Homework 6

Four each of the four elements of the Tetrad, explain how it is addressed by your game. If one of the four elements is not used, please state this. 

Mechanics: This is described by the book as the means by which we direct the player. How the game tells the player what he can and cannot do in order to achieve the ends we (the designers) have set out. We adress this in our game by instilling popular limitations found in most platformer games, just as set gravity, and only enough tools to clear obstacles. We impose limits on where the character can and cannot go to some degree.

Story:  Plot current plays the biggest role in our game as it influences the mechanics (Obstacles are in agreement with an office-type setting) and aesthetics (How the world looks as a commercial district in a big city).

Aesthetics: The aesthetics in our game is influenced a bit by the medium by which we are creating it; Blender. We are trying to create a "ghost town" scenario that takes place in a city, so the look and feel of our game looks right now to be industrial (The look and feel of the streets and buildings as close to reality as we can make them).

Technology: The medium by which our game is being made is blender. This part of the tetrad is not so much addressed by the game itself. Of course the game will reciprocate the feel that it can be done in Blender as we have no plans to implement anything outside Blender's capabilities at the moment (even in python).

Do the four (or less) elements work towards a current theme? 

The theme of our game is "What happened?" We are trying to create a story and experience for the player that makes him/her genuinely want to reach the end of the game. While popular FPS shooters advertise infinite online experience and RPG games try to instill the thought: "I must train to be stronger than my opponents." Our story and mechanics are working towards our theme to get the player to the end of the platformer.

In your own words, describe the meaning of a "theme", and how does it differ from an "experience" (see book for examples in Chapters 2 and 5. 

To me, the key difference is that Theme is the over-looming goal that every step you take must satisfy. A theme is a more broad notion while the game can have many different experiences if it fits the overall theme. An experience is the detailed who, what, where, when, and why that gradually reinforces the theme to the player.

What is your game's theme? 

To me, the theme is "What happened?" Our game follows the traditional rule of old style platformers that the player is collecting something in search for the end of the level.  In our game in particular, the player is searching for missing pages that tell a story of unknown events prior to the game's setting and unknown to the player.

What are the elements in your game that are meant to reinforce this theme? 

The collectibles in our game as well as the sparse information and sense of mystery surrounding the events that happened prior to the game. These elements hopefully will make the player want to collect everything and reach the end to see the fruits of his/her labor.

What is it about your game that you feel makes it special and powerful?

The story has to be powerful as it is one of the driving forces behind what is keeping the player interested in getting to the end. In addition, we plan on including puzzles. Puzzles make a game special to certain audiences who recognize that although different games have similar puzzles, every puzzle's answer is unique and has its own merit worthy of the player taking time to solve them.