These are three game ideas as part of the self study 4 part 2 outline with exploration into three separate genres with a particular focus on narrative as this is a personal preference in game taste:

Change of Location    

Adventure: The player is an explorer categorising findings on the planet such as interesting ruins, animals or plants. Unknowingly a leak had sprung in their oxygen suit, and they need to return to the shuttle before it’s too late. Along the way are oxygen refill stations which the player must navigate on their journey, changing from station to station. They must uncover clues to the whereabouts of these as they follow the marker icon towards their ship. This concept would be suitable towards an upper teen age range as the content would be simple to grasp with simple controls. The sci-fi genre is an increasingly popular area and the created world within this has the potential to create a high level of interest. The gameplay encourages exploration from the player, making the environment an essential feature to capture interest on a small to middle scale for the purpose of competing the project within the presented timeframe.  This prototype would focus on gameplay through a navigation experience.

Change of Person

RPG: The second concept is a narrative-based game where the protagonist takes on the role of a narrator assisting a character in their quest to overcome agoraphobia (fear of leaving home) and change their life. They can spawn in different items to help or hinder the character’s quest (such as photos of the world or foreign drinks to entice them). Overtime they successfully help them towards returning to their career and the plot twist is they just encouraged an assassin to leave the house and return to ‘work’. This would be targeted towards the 18 to 25 age group due to the topics contained not suitable to lower years. The position of the narrator is not utilised often within games and this take has been reflected as popular within past examples (such as the Stanley Parable: https://store.steampowered.com/app/221910/The_Stanley_Parable/). Using dialogue as a tool for gameplay offers the opportunity to create a branched experience with differing outcomes, increasing the replayability of the game and enhancing its potential value and focusing the prototype on choice-based decisions.

Change of Location and Realisation

Horror: A man changes from train car to train car where every change, the scene becomes more sinister, and each train car represents the man’s descent into hell. At the beginning the player is unaware and as they progress; they collect clues as the scene starts to shift and becomes unnatural. By the last car the ideas collected are complete and the player realises where the journey has led. This would be targeted towards 20-30 year age groups due to the darker topic represented. This has the potential for success due to the surrealism introduced. Layering reality with a darker form and manipulating the player position, creating a unique exploration experience. There is also indications on the success of 'horror done well' where experimental ideas in this field are highly regarded (such as the Silent Hill Playable Teaser created by Hideo Kojima). This project would aim to use a low poly style with a linear plot to ensure it is suitable for the given timeframe and this prototype would focus on the player experience during the narrative-based gameplay.

Key Lesson Learned: Don’t focus on mental blocks, ideas will arrive when you’re not trying to force it :)