Game Inspiration - UQdeco2800/2021-studio-6 GitHub Wiki

Overview

This page will explain how existing games can be used as influences that can be adapted into our game in terms of: art/design style, game mechanics, the background story and objective of the game.

Dark Wood

https://cdn.gamer-network.net/2017/articles/2017-08-25-19-22/darkwood-dev-releases-its-own-game-on-pirate-bay-1503685334456.jpg

Top down perspective

The game’s top down perspective shows what the player can see based on their current orientation. At any given time, the player can only see about a quarter of the game environment, this can provide the game opportunities to jump scare the players. The idea of top down perspective could be implemented to the game to provide the players with the visuals of the surroundings, in combination with limited sight, it can cause uncertainty in the player, and when out in the open, a sense of insecurity and fear.

Limited viewing distance

With limited viewing distance, the player will start to focus their attention on what is visible to them. The intensive attention will cause the effect of jumps care to amplify and hence become more effective when used. This can be implemented into the game to enhance the player’s visual sense, making them more prevalent to jump scares. Even if jump care is not deployed, the sense of uncertainty outside their visual range can cause the player to be scared of what’s yet to be seen, thereby achieving the emotional goal.

Don’t Starve (at night)

https://images.techhive.com/images/article/2015/12/dontstarve2-100632877-orig.png

Lighting

The game during the day gives off vibrant colours and action-filled adventures with a full map view. However, as darkness covers the map, the light disappears and the player is led to huddle around the lightsource that they’ve created in order to survive from unknown shadow creatures.

Mechanics

The shadow creatures live inside the dark sections of the player’s map. As the darkness closes in on the player as the light fades away, the shadow creatures are able to approach the player closer and closer until when the light is all gone, the shadow creatures are able to attack you. At this point, the player is not able to see anything in the map except for messages that alert the player that something has bit the character, and lose a significant amount of health.

The game plot will work partially similarly to our planned game. The shadow crawlers in our game are only active inside darkness. With light, there exists a safe haven, the city of light in which the shadow crawlers cannot approach.

Limited view around surrounding

During darkness, players are limited in objects they are able to view on their screen. This view depends on the amount of lighting there is around the character. For example, a simple torch provides the bare minimum lighting required for survival and a small circular view around the character, whilst the campfire allows the character to see a much bigger proportion of the screen as shown in the image.

This concept is relevant and can assist in our game to prevent the monsters from approaching the character. The character can hold a lightsource in order to scare away the shadow crawlers from approaching and attacking the character.

Limbo

https://gamingbolt.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Limbo_03.jpg

Monochrome art style & lighting

The monochrome design with the use of the lighting of the smoky grey background effects creates a very tense and creepy atmosphere. The use of only using black and white colors scheme creates a lonely abandoned environment that appears to be devoid of life which gives the game a sense of mystery and unknown. This color scheme and the dark lighting environment can be adapted into the DECO2800 studio 6 game to achieve its emotion goals as seen in the wiki page, DECO2800 Studio 6 Emotional Goals.

Objective (survive) and story

In the Limbo's game, you wake up as a young boy with no indication of who you are, how you got there or where you are. Thus you go out to explore the unknown dark environment to only realize it's a dangerous place where everything in the environment is out to harm you which turns the objective into a survival game. The game has traps and monsters hiding in the dark and you are forced to deal with them in a creative way as they are in your path and out to get you so that you can achieve the goal of staying alive.

2D side scrolling

The game's side scrolling aspect forces the player to move in a general direction which is to the right. There are also limited paths the player can go so the player is forced to deal with whatever is in its path such as traps and monsters.

Silent Hill

https://i.makeagif.com/media/7-30-2015/G6AmuF.gif

Ambience

The Silent Hill games tend to feature an ambience that is designed to be creepy and unsettling. With fog obscuring much of the view of the distance and danger around every corner, the player can never truly feel safe while playing.

While we will not be able to import Silent Hill’s ambience wholesale into our game, we can learn from what makes Silent Hill’s ambience so effective and make good use of a similar style of ambience in our game.

Cites and References

Dark Wood References

Don't Starve References

Limbo References

Silent Hill References