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GAME DESIGN IV
( NO AI WAS USED IN THE WRITING OF THIS PAPER )
WEEK 1 WEEK 1
2026!! We now have a full year to work on a single game as our capstone. I am over the moon about this. the previous projects felt like they ended right before I could begin to flesh out and polish. I would like to develop all basic systems required for my gameplay loop, and to develop a solid understanding of my aesthetic direction before the end of the first semester. This is a big task for 6 weeks so I must work efficiently and exploritively to make the most of my time.
This week I will plan out the systems of my game and go over an exciting opportunity I recieved.
I feel a great deal frustration over the fact that I cannot even scratch the surface in capturing my thoughts, experiments, conversations, and research to their entirety through this rigid form of communication.
All I can do is provide an overview of what I have explored, what I have created throughout each week, and why I have done so.
But you must know that this is not where my art ends...
It is with me as soon as I wake up, it follows me to the kitchen when I eat breakfast, It is especially present when I shower and as im drifting to sleep. Though I am unable to show you this through documentation or a screen at all for that matter, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.
An entire visual diary of notes
This is my planning for all aspects of my game (graphical intentions, systems design, gimmics/hook, environmental concept art, balancing, UI design, ETC..) done over the first 6 weeks. It makes more sense for me to arrange notes like this in a single place, spacially.
I have been given an incredible opportunity! Someone from Studio230 in Ponsonby has asked if I would like to exhibit my game in their very unique space... https://www.studio230.nz/
The space is an enormous empty room with ramps that blend the floor and walls together. This creates an effect which makes the corners of the space almost unperceivable, resulting in a dreamscape-like illusion. With only a single projector calibrated to wrap the room in any visuals/sound that can be displayed on a computer. These people have successfully catalysed an urban sandbox for play, representation, and creative exploration.
Throughout the year as I create my capstone game, the plan is to design an interaction system that can be utilised in this space. There are many ways to do this through things like motion tracking, wired controllers, or a paired phone app.
If I do manage to create this, I will port “Newer Zealand” to the new interaction system upon completion, Allowing me to exhibit it in a more contemporary context which is exactly my goal going forward in my career.
I understand it may appear huge in scope, but there is no external pressure forcing me to make this work. This can be used as a way to break free and experiment within the project.
QUESTIONS IN CLASS
Q - What area of Game Design or Development are you most interested in joining?
A - My dream is to be an independent game dev or someone who has a strong role in the creative design process for larger projects. What that looks like for me? I dont know. I don’t see it in black and white. It is very possible I won’t be a Toby Fox, Scott cawthon, Edmund McMillen, type developer. But instead someone who is working in a more contemporary space. All I know is that I love the world, I love technology, I love things that are new and boundary breaking, and that I would love to continue playing through the act of creation until the day I die. What ultimately decides my career is the group of people who are willing to observe what I have to share.
Q - Do you want to go Indie? or would you be happier working in a larger team?
A - Absolutely Indie, Ideally starting by myself and eventually expanding into a very small team. 4 holy Children of universe. We will share a similar vision and goal. We will see the act of creation through the same lens. the 4 horsemen of the slopocolapse. A gifted programmer, a gifted Audio technician, and someone else who is like me.
Q - What skills would you like to improve, learn, or refine this year?
A - I want to make the first steps towards entering a more conceptual space within game development, Bridging the gap between physical and digital.
I want to improve my 3D asset creation skills, scaling up from a PS1 style to something closer to a PS2 style. Cleaner UV wraps, Higher Quality Textures, poly count dur to more detailed extrusions of meshes. Not in normal map or occlusion map territory yet, but one step before it.
Q - Is there any software or pipelines you want to get better at or learn?
A - I want to continue improving the animation pipeline I developed last semester by creating 2D NPC’s from single images found on google earth. I do this using the photoshop timeline, and perspective warping/ cutting and flipping limbs of iconic annonyimised archetypes to create animations which i believe hold an innocent quality and serve as expressive observation.
WEEK 2 WEEK 2
I will solidify exactly what I intend to explore primarily during the project, as well as further researching the games that inspire my project.
EXPLORATION
What I will be primarily exploring through this project is the space between reality and digital simulation by creating assets and eventually full environments based on real world locations and objects using Augmented Reality (Xreal One Pro). I am also using digital simulation as a way to express my individuality, and the way that I see the world, which I believe will be a common theme in influential art over the coming decade due to the advancements of creative technology. Obviously this project isn’t designed to be a commercial success. It is using almost entirely copyrighted imagery. Though it is a lengthy process to prepare it for the game engine. I am far more interested in exploring this medium in a contemporary or boundary breaking way.
