Friday, January 31, 2014
Top 25 Video Game Robots
I was doing some research on robots in video games and on music/sounds
for our game when I came across this site. There are some good ideas
here that we may be able to use.
http://www.complex.com/video-games/2012/07/the-25-coolest-robots-in-video-games/
Physical System
Hello all,
- Takes a user generated height and weight and sets three stats: Strength, Agility, Endurance.
- Although user generated values could be fun, these could start with default values as well
- Higher height and weight values will correlate to higher strength values, lower values will correlate to higher agility values. This allows for a degree of initial customization to suit particular play styles. It would be ideal if the player character’s size could be scaled based on these values, but this is not a necessity. Instead of utilizing a traditional level system, characters would improve gradually through the use of skills, more like a person does through training.
- For most of the ideas described so far, Size and Weight will be more variable and have more literal implications: heavier characters will be more affected by gravity, smaller characters will be able to go to places bigger ones wont, etc.
- Total strength is measured in kg, and could possibly be divided into arm/leg strength if more complexity is needed. Strength measures ability to move objects, carry weight, deal melee damage, and absorb ranged weapon recoil. As players take actions that require strength, their strength increases gradually at a rate with diminishing returns.
- Games set in space will allow these numbers to get satisfyingly large because gravity will act essentially as a strength multiplier.
- Total agility is a measurement of speed, probably in km/h. This could also possibly be divided into hand/foot agility if that layer of complexity is needed. Agility measures movement speed, movement abilities(like jumping or stealthing), weapon accuracy, and reloading speed. As players take actions that require agility, their agility increases gradually at a rate with diminishing returns.
- Space helps strength, but probably diminishes agility somewhat (for gameplay balance anyway) creating scenarios where the interaction between these stats is more varied could be interesting, in places where your ability to move is better than your ability to move things players will have to use different strategies than in the opposite case.
- Endurance would describe the pulse and pressure of an EKG; characters have a standing pulse and pressure which increases when they take action, up to a threshold, and it would decrease when the character is bleeding. These changes simulate the effects of blood loss and adrenaline rush. The standing values are determined at start based on height and weight, the min and max thresholds are based on the character’s base strength and agility. This means that endurance cannot be manipulated directly, only by improving other stats.
- In Venkatesh's post, I described how oxygen intake could interact with the EKG, with its pulse and pressure levels equating to a variable rate of oxygen consumption. In the "nuts and bolts" idea, however, the EKG doesn't make much sense if the player character is a robot.
I removed my descriptions for the dialogue system. Dialogue systems usually have a "tacked on" effect to most other types of games; I don't think it interested anyone enough to want to focus our design around it (completely understandable) so adding it to the ideas we have already would more than likely detract from them. However, these physical systems are going to play some sort of role in anything that we design, and I think this model is both relatable and original. Let me know what you guys think.
This post
is intended to describe the physical/health system that I think would be
applicable to some degree in just about every idea we have proposed so
far. I emailed everyone a document with this info in it, but I felt
that having it here would be more useful. Games
have a general tendency to use flat numbers to measure physical statistics like
health and damage. My thought is that
character design would be more fun if it was measured more like how we measure
these stats in the real world. I’m
hoping this system will be intuitive, allowing a satisfying degree of
customization without a need for menu management.
The system as I conceive of it so far- Takes a user generated height and weight and sets three stats: Strength, Agility, Endurance.
- Although user generated values could be fun, these could start with default values as well
- Higher height and weight values will correlate to higher strength values, lower values will correlate to higher agility values. This allows for a degree of initial customization to suit particular play styles. It would be ideal if the player character’s size could be scaled based on these values, but this is not a necessity. Instead of utilizing a traditional level system, characters would improve gradually through the use of skills, more like a person does through training.
- For most of the ideas described so far, Size and Weight will be more variable and have more literal implications: heavier characters will be more affected by gravity, smaller characters will be able to go to places bigger ones wont, etc.
- Total strength is measured in kg, and could possibly be divided into arm/leg strength if more complexity is needed. Strength measures ability to move objects, carry weight, deal melee damage, and absorb ranged weapon recoil. As players take actions that require strength, their strength increases gradually at a rate with diminishing returns.
- Games set in space will allow these numbers to get satisfyingly large because gravity will act essentially as a strength multiplier.
- Total agility is a measurement of speed, probably in km/h. This could also possibly be divided into hand/foot agility if that layer of complexity is needed. Agility measures movement speed, movement abilities(like jumping or stealthing), weapon accuracy, and reloading speed. As players take actions that require agility, their agility increases gradually at a rate with diminishing returns.
- Space helps strength, but probably diminishes agility somewhat (for gameplay balance anyway) creating scenarios where the interaction between these stats is more varied could be interesting, in places where your ability to move is better than your ability to move things players will have to use different strategies than in the opposite case.
- Endurance would describe the pulse and pressure of an EKG; characters have a standing pulse and pressure which increases when they take action, up to a threshold, and it would decrease when the character is bleeding. These changes simulate the effects of blood loss and adrenaline rush. The standing values are determined at start based on height and weight, the min and max thresholds are based on the character’s base strength and agility. This means that endurance cannot be manipulated directly, only by improving other stats.
- In Venkatesh's post, I described how oxygen intake could interact with the EKG, with its pulse and pressure levels equating to a variable rate of oxygen consumption. In the "nuts and bolts" idea, however, the EKG doesn't make much sense if the player character is a robot.
