Design Doc - The-Source-Eternal/Children-of-IO GitHub Wiki

Design doc template from University of North Carolina Game Design Document Template

Transfered from old wiki, needs adjusting

The Source Eternal

(tagline about teaching how to make games (or just coding if that's what we decide) in a powerful and free game engine using real programming languages, skills they can immediately put to use for their own nefarious purposes. Cut and paste the code you write in the game and put it in your own programs (what applications? Web? Phones?))

Rethinking this: can we do a huge poll actually asking people what they'd be interested in learning. 2D game making, 3D game making, etc?

####Current summary You arrive in a world that is falling apart. You have to work your way to the center, all the while faced by challenges, both intellectual and physical, created by the disintegration around you. As you progress, you discover new tools and build these into an arsenal that allows you to overcome new obstacles you face. When you reach the center, you use these tools to fix the world (where you discover this is only one of many worlds?).

Note: This meshes with version 1 in "5. STORY, SETTING, AND CHARACTER" Issues: What is the source of this disintegration? If it's a virus, can we actually mimic how viruses work? If not, do we want to go this route considering we are trying to educate about computers? Perhaps, instead, someone is running you through your paces? But to what end?

Link to website will go here

Name Brainstorming

Game Engine Discussion(https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Children-of-IO/wiki/Game-Engine-Creator-Editor-Options-Discussion)

Team Roles Desired

Tools Desired (software)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  1. [GAME OVERVIEW] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Children-of-IO/wiki/Design-Doc#2-game-overview)
  2. [MEASURABLE OUTCOMES] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Children-of-IO/wiki/Design-Doc#3-measurable-outcomes)
  3. [GAMEPLAY AND MECHANICS] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Children-of-IO/wiki/Design-Doc#4-gameplay-and-mechanics) (placeholding)
  4. [STORY, SETTING, AND CHARACTER] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Children-of-IO/wiki/Design-Doc#5-story-setting-and-character)
  5. [LEVELS] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Children-of-IO/wiki/Design-Doc#6-levels)
  6. [INTERFACE] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Children-of-IO/wiki/Design-Doc#7-interface)
  7. [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Children-of-IO/wiki/Design-Doc#8-artificial-intelligence) (placeholding)
  8. [TARGET HARDWARE] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Children-of-IO/wiki/Design-Doc#9-target-hardware) (placeholding)
  9. [ART] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Children-of-IO/wiki/Design-Doc#10-art--key-assets--intended-style-identify-the-most-critical-pieces) (placeholding)
  10. [MUSIC] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Children-of-IO/wiki/Design-Doc#11-music--key-assets--intended-style-identify-the-most-critical-pieces) (placeholding)

Should every title here lead to a different page?

2. GAME OVERVIEW

Game Concept (Options)

  • Fast-paced 3D action, puzzle, and adventure game that teaches the skills needed to use an existing game engine and an existing language, utilizing community involvement to foster new learning. Fun directly to application.
  • Fast-paced 3D action, puzzle, and adventure game to teach an existing programming language, utilizing community involvement to foster new learning.
  • Action based learning, analogies to the physical world.
  • Also see "Current summary" at the top

Let’s not let references to games from our youth get in the way of usability and flow

Target Audience (Options)

  • Middle-school age
  • College/Adults
  • Middle-school and up

Genre (Options)

  • Narrative-driven
  • Open World/Experiential
  • Social
  • Intellectual Challenge
  • Thriller
  • Agency

Game Flow (Options) Summary

How does the player move through the game? (How is this different from "Game Progression and Play Flow" blow?)

  1. Procedurally generated content. e.g. Concepts are assigned a level of complexity. A dungeon exists in which each subsequent level contains more complex concept. The player has to successfully meet those concept challenges to open doors. Within the level itself the concept challenges are presented randomly. This doesn't allow for specific challenges for specific concepts, only variations on the same task using different knowledge challenges. This would be easier to produce than creating content about each concept, but wouldn't be as well focused.
  2. Individually created challenges tuned to each concept specifically. This would take more work, but would more effectively teach each of the concepts.

  • Each level could be in a different style (though lets wait till we see how much work putting together even one style will be). At the beginning of every level the player could start in the "meta" world, on a white glowing square. In front of them will be a door or corridor in the style of that level. Will they end in the "meta" world? Does the "meta" world become more organized and structured as time goes on? Does it start structured and fall apart as the game goes on until the player has "fixed" whatever's broken and the meta world is restored?

  • Alice in wonderland-ish? With floating white path blocks of the kind I mocked up? (http://imgur.com/xQ3wkgc)

  • Perhaps the dungeon could be for semantics and format, or it could be a practice or drilling/testing ground to reenforce previously learned concepts.

