XB2001 - Open Game Design Brief

The brief for this week's task was very open indeed: to create a game that would have a playable prototype within 2 weeks.

Initially we were going for a racing game using the Unreal Engine whereby the players must traverse different course that were laid out in 2 stacks of 3 or 4, whereby players would decide through pits to get to the next track. The first vehicle to reach the bottom and defeat the others in a deathmatch style setup, won.

However this concept did not last very long, most importantly, because we didn't really know how to create a competent game together using Unreal, even whilst using in-game content such as vehicles or textures.

Therein we quickly scrapped that idea and brainstormed until we came up with the a rather intriguing idea whereby players were locked in prison and were sent after each other in a very cat and mouse style game whereby players where awarded for achieving discrete kills by using weapons found within the same area as the kill and avoiding security cameras.

The game mechanics were as follows:

• There would be a set number of players playing as convicts and one player playing as the warden. This player would guard the more powerful loot as well as act as a moderator, whose duties would include sorting out who's after who and the dice rolling for picking up weapons and items.

•  Players roll at the start of each round to determine who goes first in that round.

•  Players must stay within a specific area for a whole turn in order to be able to pick up an item or a weapon from that area.

• After 5 turns of the game the dinner bell is rang and all convicts are summoned to the dining hall, where they may try to get the chance to kill one another.

• After a convict kills another convict, all players' targets and hunters are reshuffled, additionally, if a player kills another player within sight of a security camera, said player must then wait 3 turns in the cell before he may continue play.

We had a couple of games whilst playing it on the computer screen on Photoshop and just moving each convict around and it was great fun, and so funny, it made me reminisce about old split-screen days of gaming. However I do feel that the game is far from completion and does seriously need to be evened out here and there to make the game easier and more fair for players.