Game Development Log - Pre-Production

Log Period : Week 1 - Week 2 (13th May - 26th May)

Ideation stage (Week 1)

After completing the team building tasks at the start of the day, we began doing a rough ideation stage, where we threw ideas out into a brainstorm and began discussing which idea’s were more viable and which weren’t. 

There were several ideas that we came up with that had a chance of being put through as the main idea. One was a turn-based strategy board game that would have worked similar to RISK, where the main idea was having a battle between Ants and Bees in the garden of a house. However, this idea was scrapped due to there being little to none free assets to be used for the different ‘troops’ and the scope of work needed to be done by the arts and animation team being understanded. 

Another idea that came to mind was a simple racing game, but this was more seen as a more generic idea (where it wasn’t fleshed out enough) was a 2.5d side platformer set in ancient greek architecture, where you played as the messenger god Hermes, rising up the ranks of delivering packages and parcels, whilst avoiding traps. Which ended up being one of the two main ideas to be presented as a pitch. 

Where one member of the team was not available at the time, it was later discussed that an idea based off a movie that had been periodically fleshed out by the absent team member was to be the second idea that was to be presented as a pitch. This being called The Winchester, which worked as a Top Down beat’em up/shooter based off Shaun of the Dead. you have to save your friends, kill zombies and go to the pub to wait for it to all blow over.

In conclusion, the two ideas that were decided on being pitched were Project Cyprus (Hermes) and The Winchester (Zombie top-down).  The link to this presentation can be found below, 24T2_Islam_102149_5SAE0PE101.1_PitchPresentation

Idea 1: Project Cyprus 

Below is the contents of the above powerpoint presentation and further information about the intended project, without having actually started any of the proper development. 

Storyline:

In Project Cyprus, players follow the journey of Greek God Hermes, as he strives to earn his legendary wings. Starting as a young, Hermes must prove his worth and rise through the ranks to become the revered god of messengers. Hermes embarks on a series of challenging quests that test his speed and agility

Main Aim:

The main aim of Hermes is to deliver packages as quickly as possible across various landscapes and overcoming obstacles to earn Hermes his wings.

Mechanisms set to achieve aim: Double Jump, grappling and Moving fluidly

Win conditions:

• Deliver the package
• Beat your record (beat your time on the leaderboard)

Lose conditions:

• Run out of health
• Lose the package

Enablers

Active:

• Dash in air or on ground

Passive:

• Momentum increases speed

Blockers

Active: 

• Spikes
• Fire
• Bottomless Pits

Passive:

• Many ways to navigate

Idea 2: The Winchester

Elevator Pitch

Top Down beat’em up/shooter based off Shaun of the Dead. you have to save your friends, kill zombies and go to the pub to wait for it to all blow over.

Theme

Inspirations 

The last epoch, BG3, The assent and Shaun of the dead

2.5D Top down shooter

Using a top down perspective and going for a beat’em up/ shooter style 

Suburban London Horror

Over cast, gray, lovely london, urban, graffiti, derelict 

Story

You play as a man, a simple man with a dull, easy existence. On the outskirts of London he lives with his best friend Ted and has a 9 till 5 at the local electronics shop. When he's not there he'll be at his local pub drinking with Ted waiting for the day to blow over while his girlfriend (Olivia ‘liv’) just wants the better of him. He wakes up one day and the town is overrun with a zombie outbreak, it's up to him and Ted to save his friends and family by taking them to the most comfortable place he knows…the pub.

Mechanics

• Save your Friends 
• Killing zombies (weapon swinging and throwing)
• Swapping who you control

Greenlit Idea

The idea that was greenlit, was the greek inspired Hermes delivery game, where the assets involved and concept of the game is better suited for the restrictions and brief of both classes, where there is more room for artistic individuality and, in general, more planning done to have multiple abilities as such. 

With The Winchester, it was seen as the main objects within the level being the spawning of zombies, which did not sit well with the given brief as we have to implement some features that use L-systems, saving and loading with the use of persistent data as well as cutscenes and other factors too

Were there any issues and what were they?

In general, the main issue that arose was in the pitch presentation where what was presented didn’t fully explain as was said. Where not all necessary information was displayed and some features were interpreted incorrectly.