Last week we got a concept challenge. We had to go to a random character generator and create a concept for a game from that.
We used “They fight crime” to generate ours.
“He’s a suicidal devious master criminal with no name. She’s a wealthy gold-digging femme fatale from aristocratic European stock.”
Starting out with an idea. We got the idea of a steampunk world for these characters and started building our story from there.
At first we needed to figure out what aesthetics we were going for and then what mechanics that would help us get that feel. The steampunk world felt like an essential part of our game, therefor we went with the decision to make it in 3D. Also a first person shooter and puzzle game to give the player an opportunity to explore the dynamic world.
Gameplay. The player takes the role of Yankow, a former master criminal that once ruled in the darker side of the city Arkan. He and his partner Miriam is set on a journey throughout the city with one common goal, to bring Miriam’s father, the Mayor down.The city is corrupted so the player will have to navigate carefully among the townsfolk and either take down enemies or persuade them to join in their cause. The city of Arkan has a great story the players will have to unravel in their pursuit of justice. Clues needs to be found in order to get the advantage needed to take the Mayor down.
Problems we encountered was when we were answering questions to make our presentation. We noticed that we had put to much focus on the setting and not on who our target audience was. For the game to make it all the way through you have to know what the player is looking for. We thought that “the explorer”* would make a good target audience for this game and altered the concept to be more appealing for this type of player.
*Explorers, dubbed “Spades” for their tendency to dig around, are players who prefer discovering areas, creating maps and learning about hidden places. They often feel restricted when a game expects them to move on within a certain time, as that does not allow them to look around at their own pace. They find great joy in discovering an unknown glitch or a hidden Easter egg. –Bartle Test of Gamer Psychology
You can read our pitch here.
Digital Monkey Business 