Create Game Idea (Basics)

• Motto: It's dangerous to go alone

• Commonly Used Challenges

• Conflict Factual:
  Landed aliens have to fight enemies to get home.

• Knowledge Memory

• Physical coordination of characters and their abilities

  • walk
  • fight
  • jump
  • shift gravity

• Logic and math: lower gravity than on earth

• Races and time pressure

  • Levels need to be completed in a limited, level-agnostic predefined time
  • Both players build one team

• Pattern recognition: platforms will look similar but are structured in different ways.

• Exploration: both characters want to explore universe, stranded on a foreign planet and need to explore this planet.

• Monetization: Users might be able to pay for additional levels or skins for their characters.

Brainstorming

We thought of possible game ideas and came up with the following concept:

• 2D Singleplayer first and Multiplayer later
• Similar concept as „It takes two“
  • Player 1 only interact with items of player 1 (and vice versa for player 2)
  • Player 1 and 2 come back together and solve tasks together
• Phaser-logo-similar mascots as player characters
  • working with gravity
  • one player always at ceiling
  • one always on the ground
• Gravity switchable using trigger hotkey
• Room will be flipped (camera and gravity will be flipped)
• Interactive Jump&Run
  • e.g. Box falls down on ground when gravity is switched
• Once both players come back together, tanks fill
• One player light up
• Every player has ONLY their own screen and camera stays with the player

After beginning structuring the ideas and starting a codebase, we decided to develop it as a "multiplayer first" game and changed several things

Tasks

Write a high concept statement

A few sentences that give a general flavor of the game. You can reference other games, movies, books, or any other media if your game contains similar characters, actions, or ideas. local Multiplayer, dynamic, upside down, puzzle game, Science-Fiction, Jump and Run with Interaction

Es geht um ein lokales Coop-Puzzle-Plattform-Spiel, das in einer futuristischen Sci-Fi-Welt spielt. Um die Bruchteile des zerstörten Raumschiffs zu sammeln, müssen die Spieler kopfüber dynamische Umgebungen durchqueren, indem sie die Schwerkraft umkehren, über gefährliche Plattformen springen und sich durch wechselnde Rätsel kämpfen. Darüberhinaus müssen die Spieler mit Objekten (bewegbare Boxen/Druckplatten) interagieren. Erscheinende Gegner können nur mit den Fähigkeiten eines bestimmten Charakters besiegt werden, weshalb jeder Spieler unterschiedliche Fähigkeiten hat. Dies stärkt das Gefühlt des Zusammenhalts.

What is the player’s role?

Is the player pretending to be someone or something, and if so, what? Is there more than one role? How does the player’s role help to define the gameplay?

• Two of the Phaser Brand Mascot entities as player characters
• Finding the way back to your spacecraft
• Finding collectables in each level (7 levels) to repair your spacecraft

Does the game have an avatar or other key character? Describe him/her/it.

• Two of the Phaser Brand Mascot entities as player characters (modified)
  • Slime Alien
  • Laser Phaser Alien
• (one plays at the ceiling, one at the bottom)

What is the nature of the gameplay, in general terms?

What kinds of challenges will the player face? What kinds of actions will the player take to overcome them?

• Cohesion of two players who try to solve specific problems alone, for solving general problems as a team
• The players have to face different enemies (every 30 to 60 seconds) while solving the tasks

What is the player’s interaction model?

Omnipresent? Through an avatar? Something else? Some combination?

• Players can interact through avatars with puzzle elements by pushing and pulling items, triggering buttons and shoot their laser phaser
• Players can interact through avatars to pick up collectables for rebuilding the space craft
• Both Players can switch gravity by pressing a specific button on their keyboard at the same time

What is the game’s primary camera model?

How will the player view the game’s world on the screen? Will there be more than one perspective?

• Each player will be followed by their camera. That's why each player uses their own screen and keyboard
• 2-dimensional view in profile
• The players see their avatars at the bottom of the screen, even if one of them plays at the seiling
• The perspective can change by switching the gravity. That’s away to switch character’s places.

Does the game fall into an existing genre? If so, which one? (Hybrid Games ...)

• Science-Fiction (characters = Aliens, switching gravity)
• Is the game competitive, cooperative, team-based, or single-player? If multiple players are allowed, are they using the same machine with separate controls or different machines over a network?
  • Team-based Multiplayer
  • Players use different machines and separate controls (keyboards)
• Why would anyone want to play this game? Who is the game’s target audience? What characteristics distinguish them from the mass of players in general?
  • Target Audience: bored students in lectures, Couch-Coop-Enthusiasts and Fans of party- or couple-games
  • Creative tasks to solve on your own to solve big tasks as a team. It builds up team abilities.
• What machine or machines is the game intended to run on? Can it make use of, or will it require, any particular hardware such as dance mats or a camera?
  • PC/Laptop
• What is the game’s setting? Where does it take place?
  • Planet which the spacecraft has crashed on
• Will the game be broken into levels? What might be the victory condition for a typical level?
  • Multiple Levels: To complete a level, you need to pick up the collectible (Spacecraft-Part) and open a door
  • Yes, two aliens crashed their spaceship and are now trying to collect the parts to fix it
• Does the game have a narrative or story as it goes along?
  • Yes.
• Summarize the plot in a sentence or two.
  • Two alien friends travel the universe. They crash-land on a foreign planet and meet another alien species. This species is not happy to see them. Both alien friends need to find spaceship spare parts to rebuild it and fly back home.

8 Design Questions

1. Sensation Game as sense-pleasure

2. Fantasy Game as make-believe

   • Story plays in a world of different foreign planets, aliens, galaxies and gravities.

3. Narrative Game as drama

   • Background story of both players create the game's goal.

4. Challenge Game as obstacle course

   • Challenge is created by the platforms and other obstacles like boxes.

5. Fellowship Game as social framework

   • Multiplayer helps to create friendship and teamwork abilities.

6. Discovery Game as uncharted territory

   • Characters are stranded on unknown territory.
   • Most players do not know multiplayer platformer games with ‘Gravity Shift’.

7. Expression Game as self-discovery

   • NONE

8. Submission Game as pastime

   • Teambuilding methods for companies.
   • Waiting
   • Bored students
   • Coop game fans