The Beginning
Concept.
The concept for this game is based around the requirement to have a strong focus on visual content as opposed to scripting and gameplay mechanics. Therefore the design was kept to a minimum of having a world to run about in, a basic goal of collecting items and as little coding needed for character movement and animation.This lead to the development of a first-person exploration and platforming game.
The fact that Unity comes with scripts for mouselook and first-person character controllers allowed for swift implementation of something workable with only the adjusting of a few variables required.
The exploration concept essentially allows gameplay to be derived from asset creation by giving the player something to do simply by the motivation of it being there.
Similarly the platforming mechanic (with some tuning and refinement of the character controller) allows and element of challenge to be introduced and can be developed almost entirely through the content creation process.
To give a purpose to the exploration and platforming aspects, each level will require the player to collection a certain amount of a particular item to proceed.
A context and backstory for each of the above mechanics has been pieced together, which will be detailed in a later post.
Inspiration.
While the core mechanics of the game are derived from the necessities of simplicities and where the effort is focused, there are a few thematic and stylistic influences on my decisions surrounding them.
Exploration in Minecraft had a strong influence on my choice. It would be beyond the limitations of the project to attempt anything of the scale of a Minecraft world, and the procedural generation beyond my skillset.
However, aspects that would be desirable to capture would be the sense of wonder and adventure that comes from exploring a new area and the feeling of isolation and danger that come from being so distanced from civilisation.
The post-apocalyptic wastelands of the Fallout series also present a sense of adventure as you poke around and investigate mostly abandoned and ruined buildings and settlements.
One thing that particularly interests me of this is piecing together the backstory of the world from discarded notes and objects found while exploring.
Visually the intention if for the game to be styled similar to platformers such as Banjo Kazooie, Space Station Silicon Valley and Conkers Bad Fur Day, albeit not quite to the same cartoony extremes.