Now its time for some development of ideas! I decided to use the questions and the key features shown in my my questioning post, to help me expand out how I think about stress and the healing, as well as what other styles of game I could have, such as board game, card game etc and how they might work. All helping me to expand out my ideas and look at the project in different ways.
Key Features – Prototype Ideas
From the key points I tried to create ideas for prototypes, that would test out the main mechanics within the game, to see how they would work and if they were enjoyable.
I tried making the game idea below with James, but it just failed miserably. I just gave my idea to James in the hope he would understand it and know how it would work, but this wasn’t the case. I soon realised that there was far more I had to think about before a prototype could be made. As James would question every small detail about the design so he could code it correctly and honestly I didn’t know all of the answers, I was making it up as I went along. Which unsurprisingly bite me in the butt later on when the prototype just wouldn’t work/ James’ didn’t know what I was aiming for anymore. It was just a mess! I’ve certainly learnt that I need to thoroughly plan out prototypes before I create them to ensure I know exactly what the code should do.
Question and Answer
Moving away from prototyping it was idea generation time. I started this off by using the questions I had created from my initial healing ideas, forming game ideas or mechanics that could be used to answer the questions. I restricted myself to one question at a time, to ensure y ideas were focused and I created a range of different answers and ideas, showing I’ve thought about multiple different ways the game could work.
How do Players get their healing colours?
Also covered the questions:
- Are the colours associated to players always consistent?
- Do the players have to collect their healing colours?
- How are the colours allocated?
Are there different healing abilities?
Also answering the questions:
- How long does it take to heal?
- Limitations of healing?
- How many times can you heal?
To help me answer these questions I used my research into MMO healing to inform my ideas.
Explanation of Work
From the research I mainly focused on the idea of different types of heals – instant and H.O.Ts (heals over time), as these where the main types of healing abilities. I thought about the limitations of these types of heals and what resources they may use or how well they heal.
I then noted down de-stressing techniques I’d discovered in my research and tried to identify if I felt they would be a instant or a HOT type of heal, formed from the description of the techniques I had (eg if it was a technique lasting over 4 weeks, that would be a HOT as in real life it takes time to heal you).
Then I tried to explore possible limitations of the de-stressing techniques, as the healing abilities in my research all had these ensuring they weren’t over powered. Therefore using the definitions of the techniques I tried to form my own limitations for them, for example I thought healing by tensing and releasing muscles, could impair the users movement, as in real life it’s hard to tense specific muscles and release them while walking. Therefore I felt it would be more logical to impair the player’s movement from that healing technique.
What is the goal of the game?
Different types of Multiplayer
- PVP – Battling overs
- Working as a team
Different Types of games
Here I
Card Games
Board Games
Physical Games
From Seth’s talk
Continuous Runners
Rhythm Games
How are Enemies Defeated?
Can players heal different amounts of people?
Plan
I have completed a lot of ideating and expanding off my ideas and currently it is a lot for me to comprehend. I think the next step is to just relax and have a night off to clear my head so everything can settle. Then after that I plan to go through all the work and highlight key points or ideas that I think have potential and something I wish to progress forwards with. I think I need to be particularly ruthless in order to start really focusing so I can gaining 3 ideas, which I can develop briefly before presentation.
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