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Game Design Challenge: The Letter
- Christian Nutt
Every other Wednesday we'll present you with a challenge about developing video games. You'll have two weeks to brainstorm a brilliant solution (see below for how to submit your answers). After the two week submission period elapses, the best answers and the names of those who submitted them will be posted, along with some commentary.
The Challenge
Come up with a concept for the game The Letter.
Assignment Details
Though paper letters aren't such a big part of our lives anymore, they were once of tremendous significance. Email, Twitter, blogs, instant messaging, cell phones, and Facebook have all drawn us closer, but there was a time when momentous information would come in a letter; information that could change the course of someone's life.
This design challenge deals with such a letter.
You will design a game called The Letter which opens with the main character receiving a very significant letter. What's the content of the letter? Where does he or she go from there? That's up to you. Setting, content, genre -- those are the decisions you will make. The only restriction is that your game's story must begin with the protagonist receiving a letter.
It worked for Silent Hill 2, didn't it?
To Submit
Work on your ideas, figure out your strategy for coming up with a solution, and ask questions on the forum. When your submission is complete, send it to gamedesignchallenge@gamecareerguide.com with the subject line "Design Challenge: The Letter." Please type your answer directly in the email body.
Submissions should be no more than 500 words and may contain up to three images. Be sure to include your full name and school affiliation or job title.
Entries must be submitted by Wednesday, August 26
Results will be posted Tuesday, September 1
Here's my entry.
Name : James Gonzalez
Job : Seeking
The Rift
The game has 3 chapters with 1 character for each chapter: 1st a thief, 2nd an archeologist, 3rd an Orion Agent, each receiving part of the same letter. Each piece contains markings and symbols that eventually when connected reveal a map and instructions to devices around the world that will open rifts to other dimensions (but the characters don’t know this). The corporation is called “Orion Corp” and they develop all the leading technology of the present day. Their main goal is to obtain the three pieces and receive its power. They currently hold one piece.
The game is in a top down view and room based much like the old school game PC “Yoda Stories” and “Indiana Jones : Desktop Adventures” but in 3D like in “Shadowgrounds.” The player can interact with the environment and most objects such as grabbing and pulling boxes and operate buttons and consoles.
(Sources: Thief, Indiana Jones, Agent Smith)
1st character: Thief. In this chapter the player focuses on sneaking. The player robs an old mansion turned museum that used to belong to an explorer. When the player robs the vault, while avoiding security patrols and laser defenses by clever gadgets such as mirrors and smoke bombs, he finds a piece of the letter. As he escapes, the alarms turn on and he must make a mad dash to the exit while avoiding getting caught by guards.
2nd character: Archeologist. The archeologist player focuses on puzzle solving (Goof Troop), trying to figure out how to open ancient Egyptian doors with all sorts of levers and floor weights. Eventually the player finds the 2nd piece to the letter and is self propelled on the quest to finding the device which he thinks is inside the very structure he is excavating. This leads him through more difficult traps involving sequenced floor weights that need to be pressed in a specific order (and different tools to cross gaps and ledges, such as grappling hooks to swing across bottomless pits.
3rd character: Orion Agent. The Orion player focuses on puzzle solving and sneaking around. He must sneak around the compound and find the letters by stealing passcards and ID badges to go into restricted levels of the base. Some puzzles involve hacking computers like “Fallout 3” but more simplified and opening a 3-step door with buttons that control 2 doors and some that control 1 (randomizing each time the game is run)
Eventually the Agent gets in contact with the other two members and head to Egypt. They merge the pieces together, the archeologist reads it with the help of the Orion agent and the thief stumbles upon the very device they were looking for. In the end the archeologist realizes the Agent wants to destroy it takes it upon himself to activate the device and starts the devices opening the rift. It ends with the pyramids shooting a beam of light into space.
(sources: Goof Troop, Yoda Stories)
Posts
Isn't the game supposed to start with the character recieving the letter, rather than him finding it at the end?
ReplyDeleteAlso, it sounds more like there are 4 chapters: one for each character and then one for the ending. Unless, of course, the ending is just a long cutscene where you show the characters doing things that the player could be doing instead. That seems like it would be a waste of the buildup of dramatic tension over the course of the game. In this case, short fetch quests can be acceptable, especially if you put murals all over the walls that the player can draw their own conclusions from. You could even split the group and have different mural themes in different sections, which would help explain the difference of viewpoint of the agent and archeologist.
The first character receives the letter by stealing it so that's how the game starts and the end was kinda scrambled together at 12:20am trying to finish and mail it before they realized it's Wednesday already.
ReplyDeleteAre these murals in some sort of theoretical hallway where you choose your quest (like in mario 64) and fill the mural after you complete it? Or am I missing your point?
The murals are just things on the wall that the player can ignore or can inspect as he runs along to whatever his objective is at the time. Story-based wall textures, basically. Perhaps you could have the character comment on what he thinks of them as he runs past, as well.
ReplyDeleteyeah that could be a method of story telling, but what about the old school final fantasy games where its dialogue that is intermitted with interaction. so lets say the game starts with the player as the theif, then the game takes control and moves him about then lets the player steal the letter on his own accorrd as a tutorial mission of sorts then continue with short succinct cut scenes or dialogue that explain the story. plus the story really only needs to be in the beggining of each chapter so it shouldnt impead on gameplay pacing.
ReplyDeletealso placing murals randomly in different parts of the world (theif chapter, egyptian pyramids with archeologist, and underground facility with the agent) would seem strange
ReplyDelete