Forgeworld

When you are describing an idea to someone for the first time, you should always remember that they WANT to understand. Their brain will be desperate for any and all information you can provide, automatically using a mix of foreknowledge and deductive logic to fill the inevitable blanks, doing whatever it can to form a complete and coherent image of the concepts being presented to it. Your audience is a blank canvas until you make your first brush stroke, and thus the trick is largely in what form and order you provide the information.

Open with broad familiar ideas, develop a comfortable context in order to prepare the minds eye to see what you want it to see. At the start of your explanation their mental palace is so empty that any first details you provide will fill the entire space, and all future information will be arranged around those first key moments. If you say something that exists and has powerful connotations already, like “Silent Hill”; then all new information will be placed within the context of an eerie horrific environment. If you say “Mario”, the mental canvas is already seeing floating pixel clouds on sky blue. The effect is however just as potent with less defined information, such as adjectives like “dark” or “manic” or “cartoony”. For most audiences, this whole effort of process is largely subconscious, which is why subtleties like aesthetics and semantics are so valued amongst the academic elite.

Personally, I tend to open a written game premise by stating the name, and the genre. The genre sets the stage early, but ironically I don't immediately jump to mechanics like I did in the conceptualization. I open with the setting and story. This is simply so that I can introduce the game worlds specific terminology early (character and ability names etc), and then use that custom vocabulary in the gameplay description. It also means that by the time they are processing and imagining the gameplay, it is within the context of the games universe and style.. rather than having to double back on themselves in order to put the two aspects together later. I would drop names of existing properties only after I make my own attempt at establishing a mental image, so that the referenced property merely acts as a safety net to fill any blanks, rather than the context in which my own ideas are being considered. Essentially it's the cement to my bricks. Anyway, as a Californian governor so eloquently once said, ENOUGH TALK!

Working Title: Forgeworld
Genre: Platformer


Setting:
Set in a far-off alternative future, humanity is long extinct and the planet has been left in the care of machines. Centuries of pollution and scavenging of resources followed by a further century of careless war has left Earth deeply ravaged. In order to guarantee their own survival, the machines have harvested and maintained what remains of the planet as best they can, and supplemented the natural ecosystem with various bio-mechanical alternatives; this leaves much of the planets surface covered with a combination of machine systems, semi-robotic plant-life and rare protected reserves... an organic world with a metal skin.

The player takes the role of 1-Zero, one of the many specialized AI units charged with maintaining this complex bio-mech eco-system; fixing faults, collecting information, analyzing anomalies; but his usual work is interrupted by the seeming invasion of a race of bizarre organic life forms; who are corrupting the system by planting their alien seeds and spreading floral roots through the circuitry and wires of the worlds new surface. It eventually becomes clear that this is not an invading alien race at all, but an aggressive defense mechanism from within the planet itself... evolved in response to the machines own corruption of Earths organic infrastructure. The machines find themselves in a desperate battle to adapt and contain a threat from Earth itself.


Core Gameplay:
1-Zero is a relatively simple and lightweight AI unit designed for navigating the various platforms, ducts, belts, loops and tunnels of the planets complex bio-stations. Genetic profiles of extinct ape species such as chimps and spider-monkeys were used as a basic blueprint to create an ideally agile and limber climber. As such, 1-Zero is a perfect platforming protagonist and is capable of all the genres contemporary core actions... jumping, pole swinging, tight-rope walking, sliding, ledge shimmying, grinding, short wall runs and quick wall rebounds/jumps, hang-climbing... he also has three other NEW mechanics related to platforming:

Magnet: Essentially 1-Zero has magnetic palms, so he can “snap” to specialized magnetic pads throughout the bio-stations. This allows him to hang on certain spots of walls and ceilings between platforming, providing an island between actual platforms.

Boost: The player can charge up a boost by holding a button, and then release during an action to add a little extra potency to that action. This can be used to increase a jumps height or distance, to stretch the reach of a wall run, the speed of a run or grind... it can also be used in combat, which will be covered later. Because boost can be held and released, it can be tactically spent several times during certain complex platforming challenges.

