Self Study 4, Game Ideas

For the other part of the self study we had to come up with 2 to 3 game ideas that could we will use to pitch to your team as something we should try and make as our game project for the semester. 

The theme for the game is "Twin Sticks"

Game Idea 1:

My first game idea was about the player being stuck in a maze, and having to find there way out. But as they progress closer to the exit of the maze they have to defeat different types of human sized bugs/insects that become more aggressive and larger in size as you go along. Kind of like having multiple boss levels, but the next one gets harder then the one before it. My idea for the weapons would be having different types of bug catchers or different items used to kill bugs/insects laying around the maze, and you have to decide whether you think one of the items you've come across will be useful in killing the next bug/insect. To make more challenging for the player, have the character restart to the very beginning if they die during any of the fights. Depending on how the progress for the game goes throughout the rest of semester, I would suggest adding a component to the game that players can either choose to play with or without. The component being having random attacks on the player between boss levels, including different size bugs/insects and possibly having multiple bugs/insects charge at the player at once. Having this component turned on would effect the players health, as the players health would regenerate in between the boss fights, but would probably need health packs to collect if the player decides to have attacks in between the boss levels. I think this game would be good to play in either first person or third person, I personally think that it would be good to play it in first person, as it would make it seem more like the player was actually being attacked (Limited view), then being able to see all angles around the player.  

I believe the target audience for this game would be anyone over the age of 12 /13 (only because the game might be considers too violent for anyone younger), and for anyone interested in puzzle games, but still wanting a little bit of action. 
This game would be successful because people like having games that are challenging to then while still being interesting, even though the game does not fit the standard genre for action games. I also believe that this game would be quite popular with people who don't enjoy being in the same room with bugs/insects and don't wish to deal with the real world consequences of missing the bug/insect when trying to dispose of it.   

The goal of the prototype would be to focus on both game play and modelling. I believe these to areas are the most important because while the person is playing the game, they would not get much enjoyment out of it if they were trying to fight an ant but instead it looked like this: 

while someone may be able to work out what it is, most will find the game lacking, as the graphics aren't enjoyable and very confusing. I also believe that the gameplay of the game is just important as there will be lots of interacts within the game, such as attacking and picking up objects. If this is not correctly done, it could cause to many people to be taken out of the right headspace for the game because they are too focused on the glitchy gameplay. 

Game Idea 2:

My second game idea was about having a player protect a garden. It would include the player having to protect plants of different types of insects such as snails, or protecting plants from wilt or other types of bacteria. this game would include health insects, that could attack the player if they accidently hurt the insect, such as you are trying to get rid of ants but you accidently hurt a bee, that bee would then attack you, but if you didn't accidently hurt the bee it would have ignored you. Quite similar to the other game, this game would include the player having to go looking for items around the garden to try and get rid of the insects hurting the plants. While the player in this game would be a lot hard to kill there would be no way for the player to refill the health, meaning they would have to be careful about how they approached disposing of the insects, as some insects will attack the player back, where some will flee (Like real life).

I believe the target audience for this game would be anyone over the age of ten, and anyone who is interesting in gardening and puzzle games.

This game would be successful because it would be both an action game and a puzzle game while being slightly educational. Even though this game is not a typical game, I believe it would be quite popular with people who either don't have space for a garden or those who are not good with growing plants, as it allows them to virtually look after plants that only require them to keep harmful bugs away from the plants. 

The goal of this prototype would be to make sure that the game play for the game runs smoothly and all the interactions for the game run as they should without any glitches as there will be quite a bit of character interaction within the game. As well as  making sure that the models are the plants and insects look semi realistic, otherwise people playing the game could be off put but how simple the graphics/animations for the game are, meaning they won't want to play the game unless they are interested in simple graphic games. 

P.S. I did not realise that both game concepts where about bugs until after I published the devlog, it was not done on purpose. 100% was because I spent the day complaining about so many bugs getting into my apartment after leaving my window open for 2 seconds.