The project will be overambitious from the start, but the plan is to layer it as such focus are on higher priority features before moving onto additional ones (and mark out which ones that are dependent on each others).
Around midway through (9 months from now), it's intended to be feature complete, and any additional features will be cut, leaving the game to be built upon the features that had the time to get implemented.
First intended feature will be about player control, simulating the move and feel from Mirror's Edge. This is so that if everything else fails, we have something to fall back on, that can still be enjoyable in levels without any other characters or gameplay other than the platforming.
Of course, it's intended to expand beyond that (did I mention it was supposed to be overambitious?), and I'll get back with the initial high concept hopefully soon, which is hopefully the end of this week, or sometime two weeks from now.
My working schedule is setup so I get to spend a week with my normal job at Starbreeze, and the other week I'll spend completely on this project. One week at Starbreeze, one week with the project, and then the cycle goes on like that.
There's certain challenges made for the project, partly for something to base my bachelor thesis on, and partly experimental to try out some of my insistent ways of designing games. Either to see for myself that they didn't work out in practice, were too hard to implement, or they would make for a kickass experience!
The challenges are basically to completely base the game on immersion, gameplay/interactivity, and skill.
Immersion; completely in first-person perspective, with no camera changes nor any graphical user interface. Any information that's needed to be conveyed should be part of the game world and lore. Example, Demon's Souls and Planescape Torment (two big inspirations for the project) base the player's death as part of the world's fiction, giving meaning and sense to it, rather than fade the screen to black and reload the latest checkpoint.
Gameplay/interactivity; The player will always be the one in control of the game, and his ability to control the character should never be impeded or taken away from him, if it doesn't make sense in the game context (broken legs might slow you down, and being tied up might not make it as easy to move around).
The player is intended to perform the gameplay actions himself, using the same controls as in every other context of the game. No button mashing a single button or quick-time events which 'rewards' the player with a 20-hit combo while he becomes unable to do anything else other than watch.
Skill; I'll describe this better at some later time, but for now, it's mostly about reducing or removing the random occurrences in the game that surrounds the player's abilities. The intention is to let focused players that pays attention to be able to complete the game without a single loss of health, even though we wish this to become unlikely and feel challenging, it should be theoretically possible without the notion of 'luck'.
There'll probably be more 'challenges' connected to the developing of this game, and I will get back to elaborate further or revamp these topics at an later time. Only a short segment of the game is intended for the final date, which is supposed to be polished, showcase the gameplay features and act as an proof of concept. The vertical slice of the game, or a demo version of it.
Since I have underestimated the administrative aspect of the project, I unfortunately haven't completed an high concept to pitch to the team (you guys!) yet, but as mentioned, it's intended to be completed later this week, or sometime in two weeks.
Some things we can make clear for now anyhow. The game will be an first-person action/adventure (not shooter), built with the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), and focus on gameplay rather than esthetics.
How ironic then, that one of the first milestones will be to make an visual target, that have an very isolated part of the level to showcase the style, and graphical direction. Also to prove if the intended direction is possible. Otherwise, the first half of the game project is intended to be built mostly with white boxes.
The other priority other than the visual target, is to simulate the Mirror's Edge move and feel as soon as possible so we can detect any obstacles early, and since it's currently a critical part of the project. There's an Unreal package files exporter (Unreal Model Viewer) available, that can unpack the files and animations from Mirror's Edge, and we could then use those as placeholders.
We need to look into this as soon as possible as well, since it might be that the file headers are slightly different as opposed to the supported format for UDK, and we might need to be able to edit them into a workable state, and figure out a way to convert them. Perhaps motion builder, or an 3D application is able to open them and then re-export them?
Anyhow, as the project starts to come into motion, please use this blog as often as possible to post updates on your current workings. Even if it's small and insignificant things, seeing people active is good for the motivation.
Also, please post comments with feedback and thoughts about the topics aswell. For example, does my ranting above seem as an plausible idea? Will the environment references work?
Well, the clock is 08:14 in the morning now (my week off from the office for working on this project), and I've just ranted to give an brief introduction to things, and don't take any of these things mentioned as set into stone.
Oh, currently the people for the project is me (Tobias 'Dopefish' Lundmark), Erik Ellis (coder, and our web solution guru), Firtina Ozbalikci (also coder), and we'll get some additional help from Teddy Bergsman Lind who got great solutions for automating texture creation and facial scanning, and is overall good at everything.
In time there'll be more people joining into the project as it progresses, and I'll start looking into help for the visual target, and probably an concept artist that can create something coherent from the environmental references.
As soon as I've gotten my laptop and had the chance to brief through the UDK video tutorials, I'll set up a workshop for me, Ellis and if possible any additional team members, where we'll visit Unreal editing veteran Sjoerd "Hourences" De Jong.
Oh, and while I'm at it, I'll have to check with the office if we'll be able to use their small motion capture studio, and we have another bigger motion capture studio to our leisure at the University of Gotland. The downside with that one, is that we'll have to travel quite a distance to get to it, while if we can use the one in our office, we'll be able to quickly get any additional mocap recorded.
Well, end rant for now. You guys have my email, and phone number, so if there's any questions at this time, I'll be heading to bed now ;)
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