. I picked this mechanic because I liked the idea of switching from first person perspective to third person when you control the Morph Ball. The Morph Ball was almost a game within itself, the controls and abilities were completely different from the regular mode and it gave the environments a completely different perspective. Conceptually I also like the idea you turn from a character/human into an object almost, often using the morph ball as a object or conduit in complex mechanism in the environment.

OCTOCAMO: Based on an octopus' ability to change it's appearance to blend in with it's environment, Metal Gear Solid 4 gave the player a special auto-camo suit which would change it's texture to blend into the surface the player was leaning against. The core concept of Metal Gear Solid is stealth and the player would use the octocamo to blend seamlessly into the walls, floors and objects of the environment to sneak past guards undetected.

MASKS: Majora's Mask's central theme was 'masks' the player would collect throughout the game which would help them beat dungeons and solve quests. When worn masks would transformed the player into a totally different character, with new moves and advantages to get around the world. I usually find games with 'transforming' mechanics pretty uninspired but Majora's Mask managed to get it right and all the main masks were useful and more importantly, fun to use.

GAME SPEAK: From the Oddworld series, the player character of the game, Abe, uses 'Game Speak' to communicate with members of the same species as himself. Buttons are assigned which allowed Abe to shout commands to other characters, including 'Follow me', 'Wait' and 'Work'. Using game speak the player must guide Abe and his friend to escape portals avoiding the enemy NPCs who too, have their own unique game speak which they use to talk to one another.

BRUSH TECHNIQUES: The Celestial Brush, was the one of the most prominent mechanics in the PS2/Wii game 'Okami'. At any time during the game the player could use brush techniques to fight enemies, bloom flowers and trees or alter the environment. This could including painting stars in the sky, manipulative water and fire or change the environments from night to day.

PORTALS: As the title suggests, Portal's unique mechanic revolves around the Portal Gun with the power to shoot an entrance and exit portal anywhere in the environment. The Portal Gun was used to solve small environment puzzles usually contained to one or two indoor rooms. The player could send objects or themselves through the portals in order to reach the exits.

The next steps for exercise one is to take these six mechanics and brainstorm some scenarios and different obstacles these mechanics could be applied to in the process creating some unique game concepts based around them. I will then select the mechanics with the most interesting scenarios and take them on to the next step of the project.

Semester 1 Objectives

My key area of study this semester has been the relationship between mechanics and level design. These two subjects are the fundamentals of game design and what makes a game a game. Mechanics are useless without the player being able to apply and cause a reaction with those tools and levels can’t even be considered a game until the player can have some input and cause a reaction in the game universe. Last month I did a quick exercise of performing reverse level design on some existing popular video games. The purpose of it was to see how easy/difficult it would be to map level designs so they could be read by anybody else on a team. So really the three keywords this semester for my work are communication, mechanics and level designs. All three equally important as one another.

From my objectives I sought to find a method where I could apply and learn these skills. I suggested in an early blog some possible ideas. The two that have stuck with me are:

Exercise One: Create a unique game concept based around an existing mechanic from an existing video game.

Exercise Two: Take an existing video game and create a unique mechanic that can be used within the game. Demonstrate the unique mechanic in a detailed level design for that game.

These two exercises are good ways to explore both ends of the mechanic-level design relationship. In exercise one the thinking revolves more around the level/game design my work is going to take place in. In exercise two the mechanics are the starting point and the levels are to be designed around those mechanics. Both exercises will be useful as they let me to both express my creativity whilst at the same time working under constrains. At the end of the semester I will hopefully have examples of both exercises. The first task of work is to select the existing video games for exercise one and two that I will be working with.

Literature/Contextual Reviews

Been a while since my last update, so I’ll churn out a few blogs quickly within the next week to make up for it. My main focus over the last week and a half has been the Literature/Contextual Review module which basically requires everyone to pick a topic related to their work and research, analyse and evaluate different methods of research to expand upon our existing knowledge. We are given advice and lectures on Fridays to assist with this module but the lectures are absolute dire and a completely waste of time. They usually revolve around one or maybe two usefully points then the lecturer will just rephrases the same point about 7 or 8 times to drag it out to an hour. Maybe these lectures are useful to other students/courses but to me they are just an utter waste of time. I wanted to make sure I at least take something away from this module so I looked into an area that I would find interesting and usefully towards my work and a subject that would be easy to find plenty of sources for. I looked over my previous blogs to find a relevant subject,  some time back I spoke about the impact video games had on me growing up, the attachment I have for specific games and how they made me felt. I thought an interesting topic would be to explore how video games can produce those reactions in players on demand. So my subject became ‘How can emotion be produced through decision making and player actions?’

Fortunately I had already been reading some design books before I decided to start this essay so I already had some sources I could draw info from.  The assignment required two essays, a Literature and Contextual Review. The Literature Review required 30 sources (10 books, 10 journals and 10 websites) I think it’s a bit unreasonable to expect us to read 10 books in the time span but thankfully it’s easy to jump to relevant sections in most books. Another reason I picked this subject is that it’s pretty easy to find sources related to emotion/player reactions in video games, it becoming such a growing area of interest in the industry at the moment.

I’ve always found it pretty easy to just write and write loads of drivel as I think it up but for this assignment there was a word limit of only 750 words so after the initial flood of words I typed up I probably had to cut out nearly double the actual word limit.

The Contextual essay was easier I found, maybe because it was easy to pick 5 sources from 10 non-word sources than from 30. Most of my contextual sources related with ‘making of’ videos from game developers or interviews with successful creative directors. I attended the Bradford Animation Festivals some days earlier so it seemed only sensible to stick that in my sources as well.

Regardless how well I did or didn’t do I can honestly say not a single Friday morning lecture actually helped or felt relevant to my assignment, which just furthers my dislike for it. Also, we couldn’t even hand our assignments in till about 10:10am (10am deadline) because the tutor was running late, so technically everybody failed anyway.