  • Chests could be drills instead (or as well) - to open them you have to debug the errors in the code (e.g. missing semi-colon). Do these need to be kept to the level the player is at, or can they be at any level. The player can anticipate being able to open them in the future perhaps.

Look and Feel/Theme (Options)

What is the basic look and feel of the game? What is the visual style? How is this different from 5. STORY, SETTING, AND CHARACTER > Game World > General look and feel of world?

3. MEASURABLE OUTCOMES

Specifically created by The Source Eternal to fit its needs, not in the original UNC Template. These are meant to be specific learning outcomes that the game teaches and how to measure the success of the techniques used.

Teaching Paths

  1. Standard programming progression (though not starting with "Hello World") and use of game engine interface
  2. Pick some concepts crucial to the creation of most games and teach those
  3. Experiment with methods of teaching programming that are non-traditional, going back and forth between higher-level and lower-level concepts (perhaps even one backwards from the usual progression, which would lend itself well to a plot involving the world falling apart)

Education Research Sources (perhaps on another page):

######To Explore:

  • Demystifying the Educational Benefits of Different Gaming Genres, Alex Frazer, David Argles, Gary Wills http://www.researchgate.net/publication/39996599_Demystifying_the_Educational_Benefits_of_Different_Gaming_Genres
  • Structuring the Transition From Example Study to Problem Solving in Cognitive Skill Acquisition: A Cognitive Load Perspective. More here.
  • Learning from solved examples is more effective in early stages, then increasing the requirement for problem solving until the learner is solving all the problems on their own
  • Scaffolding and Achievement in Problem-Based and Inquiry Learning: A Response to Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark (2006). More here.
  • problem-based learning (PBL) and inquiry learning (IL) are quite different than discovery learning, more scaffolded
  • The Social and Technological Dimensions of Scaffolding and Related Theoretical Concepts for Learning, Education, and Human Activity
  • More here

4. GAMEPLAY AND MECHANICS

Objectives

What are the objectives of the game?

Gameplay (only those pieces that are relevant)

  • Game Progression and Play Flow – How does the game flow for the game player
  • Mission/challenge Structure
  • Puzzle Structure

Mechanics

What are the rules to the game, both implicit and explicit. This is the model of the universe that the game works under. Think of it as a simulation of a world, how do all the pieces interact? This actually can be a large section.

  • World
  • Physics – How does the physical universe work?
  • Economy – What is the economy of the game? How does it work?
  • Flow
  • Character Movement in the game
  • Objects – how to pick them up and move them
  • Actions, including whatever switches and buttons are used, interacting with objects, and what means of communication are used
  • Combat – If there is combat or even conflict, how is this specifically modeled?
  • Screen Flow -- How each screen is related to every other and a description of the purpose of each screen.

Options

  • Game Options – What are the options and how do they affect game play and mechanics?
  • Replaying and Saving
  • Cheats and Easter Eggs

5. STORY, SETTING, AND CHARACTER

[Story and Narrative (Options)] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Children-of-IO/wiki/Plot-Options)

Includes back story, plot elements, game story progression, and cut scenes. Cut scenes descriptions include the actors, the setting, and the storyboard or script.

Game World

  • General look and feel of world
  • Areas, including the general description and physical characteristics as well as how it relates to the rest of the world (what levels use it, how it connects to other areas)

Characters

Each character should include the back story, personality, appearance, animations, abilities, relevance to the story and relationship to other characters

  • Use of Artificial Intelligence in Opponent and Enemy
  • Non-combat and Friendly Characters

6. [LEVELS] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Children-of-IO/wiki/Levels)

[Notes] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Children-of-IO/wiki/Levels#notes-on-levels)

[Levels] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Children-of-IO/wiki/Levels#levels)

[Persistent features] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Children-of-IO/wiki/Levels#persistent-features)

7. [INTERFACE] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Unwritten3D/wiki/Interface)

Assumed to be the same as Unwritten3D

[Visual System] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Unwritten3D/wiki/Interface#visual-system)

If you have a HUD, what is on it? What menus are you displaying? What is the camera model? Placeholding

[Control System] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Unwritten3D/wiki/Interface#control-system)

How does the game player control the game? What are the specific commands? (Summary of the pieces in esarlier sections)

[Audio, music, sound effects] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Unwritten3D/wiki/Interface#audio-music-sound-effects)

Placeholding

[Help System] (https://github.com/The-Source-Eternal/Unwritten3D/wiki/Interface#help-system)

Do you have one? What is it? Placeholding

8. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Opponent and Enemy AI

The active opponent that plays against the game player and therefore requires strategic decision making

Non-combat and Friendly Characters

Support AI

Player and Collision Detection, Pathfinding

9. TARGET HARDWARE

10. ART – Key assets. Intended style. Identify the most critical pieces

11. MUSIC – Key assets. Intended style. Identify the most critical pieces