Grimm Dreams
My game will be a 3rd person exploration adventure game in which the player
must navigate their way through a maze of different rooms, whist trying to stay
ahead of the enemy who is constantly behind them. There will be puzzle elements
in each room that the player must overcome to progress through the game.
Research
To better explain what my game is going to
be like I have decided to review the game that inspired its design,
Amnesia the Dark Decent. I will look
into the mechanics that made it so successful.
Amnesia is a 1st person
exploration survival horror. You play as Daniel who awakens in the darkened
halls of a castle with no memories of who he is. The player has to explore the
vast environment to find clues as to why they are there. It’s not as easy as
that though; the environment is a dark and creepy place with a creature roaming
around that cannot be defeated, only avoided.
The more time the player spends in pitch blackness the more insane they
become thus making them more vulnerable. They have to collect tinder boxes and
oil for their lamp as they progress to help keep their sanity bar down. Physic
based puzzles block the path forcing the player to explore the level for a
solution, the catch to this though is that they are more likely to encounter
the monster as they explore.
I really enjoyed playing this game, the atmosphere it created really pulled
you into the game and the gameplay experience. I found myself immersed in the
game very quickly, the creepy atmosphere alongside the games mechanics kept the
tension high as I was playing, affecting the way I played the game. In
Grimm Dreams I hope to create a similar
tension filled atmosphere so that the player becomes engrossed quickly in the
game. I want
Grimm Dreams to have an
abstract but haunting aesthetic feel rather than
Amnesia’s dark dingy and disturbing feel.
Story
The games story is loosely inspired by the well known fairy tale little red
riding hood.
Play as red, who finds herself in a
mysterious manor house. She has no idea why she is there but it soon becomes
clear she is not alone. A demonic wolf soon appears and it seems he is after
one thing: her life. She must navigate her way through the maze of rooms
solving riddles to escape the house and ultimately the wolf.
Objectives
Main objectives – avoid the wolf, escapes
the manor house.
1)
The player starts here. They encounter the wolf and
escape via the unlocked door
2)
The player encounters their first chess based puzzle
that they must solve it to unlock the next door
3)
The player discovers a riddle, the solution is in room
6 (point 4).
4)
The player finds a switch which they pull to unlock
door 5.
5)
The player
encounters a riddle ‘The Key to freedom always lies in the heart’. The answer
is located in the chest of a torn open teddy bear.
6)
The player encounters their second chess based puzzle,
once completed the door behind them swings open as the wolf bursts through and
they must run to the next door.
7)
Once in
library the player must find and collect 3 fairy tale books; three little pigs, the wolf and the seven
young kids and finally little red
riding hood. They will be provided clues to where the books are located
within the library.
8)
The player must place the books into the allotted
square engraved into the door. Once this is done they escape the building.
Mechanics
The core mechanics that are used throughout the game are:
·
It will be possible for the player to run
·
It will be possible for the player to interact
with objects within the environment
·
It will be possible for the player to open/close
unlocked doors
·
It will be possible for the player to hide.
·
If the player is caught by the wolf they will
die instantly
In
the first section of the game that I will refer to as ‘
Hallway’, the player will experience the constant pressure to move
forward. This is because in this section of the game they will be confronted
more by the enemy (
The Wolf). The
atmosphere created will make the player feel pressured to move forward to avoid
The Wolf as I will use sounds to give
the illusion that the wolf is right behind them. I want the player to become
fully immersed in the game almost instantly, and adding this pressure on them
will achieve that as they will have to be alert.
Hallway will have a haunting but abstract feel as the player
progresses through this environment. I indent for this atmosphere to continue
throughout the entirety of the game.
In
the second section of the game or ‘
Library’
the pressure will ease off the player as the illusion of
The Wolf being right behind them will stop. The aim of this change
of pace is not only to keep the player interested, but also to increase tension
and excitement thus improving player experience. The environment changes from interior to exterior
back to interior, this is so that the game doesn’t become too repetitive and
boring to the player. The change in environment also suits the pace change
within the game as it allows ‘
cheap
shocks’ to be achieved more effectively as the tension is higher.