I removed my descriptions for the dialogue system. Dialogue systems usually have a "tacked on" effect to most other types of games; I don't think it interested anyone enough to want to focus our design around it (completely understandable) so adding it to the ideas we have already would more than likely detract from them. However, these physical systems are going to play some sort of role in anything that we design, and I think this model is both relatable and original. Let me know what you guys think.
Space Ride
Game Type: Third person shooter
Far
in the future, when astronauts exploring the space, ship crashes on to a
planet. Everyone in the ship is dead except for you. You're exploring
the planet which has gravity much more less than the earth. So the
player semi-floats/flies with the help of thrusters located on the
different sides of suit. Player has to control the thrust in order to
move in different directions. Player finds the aliens who are hostile.
In order to get back to earth, player has to make his way by killing
aliens.
Gameplay: We could design the
mechanics around movements by making hard to move or we could make
action based on killing aliens and dodging them through controlling
thrusters. Basically we have many possibilities to build this game like
puzzle or action. The core mechanics being the movement in the space. We
can have many weapons since its set in the future. Another feature
being oxygen instead of health. We could place oxygen bags around the
map. Player has to prioritize either attacking the enemies or getting to
oxygen bags before oxygen in suit runs out. About the art, we could make art as cartoonish theme or a normal one.
If you're looking for prototype, check out this gameplay. Instead of space in the video, the game is set on the planet around that kind of movement.
Nuts and Bolts
Nuts and
Bolts Target
Audience: 15+
Xbox Arcade/PlayStation 4 Rating: E
Game Summary: The human race has out grown earth and has now started sending out space exploration droids to find planets in far galaxies. Scrapes was one such robot that was tasked with this mission but not all went according to plan. The unexpected electromagnetism of the planet’s atmosphere caused Scrapes and his ship to explode before landing. Scrapes seems to be alright but he is just a head. He must now traverse the strange new world and gather his missing pieces to complete his mission but he might find out that the atmosphere may have changed him as well.
Game Outline: The player will control Scrapes at different stages of his completion as they collect his body parts. The puzzle based side scroller uses the idea that the robot can shift into different shapes to suit certain needs. Circle is when he is just a head and this way he can reach small spaces and do fast leaps over longer gaps. The body will be found second allowing the player to transform into a square. While in square mode the robot will be denser allowing the pressing of certain buttons and can jump higher than before using that to smash weak objects. The arms are found third and can create a triangle. Arms allow the use of levers and while in triangle mode you can cut down tree walls and glide far distances. Finally Scrapes needs to find his legs and getting those will allow him to take the form of a hexagon. It is scrapes strongest form and can now smash through solid stone walls. The final level is to find his emergency jet pack and head home. The puzzles will start out easy and get more difficult. The player will be able to go back to earlier areas with new abilities to find bonuses, upgrades, or Easter eggs. As the player gathers more pieces they will find out they might not fit in an area without leaving a piece behind and coming back for it later.
Xbox Arcade/PlayStation 4 Rating: E
Game Summary: The human race has out grown earth and has now started sending out space exploration droids to find planets in far galaxies. Scrapes was one such robot that was tasked with this mission but not all went according to plan. The unexpected electromagnetism of the planet’s atmosphere caused Scrapes and his ship to explode before landing. Scrapes seems to be alright but he is just a head. He must now traverse the strange new world and gather his missing pieces to complete his mission but he might find out that the atmosphere may have changed him as well.
Game Outline: The player will control Scrapes at different stages of his completion as they collect his body parts. The puzzle based side scroller uses the idea that the robot can shift into different shapes to suit certain needs. Circle is when he is just a head and this way he can reach small spaces and do fast leaps over longer gaps. The body will be found second allowing the player to transform into a square. While in square mode the robot will be denser allowing the pressing of certain buttons and can jump higher than before using that to smash weak objects. The arms are found third and can create a triangle. Arms allow the use of levers and while in triangle mode you can cut down tree walls and glide far distances. Finally Scrapes needs to find his legs and getting those will allow him to take the form of a hexagon. It is scrapes strongest form and can now smash through solid stone walls. The final level is to find his emergency jet pack and head home. The puzzles will start out easy and get more difficult. The player will be able to go back to earlier areas with new abilities to find bonuses, upgrades, or Easter eggs. As the player gathers more pieces they will find out they might not fit in an area without leaving a piece behind and coming back for it later.
Rough sketch.....
A platformer game where the character for example finds or makes
path to complete the level. A grapple gun can be used to position
objects as soon in the image. Check attached image. Now the ingredient i
am looking for is scaling/resizing the objects to make path. This came
up from tetris, in which we change orientation. Instead lets scale
objects. So my main mechanism would be scaling around which we can build
a side scroller platformer with different levels. So it will also
deduce to solving puzzle as completing the level will have some kind of
problem/puzzle solving.
Its just a rough sketch to start
of. Grapple gun functionality can be viewed and understood from the
.jpg. The scaling or resizing will depend on fake 3D perspective which i
haven't dig into yet. That might require more thinking but i did saw
this in a game called scaling which you guys can youtube!!
Getting to know each other
A time well spent knowing and understanding each other yesterday. Now is the time to act and show some.
Lets
share our idea and help our designers come up with some funky idea for
the game design pitch to be delivered in class on Monday 20th.
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