Homework 11

Chapter 15

1. What is the relationship between the main character and the goal? Why does the character care about it? The relationship between the main character and the goal is the story. More specifically, our character is trying to unravel the story behind an event that took place in her town just prior to the beginning of the game. The character cares about these events because she knows for certain they have to do with why the town is vacant and the story also involves her colleague.
2. What are the obstacles between the character and the goal?  Puzzles and platforming elements. More specifically, we have several puzzles throughout each level that the player must solve before advancing up each building. The ultimate goal is to make it to the top floor of each level/building. Platforming elements include jumping, locked doors, and alternate routes the player must traverse in order to ascend. 
3. Do the obstacles gradually increase in difficulty? If yes, how? The puzzles are not designed with the intention of scaling difficulty simply because we are in dire need of any puzzles that can be easily implemented into the game engine. It really is up to each individual players ability to pick up the controls behind each puzzle and think critically.
4. Great stories often involve the protagonist transforming to overcome the obstacle. Does your protagonist transform?  Physically, no; metaphorically... no. The character remains a hallow vessel in our game and is simply a means to an end. The lack of response from the main character despite uncovering the story through diary pages gives the player a chance to use their imagination and impose feelings onto our main character which is how they would react in her shoes. 
5. How is the game world simpler than the real world?  Restriction of movement. Mechanics. Restriction of choices on what the player can do at any particular moment. 
6. What kind of transcendent power do you give to the player? If we decide on a fight as the final stage in the game, then one power is to kill in the same respect the book gives war games. You could think of the fact the player of the game can unrealistically plow through the entire game in one sitting as a sort of power seeing the absurdity of our games events taking place over a short period of time.
7. What is the weirdest element in the game story? As of right now there really is not anything wierd about our game. Once we are done getting the mechanics and building levels we may introduce weird things such as power ups and odd gateway points to jump from the middle of a level back to the first floor.
8. How do you ensure that the weirdest thing does not confuse or alienate the player? Again, this does not apply yet. If we decide to implement what I have mentioned above, it is common practice in many games to have a nonsensical save point or point where a player can return to the level select. Examples include a couch in ICO (couches that dont belong in ancient Japanese castles) and statues in Devil May Cry. 
9. Will the players be interested in the game story? Why? We are hoping this is the case. In the same fashion games like Silent Hill drop the player into the game with very little information, we are hoping the players sense of curiosity is what drives them to make the first initial steps to unfold the plot where the storytelling takes over as their main interest.

Chapter 16

1. In what sense does the player have freedom of action? Does the player "feel" free at these times? The player in our game should feel very free. We only give the player the goal that the top of the building needs to be reached with no real direction they should be going. The player should feel free to initially explore the floors that are not locked and then either find usable items (keys) by chance or get frustrated by not being able to progress and search more intently. 
2. What are the constraints imposed on the players? Do they feel constrained? The constraints imposed on the player include the parts of the building the player can not initially get into. The constraint is simply the player can not go where he pleases. They should not feel so constrained because there are still places the player can go initially which suggests a starting point to branch from.
3. Ideally, what would you like your players to do (lens #72) We want our players to uncover the truth. We do this by introducing them to the main character and the situation she is in. The player may also feel a sense of duty to help this woman after they start reading the diary pages.
4. Can you set constraints to "kind of" force the player to do it? In our game this is as simple as locking a door and indirectly letting the player know they need to unlock it in order to advance.
5. Can you design your interface to "force" the player to do what you (the designer) wish him/her to do? For our game in particular this seems difficult. Our simplistic controls sort of force the player to really interact with every object they deem suspicious in order to search for clues or items on each floor. In some sense this is our UI forcing the player to do something but it is really up to the player what order they do things in if we design the levels with multiple pathways.