Week 2 - Helpful material observations and How our design is coming along

The lectures we underwent and the provided materials really put into perspective how thorough, complicated and interesting the task is.

In order, this job requires a lot of inspiration, forethought and understanding of a vast spectrum of contradictory subjects and the same reasons can relate to why this can be complicated. It is truly challenging to predict every step throughout such a broad task, however this is the reason that this job is often picked up by a team of different people with various assets. Mostly to bring everything different, believable and extraordinary to the table, and make it work which is the hardest part.

Last but not least, it is most definitely interesting. Main reason being the fact that you are in charge of creating a world of your own. You are in charge of the history of this world, the characters, the future and everything that works and exactly how it does. Whether you are the concept artist, animator, programmer, story designer, etc. - you have the opportunity to see the world that was in your head, come to life through the skills and assets of your team (or in some cases your own).

Having this in mind we decided to stick to the concept we had since the beginning. In my opinion a story (even if it is slightly vague and brief) can do wonders for the immersion. Of course this applies to game worlds that allow the player to search and explore, even if it is a simple split road that leads to a flipped over carriage where you find a job contract that hints what might have happened. This could seem insignificant or unnecessary, however you can take this insignificant element and bring that up later on (yet you have to balance it as people forget small details quite easily, so either make the detail memorable enough or follow with the event I mentioned briefly after). This will make the player feel like the world is one, as if everything is linked and this will come naturally. Here is a fact that designers deal with: "Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent." The smallest details that make the world often remain unnoticed, but their absence is easy to notice.

****

About our project.

We decided to go with our initial idea as it suits our interests and passion. We are happy with the idea of a combination of base management and quick intriguing hack and slash combat quests/events once in a while. These will bring rewards, currency, resources, experience and thrill, yet it is not going to be overwhelmingly hard or feel like you have to spend hours hacking up skeletons to rank up gold (yet this does not mean you can't do it in case that's your jam).

We agreed to the fact that we envisioned our idea to be way more complex, almost as if it was directed towards more devoted players such as console or computer gamers. And clearly this doesn't seem to be the correct approach and we decided to look into ways to make it cater to the specific market we are going for.

These decisions came as we observed the majority of mobile players and we realized they do not want to go into a game that requires them to commit at least 200 hours off the bat (many PC games are notorious for that) and that is perfectly fine but it is required of us to know what people are going to keep on their phones.

So it begins ...

Greetings!

As a first post I suppose a proper introduction would be fitting.

I am Dimitrios and I am passionate about video games. I enjoy them to the point where I decided that studying something about this would help me appreciate the art even more. And it surely proved successful, I look into the technical details more (for better or worse) and there is a certain level of enjoyment in that.

The main purpose of this blog is to highlight my journey through the Computer Games Design module and keep a diary of some sort with any ideas, team interactions and anything worth mentioning. 

First lecture, as any other was the introduction where all the future details were discussed. We were introduced to the future assessments and the tasks that are expected of us. Not long after, we separated into two groups as designing a game is not a one man job. I am a part of the team with Euan and Connor. Knowing these guys I am sure that the project will go smoothly, but most importantly beneficial and inspiring hopefully for the three of us.

The idea our team decided upon is a base management game with the aspect of an over-head shooter. 

This was sparked by both quite different genres but ones that will definitely work side by side. Having the action aspect with high reward and the threat of failure but as an option you can chose the safety and resource management to spend your downtime in the building management part.

As of now we decided to focus on the mobile market as clearly this is where the majority is drifting to. Having in mind that the example given during the lectures (Bioshock) was pitched during times, when making a computer/console game focusing on a captivating, unique story and innovative game play was easier to accomplish (comparing it to today's releases). 

Besides that, the amount of ideas for both a PC game and mobile, gives us the freedom to change up before we focus on the final project.