Idea 1 – Horde survival prototype level
This prototype level would be a first-person shooter, where the player is in an enclosed arena, and must survive as waves of enemies enter the arena. This poses the possibility for many complex mechanics, and allows me to not spend too much time on the environment, because I only need to make one arena’s worth of environment.
It would have a fantasy setting, because that gives me a lot more creative freedom when designing the enemies and environment.
Possible mechanics: Enemies spawning in waves; ranged/melee combat; score system
Idea 2 – Puzzle game prototype level
This would be a first-person puzzle game, set in the ruins of an ancient temple. The setting would be interesting to build, because I like making things that look destroyed and crumbling.
However, the puzzle element to the game would certainly be a challenge to create, because of two reasons:
- Designing puzzles is very difficult, unless you have previous experience- and I don’t have much previous experience in designing puzzles.
- Puzzle games tend to involve a lot of mechanics, to make the puzzles interesting. But if even one mechanic doesn’t work, the puzzle either becomes impossible, or incredibly simple.
Therefore, I doubt I will choose this idea, because I always seem to miss out one or two mechanics during development, due to time restrictions.
Idea 3 – Action-adventure prototype level
This would be set at sea, and the player is tasked with diving for lost treasure in shipwrecks. There would also be hostile marine life that the player must fight/avoid.
This would be fairly easy to create the environment for, because I can use many of the same techniques that I used in my Nautical project. However, there would still be many mechanics that I currently have no idea how I would implement, like swimming,
Idea 4 – Real-time strategy game
This would be a real-time strategy game set in a forgotten fantasy world. The fantasy setting gives me a lot of creative freedom when it comes to designing units. However, in RTS games, there tends to be a vast number of assets, from units to buildings to scenery.
I like this idea, as it would be a good challenge to implement all the mechanics. It would be an interesting project because I’ve never made a strategy game before. However, since strategy games are so dense with mechanics, I would only be able to make a very simplistic version of the game in the alloted time, which wouldn’t be very fun. For this reason, it is unlikely I will choose this as my final idea.
Final Idea
I have chosen Idea 1. It would be a prototype level of a first-person shooter, where the player is in an enclosed arena, and must survive as waves of enemies enter the arena. This poses the possibility for many complex mechanics, and allows me to not spend too much time on the environment, because I only need to make one arena’s worth of environment.
It would have a fantasy setting, based in a forgotten altar far underground, because that gives me a lot more creative freedom when designing the enemies and environment.
Possible mechanics: Enemies spawning in waves; ranged/melee combat; score system
As the moodboard above shows, I plan on the environment being cavernous, and either crystalline or volcanic. Its cavernous nature makes the environment easy to believably enclose, while the lava or crystals still keep it vibrant. There will be a forgotten magical altar at the centre, which the enemies are drawn to, and the player must defend. This will be a very noticeable centrepiece.
The enemies I plan to use will look bug-like, but I’m not yet sure how exactly they will look. I am thinking of either spider-like or beetle-like. I plan to give them fairly complex AI, using random numbers to dictate their priorities etc.
Connor Jarvis Level 3 Year 2 FMP 