main character concept 1

This is the first concept for my main character. I decided to make main character female as when I played Haunting Ground I found it easier to care for the character Fiona as she was female. Not many female characters are portrayed as being physically strong and I thought that this would work well for my game. I wanted to make the girl's design contrast with that of the Freds so I gave her blonde, wavy hair to contrast with the smoke coming from the freds.

Initial Ideas

The player takes the role of a girl who has been trapped in her own mind by monsters known as Freds. The dream world they inhabit takes the form of a large castle that they use to trap and confuse their prey. The player must find a way to escape the castle and ultimately regain conciousness. They must explore the castle to find possible ways out, however they are completely defenseless against the Freds so they must sneak around any freds they encounter. If an enemy is alerted they will chase the player relentlessly and will continue to search for them when they are out of their line of sight.

The player must use 'hide spots' when they are out of sight until the enemy gives up. The player will be able to tell if a fred is still looking for them by the background noise. Music will play when the player is being chased, it will get slower the furthur away from a fred you are and when it stops completely that means that the creature has given up. To find hide spots the player can use 'Sight'. Sight gives hide spots a glowing outline and will also highlight important objects such as buttons and levers. However, sight will only highlight hidespots when the player is being chased. This will give the player incentive to explore the area to find hide spots so that they are ready if they run into a fred.

When an enemy is no where to be seen the player can freely explore the area. They must jump and climb over fallen pillars, up walls and over rubble to find a way to the next area, ocassionally the player will need to find a key or pull a lever to allow access while some rooms will require the player to solve a puzzle.

Intial Research - Amnesia/Penumbra

Much like Haunting Ground, Amnesia makes it impossible to confront enemies, making the player need to run and hide. The game is an exploration-based adventure game that is in first person perspective and involves physic puzzles and interaction.

The game does not give the player access to weapons, unlike in Frictional Game's other works such as Penumbra where you could either run form an enemy or fight it, the player must tatically avoid monsters or use their wits to evade and hide. The monsters move very quickly when alerted, and will relentless chase the player when they are in sight. When they can no longer see the player the monster will search for them for a short period of time before giving up. Interestingly enough, there are some points in the game where the monsters are needed to advance as they can tear down the obstacles in their way.

The Penumbra series on the other hand has a number of differences. Much like Amnesia, the game is a first person survival horror but can also blends in the first person shooter genre. Stealth is key in this game as the AI react to both light and sound. The player can defend themselves in the game using improvised weapons such as hammers or pickaxes or by throwing objects at the creatures. The key to survival however is avoidance and the game is designed to emphasize stealth. For example, the player can close doors behind them to hold off enemies.

The main focus is that of classic adventure game object interaction. To progress you must collect and examine items to help you solve puzzles. In addtition, Penumbra also offers several physics based puzzles where several pbjects must be moved in real time. Like Amnesia, doors, drawers, switches and other environmental objects must be opened using realistic movments and to complete certain puzzles or to get out of an area the player must use certain objects in a specific way. For example; in Amnesia there is an unseens hostile in the water, the player must place boxes in the water in order to create stepping stones to cross safetly. In Penumbra the player must stack boxes up in order to get over obstacles such as an electric fence.

Initial Research - Haunting Ground

I noted that in Fred you were unable to fight back against hostiles and were forced to avoid the ghosts and other enemies by jumping over them or finding a way round them. I like the idea of forcing the player to think strategically about escaping their enemies.

The survival horror game Haunting Ground uses this form of gameplay very well. Fiona, the plyaer character, is trapped in a large castle and must explore it and its grounds to find a means of escape. Accompanied only by the dog Hewie, Fiona must solve puzzles, explore the castle and avoid persuers in order to try and escape the castle.

During the course of the game the castles inhabitants will begin to chase and attack Fiona on sight. The four characters that make up the castle staff will chase her one at a time as the story progresses. The player must defeat each one in a boss battle before the next 'stalker' is introduced.

