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E3: Greenscreen Exercise (15/10/2020)
Exercise 1: Analysis of an Experimental Game (22/02/2022)
For this module's first exercise, the objective was to pick a game of our choosing, but it had to be a game we consider experimental in some way, and then write an up to 500 word analysis about it.
I chose Journey. which I consider experimental in the way that it tells it's narrative, although this was mainly at the time it was released. Since it's release in 2012, other games of it's type have come out, thought almost none match it's quality, in my opinion.
In an industry where the focus was mainly on maintaining player interest through systems, mechanics and goals, a developer's objective was to get these elements of the game right, before anything else, including the story. Even today the rule is "If it's not fun to play, why bother?".
Admittedly, mechanic driven games with good narratives weren't impossibly rare, but even these weren't able to express themselves in ways unique to the media that is gaming, using very "movie-like" plot structures and narrative tools. An example being "The Last of Us", which, while mostly amazing, presents itself in a very cinematic and movie like fashion, so much so that it could easily just have been a movie or TV show.
Journey, while not being the first, was and still is a distinct exception from this trend of cinematic story telling that continues to this day. At the start of the game, all the player knows is that they're a mysterious traveller, whose objective is to reach the peak of a far away mountain. The real story is told through visuals and game design:
You begin in the middle of a desert, all of what it contains is unknown, and you're mechanically limited in how you can explore it, only being able to run and jump. By the second level, the world opens up, showcasing more things to experience, now being able to briefly fly, which with exploration, can be lengthened, and even though your path forward may be opened, the player isn't forced to move forward. Next is the largest of all the levels, a vastly open region, with ruins scattered in all directions. It's almost intimidating, and for the first time in the game, the player has no guide and is the one supposed to figure out where to go, giving this sense of uncertainty.
After finding the way, the next level is bright, and filled with adventurous energy, having a clear path forward with the most fun exploration mechanic of the whole game, sliding around golden dunes with the backdrop of a beautiful sun, which is soon to set. The player is then plunged into this dark underground ruin, leaving the player to wonder what's ahead, that being giant creatures which, if spotted by, the player gets hurt and their flight ability is shortened, making progress harder and harder. But through the struggle, the player advances.
From this ruin onward, there's a clear focus on going up, rising to the top of the last few levels. After rising to the top of an impossibly deep golden well, the player is faced with the mountain. The race towards the peak is cold, slow, the wind affecting the players ability to move, leading to an unavoidable death. Suddenly, the player is gleefully flying through a vibrant blue sky with golden lights, ending in a comforting and warm white light.
It's a story about life, told almost exclusively through gameplay. Various other aspects of the game also contribute to this subtle story.
E2: Individual Game Pitch (12/03/2022)
Before Settling on a group project, each group member had to come up with their own idea and make a proper 2 Page Pitch for it.
The proper Word file can be seen here.
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Highrise Backrooms
Title: Highrise Backrooms
Brief Summary: A short story based on the Backrooms creepy pasta, where a regular office worker, while falling asleep, falls into a level of the Backrooms that looks like his office. His only goal is to get out and move forward, all the while being silently stalked by a figureless shadow.
Gameplay Overview: This would be a simple walking simulator, the only interactions in the level would be doors.
Story: The game would have no real story, as do most backroom stories. The point is to explore this surreal place with no possible explanation, while showing off unique visuals.
Summary: It’s a late night at a Highrise office in NY, where one of the workers just finished writing a report. He’s tired and involuntarily falls asleep, but as soon as his arms and heads touch his desk, without him noticing, he’s fallen into the Backrooms.
The Backrooms are an unexplainable, illogical alternate reality, where a simple door can take you to a different universe, or taking a wrong turn could have you facing a Lovecraftian creature, all without explanation.
As soon as he wakes up, he nonchalantly gets up to leave, but after crossing a couple of rooms, differences start to show. Rooms seem flipped, doors leading to different rooms than normal, and no one is around.
Next thing he knows, he enters a large empty room, which is normally filled with cubicles, but the real shock is what he sees outside the windows: an endless horizon of the same impossibly high building, standing above the clouds in a starless night sky.
Now in a hurry to get out of wherever he is, he further explores the eerily empty office, now sometimes noticing a shadow out of the corner of his eye. It’s tall, but shapeless, not resembling anything he recognises. Before he can have a good look, it vanishes in a fraction of a second. He’s not alone here.
Visuals: Apart from the surreal elements, the office would look mostly normal. How I'd describe the environment would be like the Uncanny Valley, but instead of people or creatures, it’d be a place, like a room that has a ceiling just a bit too tall or where the furniture is evenly distanced from each other, as if this alternate reality was trying to imitate ours, but slowly failing.
