Scaffolding: Concept Review - Final Team 10

 

Undertale

(https://store.steampowered.com/app/391540/Undertale/)

We considered Undertale for its simplicity combined with its strong emotional and thematic depth it has over the gaming community. The game's core mechanic is shown through combat, focused on movement, timing, dodging attacks, and making choices through the battle menu (Fight, Act, Item, and Mercy). Creating an alternative controller for the game makes it more interesting as these mechanics can be expressed in a more vivid and expressive way than just on keyboard and mouse or on a controller. There is a lot more creative freedom in which we can explore player choice in morality and empathy while introducing a new kind of depth in terms of challenge toward the game.

Our motivation of using mechanical objects and or gestures is to make it more immersive while trying to tie it to the games identity (Physical UI layout, Battle Box, CPE as the soul). Gestures such as tilting, pressing, hitting express in-game actions of hesitation, judgement, tension, and other feelings standard control layouts cannon express. Overall, achieving something both playable and meaningful.

Peer Review Questions

1. Does our controller feel thematically connected to Undertale?

2. Is the design intuitive enough for someone both either unfamiliar or familiar with the game's concept on how to play?

Battlebox

Physical UI

Flowey Controller

Heart Locket

Gavel

Vampire Survivors

(https://store.steampowered.com/app/1794680/Vampire_Survivors/)

We are also considering Vampire Survivors as one of our games. It's gameplay is mechanically simple out of our list of games we have brainstormed while offering an addicting and intense gameplay experience for players. The core mechanics of the game is purely reliant on movement with emphasis on survival, positioning, and avoiding large waves of enemies over time which brings forth the idea of alternative controllers with minimal controls with what we currently have as well as our current knowledge in the course. Our minimalistic designs for our controllers are intuitive as it can be easily playable even if the input is rather unusual than what current people today use. This gives us a lot of freedom to experiment with physical interaction without making the game impossible to play.

Our motivation is being able to interpret the tension and intensive gameplay that progresses the longer the player survives in another way rather than a standard layout of a controller or keyboard and mouse. We were inspired by tilt-based controls, balance-based movement, rotating knobs, and light based input that both adds on to the intensity and ties in with the games theatrics and overall theme in a weird way (relics, lanterns, etc) that effectively works that makes the experience more physical and immersive

Peer Review Questions

1. Which control method is more readable for a survival-focused game like Vampire Survivors?

2. How does the alternative controls affect the gameplay loop. Does it add tension? Does it make it more frustrating?

Cauldron

Holy Cross

Ultrasonic distance sensor baton

Compass

Lantern