The only means of defense against the stalkers is Hewie who can distract them and bite them after enough damage is inflicted on them they will be incapacitated for a short period of time, allowing the player to get as far away from them as possible. It is also possible for Fiona to kick enemies and can create alchemic weapons to stun or simply slow them down.

Despite being given the option to do so, directly attacking the stalkers are not advised as they can easily over power Fiona and Hewiw isn't always reliable even if you have treated him well (you can train him to obey your commands). The only sure fire way to get enemies and stalkers to leave you alone is to run away from them and hide. Hide spots are found everywhere though out the castle. The player can hide under beds, behind curtains and doors and even in warderobes.

The player must carefully scout around the area for possible hiding places and escape routes and train Hewie to obey your commands so that he can quickly attack hostiles to slow them down, allowing the player to escape without too much danger of a game over.

The game shares many similarities with Capcoms other game Clock Tower 3, as the player must flee and hide from the 'Subordinates' instead of directly engaging them.

Initial Research - Ico

This is an action-adventure game developed by team Ico. The team wanted to create a minimilist game based on the 'boy meets girl' concept. The team approached the game with a 'subtracting design' approach to reduce elements of gameplay that subtracted from the setting and story so that the game is immersive as possible.

Though the game is really just an escourt quest, the begining of the game has the tititular character being left completely alone in a crumbling castle. And even when the player has found the girl Yorda, the fact that it is just the two of them alone in the ruins of the castle has a sort of lonely and melancholy feel to it.

The game includes many elements of platform games. The player must climb and jump over objects as well as push and pull objects. These elements are integrel to puzzle solving to progress through the castle and ultimately escape. In Yorda's case, the player must use Ico to help her cross gaps and climb over obstacles .

The main goal of the game is to escape the castle by solving puzzles and escaping monsters. The player cannont be harmed by the monsters, it is difficult to defeat them with the simple weapons the player has.

Though the player has the company of Yorda, there is still a sense of loneliness as the Yorda is a computer controlled character and speaks in a language that the player cannot understand, forming a sort of barrier between her and the player.

Along side the themes of exploration and loneliness; Team Ico's prequel game Shadow of the Colossus explores these themes more throughly. The main character is completely alone in his quest to revive his lost love, his only form of companion being his horse.

The player has free reign of 'The Forbidden Lands'. A large sprawling landscape feeled with diverse geological features including plateaus, canyons deserts and caves, all of which are completely devoid of wildlife. The only help the player has in the game is from a disembodied voice called Dormin who provides minimal advice.

Intial Thoughts

"You have entered into a vast and dark mysterious tomb. You find yourself right at the lowest level of the tomb and must endeavour to find your way through the maze to the top encountering may hostile beings who are out to get you. Be brave and fearless as you climb your way through the numerous levels but BEWARE.....

Your strength will fade as you are confronted with monsters, acid drops, mummies, rats, skeletons, ghosts and vampires.

Being the intrepid Roland, you are able to jump over the rats to escape them and to defend yourself you can shoot at the mummies, skeletons or vampires, inevitably killing them. But shooting the ghosts merely frightens them away and there is no escape from them" 

Taken from http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Roland_on_the_Ropes

When I first tried playing Fred I found it very difficult to like. Though the game may have been popular when it came out I don't see why. The sound effects are annoying, the gameplay is repetitive and the interface is not very helpful. The enemies are very hard to dodge, all in all the game seems very difficult.

However, from this game I derived several themes. First of all the theme of escape. The player must leade the character to an exit through a maze like level by climbing up ropes and jumping from platform to platform. Also, the player must try to avoid hostiles instead of fighting them, The player must either jump over them or find a way around them, while trying to out run the ghosts that roam the maze. So I derived the theme of stealth from that. The setting of the game is set in an ancient tomb so mythology and ancient history can be seen as themes. I have decided to research some games that use these elements.