As mentioned before, it would look like a high end, but normal, modern office: clean, organized, with ceiling lights turned on, etc. Maybe one room or hallway has it’s lights off. Any room with windows would have low lighting to better show the outside view and have the blue light come in better.
As for room variety, there’d be cubicle rooms, regular office rooms, different lounges, hallways, maybe a bar or restaurant, and a CEO’s office.
(Both images are concept art created by me)
E3: Artifact Vision Document (01/04/2022)
Title: Mind's Line
Brief Summary: A short story based on the Backrooms creepy pasta, where a regular office worker, unknowingly passes out and wakes up in a sort of limbo that looks like his office. While exploring this surreal office space, slowly, but surely, he finds out what really happened.
Gameplay Overview: This would be a simple walking simulator, the only interactions in the level would be doors.
Story: The game's story would be told through visual hints in the environment, and the reason behind the events in the game would be revealed by the end.
Summary: It’s a late night at a High-rise office in NY, where one of the workers just finished writing a report. He’s very, enough to pass out on his desk. As soon as he wakes up, he wonders why no one's come to wake him up, but nonetheless gets up to leave, but after crossing a couple of rooms, differences start to show. Rooms seem flipped, doors leading to different rooms than normal and the whole structure of the building seems to have stopped making sense.
Next thing he knows, he enters a large empty room, which is normally filled with cubicles, but the real shock is what he sees outside the windows: an endless horizon of the same impossibly high building, the building he’s in, standing above the clouds in a starless night sky.
Now in a hurry to get out of wherever he is, he further explores the eerily empty office, now sometimes noticing a shadow out of the corner of his eye. It’s tall, almost shapeless, not resembling anyone he recognizes. Before he can have a good look, it vanishes in a fraction of a second. He’s not alone here.
As he moves through the spaces, messages start appearing in office posters and in bathroom mirrors, messages that don’t make sense as to why they’d be where they are. Hospital equipment begins to appear, hallways become more sterile and brighter, the furniture changes. By now, he feels compelled to go certain ways, ultimately leading to a hospital room, in which he sees himself, lying unconscious on the bed.
As soon as he opens the door, he feels himself waking up. He passed out due to a tumour in his head acting up for the first time. He realizes what that shadow might’ve been: death, an angel? He doesn’t know.
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Visuals: Apart from the surreal elements, the office would look mostly normal. How I'd describe the environment would be like the Uncanny Valley, but instead of people or creatures, it’d be a place, like a room that has a ceiling just a bit too tall or where the furniture is evenly distanced from each other, as if this alternate reality was trying to imitate ours, but slowly failing.
As mentioned before, it would look like a high end, but normal, modern office: clean, organized, with ceiling lights turned on, etc. Maybe one room or hallway has it’s lights off. Any room with windows would have low lighting to better show the outside view and have the blue light come in better.
As for room variety, there’d be cubicle rooms, regular office rooms, different lounges, hallways, maybe a bar or cafeteria, and a CEO’s office.
For story reasons, about halfway into the game, hospital equipment would start showing up in the office rooms and rooms will slowly turn into hospital rooms and hallways. Waiting Rooms, Long Hallways and Patient Bedrooms.
(Both images are concept art created by me)
E4: Game Design Document Ver. 1.00 (21/04/2022)
As our game's development progressed, we had to write down any changes or addition from the original Vision Document in our GDD or Games Design Document. THIS IS IT'S FIRST VERSION.
E5: Game Teaser (12/05/2022)
For our Experimental Game project, we created an 18 second teaser, showing off the atmosphere and a mostly finished look of the first level.
E6: Game Design Document Ver. 2.00 (25/05/2022)
As our game's development progressed, we had to write down any changes or addition from the original Vision Document in our GDD or Games Design Document. THIS IS IT'S SECOND VERSION.
Assessment 1: Mind's Line Group Game Project
My group settled on a version of the Highrise Backrooms, the general idea would be used, though there would be a lot of changes.
Advancing through a surreal office was still what we aimed to create, but a new environment was chosen for the games later stage: a hospital.
Why a hospital? Because now the game would aim to have a narrative a reason for the player character to enter this surreal office setting and a reason to try and get out of it, but like all game projects, plans changed along the way.
As mentioned, our game went through a lot of changes, some unfortunate, and the final version of our GDD can be found HERE.
The first version of our Game Design Document can be found in E4 and the second version in E6.
