#011 GAD BA4: Game Re-Design - Logistics and Concept

We began discussing the logistics behind the game, here is a summary of what we talked about:

The game will be set on a distant planet colonised in the form of a research facility, where 10 of the most sophisticated creatures on the home planet have been captured and tested on. The research facility will be comprised of many modular rooms and corridors, positioned in-between rocky outcrops from the surface of the planet. The facility has long been abandoned due to a hideous mistake where an exceptionally strong creatures broke free and began to wreak havoc.

The game is a MMORPG based on playing 1of 8 races (creatures) in which you must evolve and mutate to become more powerful. The research facility is in the middle of being destroyed by the creatures as you enter the game. The game promotes team play as you will go out and do dynamic events to gain (some form of experience). You start off in a starting zone with fellow new players of the same race, the game will make the player think like a beast and really take the player back to basic hunting techniques.... A sort of primal feel where you will need to employ hunting tactics.

Large dynamic events pop up on players mini maps which will give experience and rewards for completing I.E - A food supply is being defended by a large Human Mech in which the team will have to work together to bring down. At the end of the battle and the mech is defeated a chart pops up of damage done and layers can see where they come in the rankings. The rankings will reflect the amount of rewards and the quality of the rewards you receive.

The player begins by picking a starter phenotype (Genetically Mutated Creature) from a choice of 8 Genus’s (creature species/ family). Choosing a genus is effectively choosing which “side” the player wishes to play/fight for. Each genus has one starting phenotype that is unique to that race. This creature is the same for all players starting out, from skin to stats. It can of course be customised later as the player progresses, and unlocks new limbs, skills, attacks and “skins”. Players then train the creature by participating in activities such as Dynamic Events, Objectives and even PVP (Players vs Player) to gain experience points and the game currency, Cells. Once the player has invested a enough time and care into their phenotype it will mutate into it’s second phase. In the second phase the player needs to make a decision on what class they want their creature to evolve into, the classes are split into 4 groups; Heavy Ranged, Fast Ranged, Heavy Melee and Fast Melee. The players choice here is the most important, as once they make a decision they cannot go back. Again, after some time and effort, the players creature will evolve again, this time down the pre-chosen class evolution tree chosen in phase two. With each evolution phase, the player unlocks abilities/attacks for their creature. To begin they start off with a simple melee attack, then, depending on their choice of class, they get to choose an attack that conforms with the chosen class, for example, Ranged or Melee. The base melee attack they start with also changes in the second phase to match the chosen path, a claw scratch/swipe for melee or a ranged spine attack for ranged.

With the basics down of our game concept we set about creating a list of things that needed to be done and distributed tasks among us.

Dominic:
Creature Concepts, Interface Design, Evo Tree, 3D Modelling and Back Story.

Nathan:

Industrial Concepts/Models. Talent Tree, Mechanics/Logistics and Back Story

David:

Creature Modelling, 2D/3D Map, Game Controls, External Limbs.

Phenotype takes place inside a vast testing facility built to create, contain, and test biomechanical war machines. Unlike most MMO’s phenotype sets the constrains the game inside at all times, but this works to the games advantage. Having an indoor setting means that the developers can have a more direct control of the space that players inhabit, similar to the way a film director can choose to lead the eye of the viewer to a specific part of a scene using camera angles. Phenotype can use the environmental constraints to control what the player sees far more than in a free roaming game, sacrificing small amounts of player freedom to create moody, claustrophobic tunnels and corridors that then break out into vast breathtaking rooms of free roaming potential.

I started off by creating some quick mock-ups in google sketchup. I've found that I can mock models up quicker than I can sketch them, so this is sort of my way of working things out. The model concept is one of the corridors of the research facility.