Time to rethink our idea... (09.12.13)

Due to recent events it was decided that we should reconsider our game to a different play style. We have techniqually restarted our project but bringing forth our previous concepts and designs.We are going to incoporate some of the  previous ideas into our new game but with a different gameplay.


This is our brief:

Puzzle Game:

The main gameplay idea we have is to teach the player not to jump to conclusions about the first way they can tackle the puzzles. Although it may seem simple at first, it turns about to be a little bit more complicated; a process of finding leavers and moving obstacles may have to be discovered first before they can complete the puzzle.

Playing with the players mind:

We still want to work with the idea of the girl trapped in an alien industrial farming complex, however the story starts out with the girl falling asleep, and the game starts in a ‘dream world’ but the player doesn’t know this is a dream. You have to complete certain tasks/ puzzle in order to escape. However when you do finally escape it turns out that she has awoken from this dream, and she is in fact still stuck in the cage.

 

Our design is to be very clean and to create simple puzzles for the player to complete.

 

 

This is the kind of style we want to go for, a clean a crisp style although we shall consider adding in dirty and broken down areas to create different effects and to tackle emotion.

 

 

 

This is a simple map layout with very simple structures that we could incorporate such as alternate rooms to collect objects to allow you to pass current rooms.

 

 

 

 A few level designs and strategies; the top image shows the need to move the box to get out the facility and that the lever is on the other side. The second image then shows an obsticle in the way i.e. need to be another platform to help you cross, and the last image shows the solution to get to the other side.

 

 

This is a concept of an alternate style we could persue with an old styled wooden shafts and dirty floors, with crates and containers.

 

 

Script:

 

Girl: (could be echo distorted)

 

''Where am I?''

''AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!'' - Scream

''What is this place?''

''Huh?'' - shock

''Maybe the lever on the other side of the room might do something...'' - monotone (hint)

''What does that orb do?'' - monotone (hint)

''Get me out of this place!'' - panic

''We are trapped in here like animals...'' - monotone (hidden meaning)

''I might have to try a different approach...'' - Questioning

''Maybe there is another way?...'' - Questioning

''(Grunts and moans)''

 

Story/scenes (monotone - talking to self): ''I have been trapped here since I can remember... What does the sun look like? I can't remember it... That man has tried to escape before. Many of us have, many have failed...They keep us in these cages, and when someone leaves, they don't come back. This is what they mark us with, this strange symbol. What does it mean?... Oh thank god its gone... It left the cage open! Nows my chance...''

 

 

 

Other prisoner:

 

''What do you want from me?'' - Anger

''HELP ME!'' - scream of terror

''AHHHHHHHH!!'' scream

''Get off me you overgrown chicken!'' - anger and scared

''Wake up'' - mono

''Over here'' - wisper

''(Grunts and moans)''

 

 

 

Other sounds/noises:

 

Predator cracking noises

Platapus noise

Chicken noise

Footsteps/Stomps

Chains

Bars rattle

Snapping

Machinery

Creepy laugh (prisoner)

Whispers (prisoners)

What I'll be doing...

My job for up coming few days is to refine the graybox we have, adjust the layout of where we want things, ultimately scale it down to only a few rooms, so that we can just focus on specific areas, and move forward from there. I will be carrying on with implementing sounds, some will only play in specific zones, and then I can see if I need to make any amendments here and there.

Look at:

flickering lights - code.

ambient sounds

screams

To do

To Do:

Concepts for processing and cage room (Toop)
Assets needed:

Humans - High poly and low poly models - Edit default mudbox human

Arm holding orb (High poly)

Cages

Conveyor belt

Preparation machinery (processing room)

 Tables

 Tanks

 Lab equipment

Meat hooks 

Textures for all assets, ideally two for humans though a lot of farm animals are clones so if they all look the same it might actually be more accurate to what we are trying to portray.

Weekend Plan

We need to have a proper discussion before we can move forward (Monday 11.30). Untill then tasks for the weekend are:


Toop: I will be sketching environment concepts for the cage area and processing plant.


Joe: Research factory farming, look through the research already posted on the blog and do some independent research and make a post on the blog. Its extremely vital that you do this, will make things a lot easier on yourself once you get this done.


