Game sheets

Here are the images of the game board and it tiles ready to cut out and 'play' with.  I say 'play' because the rules really aren't defined enough for a board game as real time is hard to use as a mechanic in board game.  I suggest using rounds with pieces being able to move three squares along a road per round, or preform an action such as loading logs, cutting them down or planting them.  Trees take three rounds to mature, probably want to make this longer, increase difficulty, but three rounds is easier to remember when playing.

Asthetics

The aesthetics of the game I feel should be very bright and have interesting,but simple animation of the labor force at work.  This means the more teams on the grid the busier it looks.  I feel this will give the player the feeling that they are actually commanding a working force rather than emotionless units.

The Idea

The idea of the game I have proposed is a real time strategy game which requires the player to run a logging and wood processing company to complete orders from Big Co., a fictional company which orders the players product and gives them a time limit to complete the order in.  If the order is not completed in time the player will not get payed.  Run out of money and the players company goes bankrupt.

To begin the game the player starts with an office/depo and a sawmill.

From the office the logging team leaves each day to cut down trees.  They travel quickly along the road to their destination and begin their job.  For every day a team works they have to be payed,  to increase productivity more team would have to be hired so more tress could be cut down.

After a period of time the loggers will finish a block and move on to the next.  Loggers can only move 2 squares away from a road tile as if they move any further they cannot get help in an emergency.  While I have not planned to add a case where there is an emergency the rule is there to limit and challenge the player.

After the player has gone through learning how to use the loggers the player will receive an order from Big Co.  The order will give the number of wood units wanted, price for completion and the time the order has to be done by in order to earn money.

 In order to complete the order the player must move the cut logs from the logging site to the wood mill to be processed and sent which requires logging trucks.  Logging truck are sent out from the office and can only travel on roads.  They are able to carry a certain number of logs per trip(in my example I made it three) before they have to drop off their load.  They can only pick up logs from squares adjacent to the road, diagonal included.  After the truck has dropped of it load it can return to the office or go out and collect more logs.

In order to collect wood from further locations roads must be built so the logging trucks can collect cut logs. The cost is that road take up space which could be used to grow more trees, but allow access to more trees to log.

In order to make the company sustainable tress must be replanted in order to have a future harvest after all the original trees have been cut down.  I am not sure whether to have a separate team that replants trees or use the loggers, but either way you will have to pay them in order to replant, which would cost about the same as paying a logging team to log.  The choice is then whether to spend money on logging more trees and earning money or planting them so you will be able to continue making money.

I believe that by trying to run this company that the player will learn how important it is to manage our natural 

resources so that they don't run out and possible how big companies can be pressured into making bad decisions in order to make money faster.

The mechanics of the game will be:

-Time based goals: the player will have to complete orders to make money and stay in the game.

-Play till you're dead: the player can continue to play the game until the point at which they run out of money and 'die'.

-Increasing difficulty: the game will get increasingly harder as orders become larger and require less time per unit to complete.  This of course means the player has to spend more money on logging teams an trucks in order to complete orders in time and make a profit.

-Day/Night cycle: during the day the workers work but at night they go home and rest.  The game will give a overview of the day when night arrives and then skip to dawn.  The player must realize that the further away a starting site is the longer it take the loggers before they start work, also the further away a end site the sooner they must end work in order to return home in time for dinner.

Things I have considered adding are upgrades for logging teams, trucks and roads which make the process of outputting units of wood quicker, such as upgrading from gravel road to asphalt to allow trucks to travel faster, although I am not sure how this would affect the game play I have in mind and won't make it a certainty until I do.

Conepts

Most of my concepts did not make it to paper as I did not really like them, mostly because they were basically re textured arcade game that really did not any point across.  The two that did were a logging simulator to express the message that what you take must be returned, and a vegetable growing simulator to show the player how to grow veges while educating them on the benefits of doing so.  Of the two I felt that the logging simulator was able to show it message through the game play more effectively rather than having to add vast amounts of writing.

