When this brief was launched and we got paired up in our groups, we had to pitch at least 2 game ideas from different genres. we just did the 2 as we had pretty solid ideas
Horror game
The first idea was a horror warehouse:
The player would be in a dark warehouse with just a torch and would have to search around the room for items which would allow them to escape.
But for the player to find these specific items they would have to turn their torch on, this is the disadvantage as the enemy's vision is blurred and relays on the light to find and hunt down the players.
the room would be dimly lit so you can still see the room but would need to torch to find the key items and certain areas.
players could run in small bursts
We did have a few ideas for this game, it started off with the player being in a singular room but it's full of clutter giving the player advantage of hiding, but the biggest disadvantage would be it would be diffuse/award to navigate around and locate the keys.
The Idea then went to it being in a warehouse-type of building, it would look like an Amazon-style of factory with shelving to hide under and climb over, again giving the advantage of hiding and it would also be easier to navigate around even though it would’ve been bigger environment.
the factory idea opened up more mechanics and expanded the ones we already have.
As the enemy/creature can only detect the player with light, the overhead lights would turn on randomly causing the player to have to turn them off, this would make the enemy aware of the player's location, meaning they will have to run to turn lights off and then either hide or run away.
however, the player does need to turn on their torch to be able to find the keys to escape and also staying in the dark for too long will cause the player's sanity to decrease.
Dodgeball game
The second game idea was a dodge ball style of game, but at the time of this brief I was playing FarCry 5 and took inspiration from the last boss fight, where you have to keep resurrecting your team members making it a ‘tug of war’ style, I thought that this would give our game a unique experience as I don’t know of any dodgeball style of game with that feature. At the beginning of this idea, we were thinking of having it be 5v5 and you hit the other players out and can bring them back into the game by catching the ball, very similar to real-life dodgeball.
After playing around with this idea we thought that this couldn’t be as thrilling or fast-paced a game as we wanted. We then thought to go down to it just being a 1v1 split screen game, but still trying to figure out what was to make it unique.
Then the thought of the game having a barrier in the middle move when the player dies, it would move into the losing opponent's side giving them less play space.
we did still want to keep some of the real-life dodgeball rules in the game giving new gamers and players some base knowledge on how the game might work.
such as having to gut all or most of the other team members out to win, but we would have it on a timer so it is an intense/fast-paced gameplay experience.
we would also have power-ups spawning either at the barrier or around the playspace, making the players run out to collect them, this would make them an easier target, but if successful will give them an advantage.
The players will move at a set speed but will be able to dash sideways to dodge the ball however this will be on a cooldown. This would either be some sort of quick-time event or will just be something they can do any time but just on a cooldown.
We also thought about making the ball some sort of 'hot potato', as in as the ball travels over a far distance it loses damage. We thought of this so the players don't camp out on the map, this makes the players move towards the opponent. This mechanic would give the players a chance of a 'one-hit' kill.
The theme would change each level, which will affect the gameplay each time.
The art style chosen is stylised.