After looking at our first round of comps Linzi pointed out that they all seemed to be seasonal, which isn’t a bad direction to head in as an overall metaphor for the game. Over the next week we entered the story-line discussion phase of the game development process, since this would dictate our visual direction and the overall gameplay.

The great thing about going with a seasonal theme is that it would allow us to keep the game pla cyclical, and part of our overall goal was to create a game which people can jump into and out of very quickly, without any time spent on having to explain the particulars or to catch newcomers up to a higher level of gameplay. This meant that the game needed to be extremely intuitive, but at the same time still fun. The other good thing about sticking with the seasons is that it allowed us to pull from everyone’s ideas from the first round of comps, as you can see below.

Beginner Level: Fall
.The Harvest
.Andrea’s ‘Peter Rabbit’
.Halloween
.back to school / paper airplanes
.little characters are in long sleeve shirts & pants

Middle Level: Winter
.Death
.Linzi’s winter landscape
.snowballs
.ice
.shovels, snowboards, skiing, mountains, ice pics

Hard Level: Spring
.Life
.Ira’s plants
.Jumanji
.treacherous jungles
.rain

Boss Level: Summer
.Excitment
.Andy’s warm, inviting colors
.grass, beaches
.swimming, sports, frisbee,
.camp: wood, tents, bon-fires
.lemonade / ice tea

[end_columns]

Here is what Linzi had to say about her idea:

The game play for the “winter” level as I’m comping it will be that two of the characters will encourage the players and a third character will be frozen in ice. Saving the third character will be your goal!

How do you save the third character – you melt the ice with FIREBALLSSSSSS. (fireball lazors) In addition to melting the ice to save the character your melting the environment to turn into spring – therefore progressing to the next season! Two birds with one… fireball? lol… sooo lame.

And Ira’s variation on that theme:

May be each block contains a part of the broken weather machine. It’s each player’s goal to put together one before the other does – instead of the meters for each player, each accumulates these pieces, and once he reaches a specific point he is able to shoot at the Final Machine Piece (goal), which there is only one of. This can go with the same fireball melting environment idea – just at the end you have a weather machine to help you get to the next level.

And finally, our settled thoughts on how the elements of the game will function with the seasonal theme we seem to have settled on:

Block & Meter Info

1 meter

.dropping the ball transfers power to other player
.breaking blocks gives you power
.power only increases ability / never deters you from being able to break stuff
.blocks will take more than one hit to break / power will allow you to break with one

.your paddle reflects your power
.paddles should be visually defined from each other
.the ball inherits qualities from your bar

meter – sun energy(?)

**we don’t want to have to explain anything

– – – – – – – – – – – -POSSIBLE GOALS

. Sense of completion per season

Cycle:
-when all 4 seasons are hit, something happens (community)
-show year

Overall Goal

– move through the seasons – each level has a different block layout (difficulty is subjective) – move through easily and can enter at any timeSeasonal Goals

– something from the next season in the goal of the season before itSummer to Fall Options:
Leaf
Pumpkin man
Turkey
Halloween
Pilgrims
Indians

Fall to Winter Options:
Snow
Ice
Sled
Snowman
Hot chocolate
Snow shapes up to snowman
Ice pic
Santa
Shovel
Reindeer
Elf
present

Winter to Spring Options:
Seedlings
Cloud
Bird
Sun
Flowers
Raindrop
Sprout
[reading]Rainbow
birdhouse
bird eggs
seed to flower

Spring to Summer Options:
Sunflower seed
Butterfly
Rubber ducky?
Sun
Pool toys
Suntan lotion
Shades
Flipflops
Beach
Starfish
Sandcastle
Frisbee
Underwear
Lemonade
Nudity

[Video Outside of People Playing]
[Monitoring Seasons & Year]

Takeaways have season, year, and graphic of season.
Stickers, buttons