Homework 8: Rough Guide to Game Mechanics

1. Is the space in your game discrete or continuous?
• The space in our game is continuous.
2. How many dimensions does your space have? 
• the space has three dimensions
3. What are the boundaries of your space? 

• Please enjoy this sweet diagram of our space!
• the game begins at the white house, from there the player is sent to three other worlds and eventually the mothership
• the space will be enclosed by trees and buildings
• the player gets to each of the four separate worlds by walking there from the white house
• when they accomplish the task set for that level and reach the end of the level they step onto a device and it teleports them back to the white house
4. How many verbs do your players (characters) have? What are they? 
• In the overworld the player can run, walk, jump, punch and kick
• The player will also be able to read and interact with objects
• During the fight scenes the player will be able to jump, kick, punch and do combinations of these
5. How many objects can each verb act on? What are these objects? 
• The player can jump on/over anything
• Punch and kick objects to break them and get what is inside
1. Chests
2. Trashcans?
3. Parts of alien weapons/spaceship
4. Futuristic looking objects
5. Columns
6. How many ways can players achieve their goals
• Each of the four levels has a goal that the player achieves through completing puzzles
• Some of the puzzles are things like navigating a maze or timing jumps; others are tasks such as find an important item(for which they receive clues as they interact with the environment)
• The player also achieves the goal of aiding the president in saving the world by winning the random encounter fights with aliens
7. How many subjects do the players control? What are these subjects? 
• The player controls the main character
8. How do side effects change constraints. 
• Whenever the player moves in the overworld, there is a chance that they will move into one of the random encounter spaces
• When the player defeats an alien, they get a little bit stronger, this will be helpful to them because the aliens get stronger as the game goes on
9. What are the operative actions in your game? 
• The player can walk forward and backward
• They can also rotate their character left and right and then continue going backwards or forwards
• Jump on or over any object
• Punch and kick (see 5)
• Punch and kick aliens
• Pick up small objects
10. What are the resultant actions in your game? 
• defend yourself from alien attacks
• dodging projectiles
• navigating through obstacles to complete tasks
• teleport to the white house for next mission
11. What actions would you like your players to do that they cannot presently do? (based on your current knowledge of Blender)
• Our team members have been looking into armatures to make the characters’ arms and legs move
12. What is the ultimate goal of your game? 
• To help the president save the world from aliens
13. Are there short and long term goals? What are they? 
• Short term goals
1. Obtain objects that you can give your mentor for hints
2. Solve puzzles to obtain those objects
3. Fight aliens (and win)
• Long term goals
1. Work your way onto the alien mothership
2. Fight the most important alien
3. Win that fight
4. Save the world
14. How do you plan to make the game goals known and understood by the player? 
• Whenever you go to the White House the president tells you a goal he needs you to accomplish
• Afterwards the mentor reminds you and sometimes gives advice on how to accomplish tasks
• The story also  lets the player know what they are trying to do and why
15. What are the foundational rules of your game? 
• You cannot lose all of your health, or you will die
• You cannot skip levels to go straight to the mothership
• You must complete the current objective before moving onto another one
• You cannot say no to a random encounter fight
16. How are these rules enforced? 
• The player will have to start over from their last save point if they lose all of their health
• Portals take the player from the level back to the white house and unless the play returns with the objective completed, the president will not give them the next task
• Player does not choose when a random encounter fight happens and if they refuse to fight they will be killed by an alien
17. Does your game develop real skills? What are they? 
• Critical thinking skills because of the nature of the puzzles
• Timing because of the jumping puzzles
• Hand –eye coordination…possibly
18. Does your game develop virtual skills? What are they? 
• Timing is a real and virtual skill
• Virtual fighting skills will be acquired