Alice: Concepts for objects in the environment

Tasks for the week

Check the trello board !!! (should be checking and updating  your progress on tasks everyday) and ticking off tasks once they've been done

Joe: Finish the concept art for the alien. The versions wearing suits and the versions with stomachs can be paintovers of previous concept pieces or sketches.


Toop: Complete weekly schedule and update presentation


Alice: Getting placeholder sounds to use in the graybox and finishing processing sketch


All three of us also need to write a personal statement (300 words)

This week (till monday 28th morning)

Toop: Continue concepting till end of October unless all is done. (complete 2-4)

Joe: Enemy development for presentation and test arm in graybox

Alice: Player coding (player health and player movement)


Once all concepts are done these can be made into assets starting 5th November at the latest.

For now we will use a small test environment and placeholder objects for assets in Unity

By Friday the 18th

Toop - Continue with environment concepts: Storage room, caged room (similar to battery farms) closer related to real life farms as to the alternative alien farm.

Joe - Research into walk cycles of animals such as chickens and horses etc. further develop enemy concepting in its design of how it walks include some shots of walks in 2D and 3D space.

Alice - Grey boxing and further developing AI for enemy.

To Do

Concept Art:
Characters:
Aliens
Human livestock
Protagonist (low priority)
Mutants (low priority)

Interior:
Cage room/s
Processing plant 
Laboratory
Downstairs lever room
Storeroom
Hallways

Exterior:
Outside of building and surrounding area
Building/room layout/map

Other/Objects:
Light orb
Keys

Code:
Pick up
Throw
Animate arm throw
Enemy kill
Possibilities (depending on capabilities of the visual scripting program)
Orb distraction
Enemy Follow
AI movement (partially done)

Assets:
Characters:
Alien
Human livestock (possibly two different models)
Mutants (low priority)

Interior:
Cage
Doors
Lights
Machinery
Tables (maybe + chairs?)
Crates and barrels

Exterior:
Side of building (low priority)
Misc objects outside building (v. low priority)

Sound:
Ambience
Alien noises
Human mumblings
Narration for protagonist
Sound effects

Plan of action

We have decided to use the Unity game engine as we are more familiar with it, games can be exported to multiple platforms and we would have the option of using the Oculus Rift with it. Also we could use Playmaker for Unity so we can use visual scripting which will be helpful for us since we aren't strong coders.

We will start by creating concept art for the project.

• Character Designs - Aliens, human livestock, mutant altered humans, protagonist.
• Environment - Interior, exterior
• Objects - Light orbs, cages, machinery, keys, crates, etc.

(Colour coded for priority red = highest, green = lowest)

Once we have Playmaker we will start grayboxing and getting the basic mechanics in.
Joe's friend will be creating the sound.

We will then create assets from the concept art and start rigging the character models.


EDIT: Heard from Steve that we will be getting a more advanced visual scripting software in so we will be using that instead of Playmaker.
Also using a visual scripting program exclusively can reduce game performance so we will likely still use visual scripting but also include some code for simpler actions like for the orbs.

Roles?

These are to be determined and finalised at a later date. However for the time being they are: 

Rebecca Toop - Producer, 3D, Environment

Joe Coggins - Animation, Concept Art, Story

Alice Sullivan - Story, Coding, Textures

Jamie Jamieson?

TBC

Day One! IDEAS.

Our ideas so far:

You are a young girl, who wakes up in a dark cage within a cell. It soon becomes clear that there are other prisoners there with you and that some have been there all of their lives. The result of all of you being there is that Alien beings want to farm the human population.

Short Notes we've Discussed:

- Sterile environment for the aliens.

- Obvious signs of torture on the victims.

- Light orbs that you can pick up to help light up your way - the ablilty to hide them if an alien comes near - Point light attached to a sphere object > HALO > adjust radius and intensity?

- Alien posters - Black humour - example, a person roasting themselves.

- Protagonist - Female, aged 16-20? Dressed in a hospital gown.

- Other prisoners dressed in hospital gowns.

- Simple gameplay, not too long.

- Cages with people in cell rooms - crammed in everywhere they can possibly fit.

- Male and Female prisoners - basic - motion capture for body movements - basic facial animations.

- Enemy Aliens wearing gas masks - polluted air, toxic for them to breathe.

- Start screen with the use of concept art - simple scene with text, maybe a demo of the gameplay.

- Possible need for save function or respawn points if the gameplay becomes too long.