RESEARCH OF OTHER GAMES
Stick rpg
Growing up in the early 2000s, this game and its sequel strangely changed my life and my taste in interactive media going forward. It somehow managed to hold a gameplay loop that mimicked the american dream, or the capitalist wasteland that is the west. I would spend hours simulating a life in this tiny stick town purely because it felt like it was ME. and I had all the freedom I could ask for within this world.
It miraculously achieved this through simulated jobs, gambling, stat increases, home buying, drug dealing, and energy management! If anything is the blueprint of my game, it is this.
Something that feels magic about this inspiration is that the creator Skye Boyes ALSO designed this in his 3rd year of university, It was his first game that people truly enjoyed, and this was 23 years ago, which is my age. These type of coincdences are beautiful to me, it feels like the stars have alligned, and in someway I can continue his legacy through adpating this extremely niche genre in a modern way.
Half life 2
I will be attempting to recreate the intuitive manipulation of physics objects in source games like Half life 2, or garrys mod. Im doing this because my last game of the same theme Tamaki Time Loop had a notable lack of interaction with the world. While watching the half life 2 developer commentary they mentioned this same issue and their way to combat it by adding an overwhelming sense of interaction to everything! if you shoot a wall it must show the impact, if you attack someone they shall react, and the same goes for freedom when interacting with objects. everytime you call out, it must respond. This also solves the design question of having an inventory. instead the player must move objects around the physical world like in real life with the opportunity to carry multiple objects in vehicles or trollys
- Q - What is the basic concept of your game? This can be very rough such as a theme, mechanic, or experience you are interested in exploring. Type of experience:
A - Newer Zealand is a sandbox capitalism simulator themed around NZ with an early 2000s aesthetic.
Q - What kind of experience are you aiming to create for the player (e.g. thoughtful, tense, playful, narrative-driven, experimental)?
A - I aim to create a playful, rhythmic, sandbox game. I want each player’s experience to be slightly different. The opportunity to express yourself through different life styles creates emergent gameplay, represented through your character.
Q - Who is the player, and what do they primarily do in the game?
A - You play as a newly homeless drug addict who is determined to become the prime minister of New Zealand in order to save their pet pig that got taken by the Auckland council. players get to go from rags to riches experiencing the housing, cost of living, and mental health crisis'
Q - What do you imagine the player spending most of their time doing?
A - Simply put, the game is a loop of bettering yourself in exchange of energy(happiness), then using your new qualifications to move up in the world, all while making sure your level of energy doesnt drop to 0.
I wanted to give players an extrinsic reason to increase their stats and interact with the city infrastructure, so i figured out that the primary objective was to gain a majority of citizens votes by completing tasks, which require certain stat levels: intelligence, strength, and charisma. These stats can be raised at locations such as the gym, the library, and clothing stores. Every action that raises the players stats will take away from their level of happiness.
If the players happiness reaches 0, they die from suicide
To maintain their happiness the player must consume or rest. they can do this by focusing on healthy habits like sleeping early, or go on wild drug binges to continue raising stats throughout the entire night. This creates emergent stories through gameplay
Q - Are there any games, genres, or other media that have influenced this idea?
A - As mentioned previously, Stick RPG 1+2, Half life 2, Garrys mod, Sims, Bitlife, Gta San andreas, Postal 2
- Q -
Based on what you currently know, what feels achievable within this semester?
A - Its very hard to tell with these sort of things. I hope to have an extremely basic playable build, and some inital assets.
WEEK 3 WEEK 3
This week I worked day and night to setup the absolute minimum baseline of systems for my gameplay loop to work. I also began the creation of my NZ based assets using real world imagery! My source of research has been expanding beyond the screen and into whatever my eyes are lucky enough to scan over while out in the world.
Here is a demonstration of the systems in my game functioning at a very basic level.
Game systems Rundown
PHYSICS OBJECT MANIPULATION
Grab props around the world, rotate them however you please, and combine them into a new object if there is a recipe.
Each object has its own weight. if the player isn’t strong enough, they cannot lift the object. This promotes the raising of stats, balances accessability of objects when selling at the pawn shop, and gives me an opportunity as a developer to add quests based around strength, object combination, and object fetching. or all 3!