Anchor: Utilizing a similar tactic to rock-climbers and spelunkers, 1-Zero carries a limited supply of “Anchors”; short-range teleportation devices which he can tag on any wall or surface. The player can then return to their last anchor at any time with the press of a button. Consider this an alternative to the “Rewind” mechanic from PoP with the same goal; minimizing the frustration of death within a genre which often requires “trial and error” approach and generally requires actions whose consequences must be instant failure. If the player misses a jump, 1-Zero can be ported back to the last anchor, rather than the last proper checkpoint. He can only carry 3 max, and refreshes his supply at special terminals which also act as save points.


Hack Panels:
The central mechanic of the game is being able to control and change aspects of the environment. There are numerous control panels/terminals throughout the stations which provide various types of control over nearby environmental features such as moving gears, pistons, elevators, platforms, electrical currents, bio-mech plants... by accessing and/or hacking these panels, 1-Zero can assign up to 4 of their functions to a control panel in his arm, and take them with him so he can peform them remotely on the fly. For example, a panel might feature the ability to rotate a wheel clockwise, rotate it anti-clockwise, extend a platform, raise the platform, and start/stop the wheel. While at the panel the player could take up to 4 of those actions along with him/her, so must strategically plan which is needed to progress while at the panel. This lends itself immediately to clever puzzle aspects and emergent freeform solutions also.

Nano Seeds:
1-Zero can also find different kinds of “seeds” which can be used in specialized areas known as “basins” throughout the levels. Each seed type allows 1-Zero to create a new environmental feature inside a basin, ranging from.. creeper vines which crawl up walls to create climbable surfaces, a grav-shroom which acts like a bounce/spring pad, a power-cell tree to provide infinite power cells (batteries useful for powering up some panels/areas), a pole-plant which extends pole swings in various directions, and even some defensive features like gun emplacements and mine-flowers, who spawn proximity mines. The feature in a used basin can also be deleted instantly for replacing, but 1-Zero will have to restock his seeds, as he won't get them back if he uses them and later deletes the result.

Exo-Suits:
1-Zero might be a light model, but he is also designed so that he can interface with custom “exo-suits” throughout the stations. Usually these suits are designed and used for his maintenance tasks, but in the wake of the new natural dangers of mutant plant-life, many have been re-purposed with military equipment. Outside the suits 1-Zero would be helpless, in one he has access to a wide range of attacks that mix boxer-style melee with the reach of fire-arms. The player only has to hold down a punch to extend the damage with a mounted fire-arm. Each melee move has a different fire-arm extension, allowing exciting potential for freeform combos.

..and that is the game idea.

From Magic Legs to Monkeys:
I was half-invested in a future post about the development of the characters design and how my idea for the story and setting subtly evolved as a reaction to that design, but I think the chicken-scratch I call conceptual sketches mostly speak for themselves in that regard. Originally I was pitching a human character in a robotic suit; actually a cripple whose suit was partially a prosthesis. Josh however argued that this was the most obvious, shallow answer. And he was right. My designs were largely heavy badass armour, which was just ASKING for a fight, I got caught up in my vision of the combat. The change to a non-human robotic character sent shock-waves through my intended plot, which was to see humans and machines sharing the planet. I didn't think gamers could empathize and connect with the machines if there was a human side going unexplored, so I cut the human element for a more aloof plot. My first redesigns were of a light humanoid robot, but Josh pushed me yet further, suggesting the machines wouldn't base a robot built for this role on a human, and so on and so on. I'm pleased with the eventual result of a rigorous day of reimaginings; the final 1-Zero is unique and distinctive in the genre, and should also be less of a chore to render frame after frame when I start the motion comic. I must say though, first Grease Monkey and now this, I hope I don't get typecast as the “monkey game” guy...

HELLO NOVEMBER! With a project at work nearing a crunchy crescendo and my home machine out-of-action, I promised myself that while October might not be ideal for tackling the meat of my workload, it would be committed to planning and preparation, getting all the thinking out of the way, so that all that remained from the crack of November 1st to the final deadline in December would be meaningful action. The How To Design series has provided a basic outline for my eventual video commentary as well as fulfilling almost all my research and reflection requirements for the practical, while rounding out a full game idea I need now only prepare proper art for. In that regard, October was a success, but it worries me how short November might turn out to be.

Luckily this semester beast has 2 heads, and I'll feel much better when I cut one off. Lock and load, it's dissertation time.

-Steve