Day Seven - Making Checkers Dramatic

Today, we were given the task of making checkers dramatic. In our group were myself, Andrew, and Joe. We did the following:

Backstory

The game of checkers is an epic battle between two warring alien clans, the Crimson Hatchets and the Blackened Souls. Each clan believes the other stole a very vital artifact from their home world, fueling the war. There is a bittersweet love between a member of the Crimson Hatchets and a member of the Blackened Souls. In the end, only one clan will have supremacy.

Special areas on the board

• The center 2 lines of the board are an asteroid field, as well as all the squares not in use.

• The “king me” lines are each clan's homeworld.

Names of pieces

• Romiette is on the Crimson Hatchets side, and Julio is on the Blackened Souls side. These are the characters involved in the bittersweet love.

• King Tesotgzlatx from the Crimson Hatchets and Overlord Ryzyzigy from the Blackened Souls.

• The remaining pieces are the military forces of each clan.

The other groups came up with ideas of world domination, clan wars, and Heaven vs Hell.

Response to prototype response

In order for the power-up to work we would have to tell the player at the start that they, for example, can only walk. Once they collect the hidden run power-up item they may move faster. For the hidden area, maybe a "key" item can be found that unlocks the hidden area. This area can just be a section in which we tell the player they cannot look in unless they unlock it. Any items collected in this area will be a bonus since these items will not be included into the "total items" but will increase the "collected items". Collecting these extra items can throw a positive multiplier into the formula (ex: 20 /15 = 1.5 ) boosting points even more.

Expansion of prototype

To expand on the prototype idea that Andrew posted, another way for the player to get points would be by finding power-ups and going through a different route.

Say we take a stack of CDs and make that a power-up that lets you walk faster than usual, even run. The power-up would be worth 100 points in addition to that. The player would then have to make it through a closing door to get to another area where we would hide more items.

For getting the power-up and going through the door, they would find more items and also another ending. This ending may give bonus points for getting to it. The bonus points would offset the extra time taken.

A new prototype

We need to improve on our prototype so that it conveys the concept of the game better.

This is my idea thus far:

Whoever is playing must hide their eyes or step out of the room while someone else hides various items around the area. The items can be just about anything, but there should be some groups of items that are the same. For example a few poker chips, a few pencils, a few golf balls, or anything else of the sort. The items will have an assigned value. In this case poker chips will be worth 25, pencils will be worth 50, and golf balls will be worth 100. After the items have been well hidden the player will be asked to look for them as quickly as possible. The player will be timed as they look for the items. The player will not know how many items are hidden. They will be informed of the point values that are available, but not what the item is that happens to be assigned to that value. The player will decide when they would like to turn in their items and receive their score.

The scoring will work like this:
(non whole numbers will be rounded)

((Point values for items collected * (items collected / total items)) + (time bonus)

The time bonus will work like this:

(total items * 30) - (time taken in seconds)

Here is an example final score:

3 poker chips collected
5 pencils collected
2 golf balls collected

thats 10 out of a total of 15 (5 of each type of item)

thats 425 points for collected items
and that equates to 281 points after the items missed penalty.

and it took 300 seconds.

Lets calculate...

time bonus: (15*30) - (300) = 150

Final: ((425*(10/15)) + 150 = 431

Thats all for now.

Theme idea

We have come up with a possible theme for our game:

An explorer travels back in time to retrieve precious artifacts from an ancient advanced civilization that may help the future prosper. He / she explores a vast network of structures riddled with treasures along with the aid of their time traveling machine and a collection of useful relics that have been found along the way. The explorer is not alone, though. A handful of other explorers are after treasure as well, but their intentions are not good. The explorer needs to collect the treasure as quickly as he/she can in order to keep it out of the hands of evildoers. You will be rewarded by your superiors for a job well done.

This is just a brief idea for a possible theme, but we feel this is at least a good start.

Expanded Formal Elements

Here is our game's formal elements, expanded with what we have worked on during the week:

Players

• Single player.

• No multiplayer, but has high score list.

Objectives

• Beat the game as quickly as possible.

• Get as much money as possible.

Procedures

• Collecting items of various monetary value.

• Navigating the maze.

• Items gained in a new game that were gained in a previous game will be worth less.

• Some items give immediate money while others must be sold or will be cashed in at the end of the game.

• Money that is collected won't respawn in a new game but items will.

• Player has no map until they buy one.

Rules

• Race against the clock.

• If the player quits before hitting a save point, their time is saved but they start at their last save point.

• Enemies do no damage, and the player cannot die.

• Pausing the game will stop the timer.

Resources (in this case, mostly powerups)

• Money

• Higher Jump

• Wall Jump

• Destroy Walls

• Destroy Enemies

• Swimsuit

• Speedy Shoes

• Super Speedy Shoes

• Grappling Hook

• Random non-powerup items

Conflict

• Enemies can't hurt the player, but could affect the player.

• Certain areas are blocked without having collected a certain item/powerup.

• Certain save points may be easy or hard to get to.

Boundaries

• The player cannot go past most walls (except certain walls destroyable by the Destroy Walls powerup).

• The maze is entirely enclosing with no gaps.

Outcome

• Player gets a score at the end.

Day Four - Research

We needed to research other games already made that may have been similar to our idea. Here's what we came up with:

http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA457215

The above article talks about a concept related to a real-time game that rewards players who beat the game in a certain time. Although it talks about two players with one getting positive points and the other getting negative points, it is conceptually similar to our idea due to the goal for beating the game in a certain time.

http://cbgames.net/platformmaze.php

The above game is somewhat similar to our idea, although our idea involves platfomers similar to Mario and not a bunch of platforms floating around. Also, our idea involves a maze of different screens while this game is a maze of numbered platforms. However, this game is a casual game and can be stopped at any time as well as be played in a short amount of time. Also, unlike our game, you must beat it in a certain amount of time, while ours will not constrain the player to a certain time frame.

http://golden-clock-s-space-speeder.action-games.games1234.net/playgame.aspx

While not the same kind of game we are coming up with, it is a race against the clock. You are given a set amount of time and must get as far as possible before the timer runs out. It is still fun to play and can be considered a casual game. Conceptually, it is similar to our game in that you get more based on the amount of time you spend getting to the end. Different from our game is that you get more for going farther in the set time, where our game doesn't constrain you on a timer but gives you a reward based on the time taken.