This week had several design meetings to attend, all focused on building up some aspect of the game from the base we discussed last week. There was quite a bit to discuss surrounding time and space, though thankfully not the travel through it just yet. I am not sure our team is equipped to make a TARDIS, but after this week we at least know a thing or two about time management. Just not the kind you would expect.
Our first design meeting was Monday, and we set to work on establishing several core mechanics. We briefly discussed map design, expansion, and abilities. But in the end the conversation landed on our time progression system. A core aspect of the game, now titled "Fated Forest", was that over the course of the game you would have to start making hard decisions. While at first you would have time and resources for everyone in the village, you would eventually have to pick and choose what quests you completed for what townies. So, we wanted to set a time system that would reflect this. There was some debate about using a stamina system, natural time progression, and several other concepts. But what we landed on was a sort of hybrid system of my own creation. Time would progress when the player preformed certain actions. Gather wood? Time moves forward an hour. Go mining? Time moves forward 2 hours. With this system the player would both be able to take their time and plan things out, but they would also need to make decisions as to how they used this limited resource.
The second design meeting this week was framed around another aspect of time. Our story timeline. Having just been made the writing and design head, I had to run this particular meeting. With so much world history to build we decided create a base timeline for all of our must have moments in the story. We had established the day prior that we wanted to have 3 years, each with 3 seasons. Spring, Summer, and Fall. There were lore implications as to why Winter was absent. With this in mind, we built the timeline like a three act play. Year one was act one. Year two was act two. You get the idea. This helped us establish a good narrative thread to follow, while still allowing the player some freedom in gameplay.
The remaining two days were set aside to start work. Our level designers started on some mapping concepts, and I started on some location concepts with the artists. After a few slight edits, my templates from the week prior were approved and used in the location concepting on these days. Alongside this, I took some time to study the video game storytelling book Mr. Compton got for the class. It was interesting seeing some of the different methods used, and to look behind the curtain at all the little pieces that made up some of my favorite stories from games.
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