Week 2-3

Concept Refinement and Ideas:

As our group was formed around just a simple game mechanic, of a first person hack and slash, after our first meeting we decided to have every group member brainstorm some ideas for an environment and setting, including enemy designs, character design ideas and other potential game mechanics:

Potential Game Name: Molten

Environment: Inside the heart of a slightly dormant volcano, including caves and lava tunnels; most volcanoes have a ‘plumbing’ system of the main vent and of side vents, as well as multiple magma chambers. When active these are filled with magma, but when dormant they can become a twisting labyrinth of tunnels and caves, with the occasional magma lake. This allows for an awesome looking environment, with a distinct style and lighting design that still works within our scope and in Low Poly.

Enemies:

• Small Rock/stone goblins
• Dark stone/obsidian Spider/crawler, something quadrupedal or more.
• Larve Magma Golem, plenty of opportunity for interesting low poly designs, spiked back, Club as an arm. Interesting texturing opportunity as well, with cracked glowing skin etc.

Player:

• Normalish humanoid, not really fussy on her design but upgrades herself with molten rock limbs/body parts, similar to what alex had as her boots last week. These upgrades give her better/improved abilities like jumping/running/kicking.
• An upgraded arm that can clobber/punch enemies, but it can also Imbue objects with ‘molten power’ this includes weapons, or even special sections of the walls to light up darker areas, or she could just have her arm glow a bit brighter as a torch-like source that is actually part of her body (see more details in Gameplay) this Imbuing power can be recharged from enemies, or other environmental sources.
• Upgraded arm could also shoot out live lava as a kind of grappling hook
• Fully obsidian weapons, solves our problem of multiple spears lying around, as obsidian stalagmites/stalactites can be grabbed and snapped off as weapons. I think the idea of perhaps being able to store an extra spear or two on her back may help with this design problem as well.

Gameplay:

• When A weapon is Imbued by Molten Power, it only lasts for a short time, but the weapon does increased damage and perhaps can’t get stuck in enemies, as its ‘melts’ through them or something like that.
• The Labyrinth like tunnels and caves are usually lit up by remnants of Lava or molten cracked rock areas in the walls/ceiling/floors where light is seeping through. Lots of design opportunities with this; it could light up where you’ve been like a Breadcrumb trail to show where you’ve been.
• Dark Areas, caverns or tunnels and caves where there is little or no light, these areas require the use of Imbuing power, either into the character’s arm, or into the walls to get them to light up. There is scary potential for the Obsidian Spiders in these dark areas, we can work with the minimal lighting to create some scary encounters.
• If we get far enough with the basic game mechanics, there is also some potential for some light 3D jumping puzzles with rock pillars over magma lakes. This is where the upgraded boots/legs for jumping, or the upgraded arm as a grappling hook could come into play. Failing that, some very basic jumping over dangerous lava areas, or treacherous bridges can make for interesting fight encounters with strategies like knocking enemies off into the lava, as well as the increased difficulty of fighting while also navigating jumps between pillars etc.
• There is also some potential for further environment based killing, traps or areas where sudden upshoots of Lava, or cracked floors that fall out and become pits. That can be triggered by walking over them, these can kill either the player or enemies, so some strategies may involve leading enemies into them etc.