Homework 11: Story and Indirect Control

These are the answers to some questions about our game's story and indirect control.

Chapter 15

1. A goal with no obstacles is not worth pursuing, therefore our game has various types of obstacles which requires mental and physical skills to overcome.
2. The main character's goal is to find out what happened to all of the people in her city. She cares because she knew a lot of people who disappeared and wants to know if she will ever see them again. Also, she cares because she is the only person on the scene to solve the mystery.
3. Traps that can hurt or possibly kill her and puzzles that must be solved. Also, she can't achieve her goal until she finds all of the story-filled notebook pages.
4. Yes, the puzzles will be more complex in the second level and maybe the traps will take more health.
5. The protagonist transforms from being scred and doubting herself to developing inner strength and confidence. She becomes more self-reliant.
6. The game world is simpler mainly because there are no people inhabiting it besides the main characters. Also, the spaces of the game are simple and limited.
7. I don't think the player really has any transcendent powers; they have the powers of their own mind. I guess one type of transcendent power would be shooting a gun.
8. The weirdest element is definitely the antagonist's time/dimension experiment gone wrong. We haven't come up with details yet.
9. The weirdest thing will be introduced in the beginning of the game and will be explained adequately but some details will purposefully be left to the imagination. We're not planning on getting very deep into the science.
10. I hope that players will be interested in this story because it is an interesting scenario to imagine yourself coming home to find your entire home city abandoned. I hope the mystery of how and why it happened drives players to keep playing in search of answers.

Chapter 16

1. The player has freedom to explore, but there definitely are limits. Still, they can explore and interact with objects at their own pace. They should feel decently free, but they'll know they're not really free because the game will be simple.
2. There will be boundaries to constrain the player such as locked doors and limited actions. The game must also follow a linear progression. The game is meant to follow a linear "string of pearls" path, so hopefully the constraints won't bother the player too much.
3. Ideally, I would like the players to search for the notebook pages and the gun pieces and assemble a complete gun as quickly as they can. If they wanted to take their time, that's fine as long as they don't get bored and stop playing.
4. We have talked about the possibility of implementing a time-based score. Another method of guidance could be visual cues or audio hunts when they're near important items.
5. Our interface will be minimal, but we will probably have an objective displayed for the player to see what their next goal is.