I was biased towards this idea at the start which is why did more about it, but I really believe it was better than any other idea I came up with.

MDDN243 Assignment 1 Final post

I have been told I don't have to put up the flash version of the game so I haven't but instead here is a gif of the run sequence.  

Continuing from my last post the road spirit looks up to the river spirit in reverence and awe of its power and respect, not so secretly wanting to be able to gain if not surpass the river spirit in power and respect of man. The only way this can be done is up to us, by keeping our roads clean and respecting them as we do rivers for the way they help us in our every day lives, but also the danger that they pose, is it possible for the road spirit to gain power.  

P.S.  The road spirit is supposed to be the size of a car, it is designed as a small taniwha, which is still large.

MDDN 243 Assignment1 hand-in

Here is the three perspective views of my character that I designed.

He is a spirit of the road.  The idea is that it is kind of like a man made taniwha.  After looking up the different types of taniwha I found that the river taniwha, described as a whale sized tuatara or gecko was the most appropriate, as like a river the road is long and winding and provides transport.  At first I thought of making it tuatara looking, but when Ben gave me the idea of contrasting a spirit of the road with one of the river,  I decided to make it look like a gecko as the river spirit would be a tuatara.  I believed this showed how much more powerful the river spirit is compared to the road spirit as the tuatara is a much more dominating image than the gecko.  In the end I think this was a turn for the best as the gecko looks a lot leaner and faster than a tuatara would have, which I believe shows the in which the road is used for transport compared to the river.  Speaking of here is the sketch for the river spirit and some planing on drawing its face from earlier last week.
 
 

The river spirit looks more like a natural tuatara than the road spirit as the river is a natural thing, the road spirit on the other hand has reflectors and road stripes on it to show its man made nature.  

The point of this is to show that man has more respect for the river than the road in terms of environmental awareness.  While the road may not be a very environmentally friendly thing it self it is still part of the environment we live in and deserves the respect that rivers do, ie. not using the roadside to dump rubbish or throwing rubbish out of windows.  While this stuff does happen on rivers it is more likely to happen on the road.  Man has this belief that because is is man made it is more resilient than say the river, but our modern roads are still young, which is why the road spirit is so small while the river spirit is so large.   I will explain further when I post the rest of the hand in later.

Road Spirit

The road spirit is done just need to add in the environment and finish my final sketch on the river spirit.  I still working out how to use illustrator but I think the road spirit turned out fine.

CCDN231 Assignment hand-in1

A grating squeak, like rusted gears struggling to move, sounds as I turn the tap handle.  The low, squealing, bubbling of the water as it escapes the pipes mixes with the gurgling of it flowing into the kettle.  The kettle clacks into place in its holder and  I flick the switch on with a snap.  The kettle quickly erupts into loud churning noises that persists for a few minutes, til calming to a soft gurgle.  A click sounds notifying me that the water has boiled.  The water flows into the cup with a rising ripple.  The spoon scrape and clicks around the cup and with a final ding the tea is done.

 

The slippery soap film is lathered onto my face.  The frigid water washes over my face making the soap foamy, contrasting sharply with the cactus like bristles.  The rubber grip of the razor feels like dough molded around a metal rod.  As I draw the razor across my cheek it tugs at the hairs like little men pulling out weeds.  A slip of the hand makes a minute cut that stings more than it should, reminding me of a paper cut.  I finish and the arctic water crashes against my face, as I rub the remaining soap off my face.  No longer does it feel like a cactus, but now  frictionless and raw, exposed to the elements once more.

 

Finger tips brush across the surface of the table.  The surface which seemed smooth to the eye, is bumpy.  The void space between the thumb and fingers tells me that the pen is not within my grasp.  As they close the touch of a luke warm cylinder informs my brain that I have the plastic tool at hand.  The shaft feels greasy from the times it has been used before.  The distribution of weight towards one end tells me which way it needs to be orientated.  Adjusting my grip, quickly my thumb and forefinger work their way down the towards the ribbed and tapered end, poised for work.