Reasearch into game design and dynamics

The games I find interesting and inspiring include the indie games that were on display during the 2011 indie game developer awards. During this expo, there were two game in particular that captivated me both with its creative ideas and visual detail. The first is a multiplayer game called Monaco which was played with 4 other players on the x-box. The concept at the heart of the game involves 4 players organizing a burglary, whilst evading security and guards. The players are required to work together to win the game as each character they choose have different sets of abilities and skills that wont beat the game just by themselves. The degree in which the players are required to work together encourages a cohesion of purpose which I really would like to implement into my game design. The colors and the AI were also highly advanced, but were less of an interest in light of the core gaming concept.

Top-down orientation of Monaco

Another game that drew my attention was a moody side-scroller named Limbo. The story behind it is typical, a boy is trying to rescue his captured sister – you control that boy. What is interesting though is the clever implementation of a physics based engine that adds a twist to the traditional side-scrolling affair. It makes the game more interactive by creating greater challenges as well as different ways to handle the puzzles. The dark artwork and great use of the both the foreground and background adds to a moody atmosphere that I thought was great.

The lighting dynamics of Limbo

Character interaction with the environment

 

The basic concept

Building on what was said in the previous post, I have constructed a home which will just run as a movie, I wanted to make it a little interactive to the user as well, so I built everything from Flash, as well as using Flash buttons. The main gist of it is to use the trees and apples as a metaphor for the feelings that make up your identity. Not exactly a subtle concept – quite obvious really but it also goes to show that the best ways to explain a concept is to keep it simple.

Here is a picture of the movie ending that I wanted to have

This page will then go on into another page which uses a top down perspective for the placement of the trees.

Music in the movie should be suitably reflective as well as soft, I guess a nice atmospheric type of music would suit this concept well – which is why I went to mobygratis to find some awesome atmospheric sounds, tweaked it a little bit and put it into the movie.