Games Development Society

Games Development Society

Introduction

These sessions part of the MMU games development society, which take place within the John Dolton building. These sessions are available for anyone and I received an email as an invite to join this society. I wanted to be part of this society because I believed this would be an opportunity to build my portfolio as well as being part of a team that would develop a game.  

 Wednesday 3rd February

This first session was an introduction to the society which gave the leaders a chance to organise and for us to mingle with others. There was a range of students from both different years and courses  which made the groups diverse in experience and knowledge. I was part of a group with six computer science students and a fine artist.

We were told to create a concept for a game which could be developed within 48 hours. We were having trouble with the initial planning and the computer science students requested two words which would then become our theme. I haven’t heard of this before but found this rather useful but not essential for idea development. We were give the words: ‘Red’ and ‘Wrench’ which were rather odd and random.

From the words ‘Red and Wrench’ we started brain storming ideas what the game could be about. As one of the group members had already created a game prior to the session which was a top down 2D shooter, we decided to create the game like that at first. How I proposed ideas at first was based off what the computer science students said they were capable of and which method would be easiest. This is because my knowledge of games development is limited and do not understand or know the limitations and problems with certain ideas. Therefore I felt if I started suggesting random ideas which were not possible within a game engine, I would be wasting the groups time.

Initial ideas included: a game where a guy wields a red wrench as a weapon, this character could be a rogue mechanic with a blood lust. Another idea involved the style where it would be inspired by ‘Sin City’ with the only colours being: black, white and red. This is because we believed this would be a very striking style choice. Developing the ‘red’ idea we discussed the idea of the players intentions with red and we thought about the player collecting the colour red. This continued to the point where the character has such a desire for red, the character would beat the ‘red’ out of people. At this point we were snowballing these comedic ideas.

 [Initial sketches and ideas]

 

 

However, the group reached a point where development ideas and engine restrictions were greatly affecting our brainstorming. From this I thought suggesting narrative ideas would begin to spark inspiration within the group where ideas can start to develop. We began to discuss ideas for if the game should be a character wielding a ‘red wrench’ or if the player would play as the wrench. We felt it would be interesting to create a narrative around a red wrench and what its life may involve and what it may be thinking.

Several ideas started to develop including: a wrench which fights other tools within a toolbox like a bar-room brawl game. Another idea was that the player is a mechanic, which repairs household items with a red wrench. From this idea we started to add our previous ideas to a point we were happy with this particular idea:

‘Red Wrench Revenge’

Narrative

- An average mechanic with no knowledge or skill lives his average life until he crosses paths with a red wrench which has unknown murderous intent. This Red Wrench has mystical and unknown powers, this red wrench speaks to the wielder to convince him/her to do it’s bidding. The mechanic, who is no good at his job, makes a deal with the wrench without the mechanic knowing the wrench’s true intentions. This mechanic must now continue his job with this red wrench. [This idea developed from the idea of giving the red wrench a character, which would be comedic and unexpected. This wrench would be with the player challenging the gameplay and speaking with the player.]

Gameplay

1 player

Top down (2D/ 3D)

-The player takes control of a mechanic, which is given jobs to fix several items within a home. The player must then search the house for these broken items. Broken items are scattered around with some other items in the home glowing red. The player would have to find the broken items, fix them within a certain time to complete the ‘contract’ for the client. This would involve the player pressing certain keys at particular times in succession for a successful fix. The quicker the player fixes the items the greater the score.

All of this is challenged by the red wrench which helps you fix these broken items; however it also wants to smash the red items within the home. This causes the player to randomly be drawn towards these items wanting to destroy them and the player must fight the wrench. If the player smashes an item: this would be taken off the score at the end of the level. The value of the smashed item(s) determines the amount of score that is taken off the player.

 [Layout of top down view of level and character]

 

[Player's view and interface design]

[Concept for mini-game where player would fix items. the Player have to tap when the line reached within the 'safe zone']

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From this we noted our ideas and the group liked this idea. We will meet up at the next session to find out if we wish to develop this concept further or if we are going to develop another idea.