PAWN SHOP
Almost every object in the game has a “value”
Players can take any valuable object to the pawnshop, place it on the desk, and exchange it for currency. This transaction doesn’t negate energy unlike everyother way to make money in the game, ideally providing players an olive branch to grab onto when risking death by suicide. It also acts as a secondary form of money gather compared to grinding and working jobs. I imagine some people will only sell objects or gamble for their money due to the rejection of simulating work in a video game. I would like to give this type of player a way to engage with the game despite its themes.
STATS
The player has 3 stats they must increase to complete objectives.
Strength ( allows the player to pickup heavier objects and hit harder )
Intelligence ( allows the player to get better jobs and learn new crafting recipes )
Charisma ( Allows the player to have greater social opporunities ) (some citizens will not talk to you if your charisma is too low)
Better stats = more money = better opportunities = more voters
ENERGY SYSTEM
As mentioned previously, the player has an energy system which is represented by their “mood”
This acts as a currency to exchange for stat increases and is responsible for holding up the core game loop of cosumption and growth.
GYM
Costs 1 energy
Passes 1 Hour
- +1 Strength for no cost
- +2 strength with cash cost ( Personal Trainer )
SCHOOL
Costs 1 energy
Passes 1 Hour
- +1 Intelligence for no cost (Library)
- +2 strength with cash cost ( Uni Lecture )
CASINO
A casino with roulette and slot machines, Each spin passes an hour and takes 1 energy.
This allows for a drastic change of finances based on luck, further promoting emergent gameplay and player choice!
FIRST PLAYER HOME
Return to your portapotty to sleep through the night and regain energy. The quality of sleep is horrible so you must rest early to feel fully rested by morning. Buy a better home or bed to increase quality of sleep, or raise energy by other means...
DRUG BUYING
Top up your energy in exchange of money at any phone box.
Different drugs have their own drawbacks , prices, and amount energy gained when consumed.
MCDONALDS
Your first job.
wherever you are in the world, there will be a mcdonalds nearby. Lowest bar to entry, Lowest pay. A 24 hour accessable way to make money in exchange of energy anytime. The player can recieve promotions if stats and shifts worked are adequate.
OFFICE
Your next job. In order to work here you must reach a certain intelligence level. This introduces you to new people(quests to fufil) and greater money gather per hour.
BINS
Outside most homes and establishments will be bins, trashcans, rubbish containers, etc.
These act as urban loot boxes that the player can pop open to find random physics objects inside of varying rarity.
Bins are emptied every night from rubbish trucks and reset by the morning by home owners.
This allows the player to loot the whole city everyday to grow an increasingly valuable collection of junk, which can all be sold at the pawnshop or used as quest items/ tools within the sandbox.
Shopping Trolly to move mulitple objects
I were the player, I may get frustrated only being able to move 1 object at a time, especially if im frequently using the pawnshop or crafting systems. To counter this I have implemented a shopping trolly that allows the transport of mulitple objects, as well as much faster movement. My favourite aspect is how well it fits into the narrative and themes of the game while serving a necesary purpose. I hope to continue developing contextually accurate systems that make sense both in the real world and my game, continuing to bridge that gap.
Graffiti System
Without detecting surfaces ^
I admit that at this stage of development, this was uncessisary and more difficult than expected but I added a graffiti system which allows the player to spray any image onto any surface in the game, Only allowing sprays to occur on an available space, there is no way to make the graphic clip off the side of an object you are tagging. I can also make objects unsprayable if I wish.
I implemented this system because It can emphasize both your starting position as someone who lives in the streets, and your ending position of putting polical party flyers EVERYWHERE. Its a system which will be relevant through out. I have not yet added any stat benefits to tagging.
WEEK 4 WEEK 4
- LOGO CONCEPTS
I began experimenting with different ways that I can capture the charm of our country, and the theme of my game in text, through the use of fonts, and symbolic imagery.
CIVILIAN SPRITESHEET 1 (GATHERED FROM KROAD GOOGLE EARTH)
I have already discussed my thought process around this form of creating in my last paper, at around the halfway mark (https://ethyn.net/game-design-3) But since then, someone has shown me a Canadian artist named Jon Rafman and his ongoing photography series which started in 2009 centering entirely around google street view screenshots and the way we can tell stories through them.
https://9-eyes.com/
I am exctatic that there have been other artists who have resonated and throughly worked with the resources I am using now for the same reason. We both (and many more) have directed our focus towards carefully observing and capturing these moments simply for what they are. These images hold an overwhelming quality that I cannot yet fully explain.
First batch of animated NPCS
Possible loading screens
Possible main menu
Some texture work
- This was my first attempt at adding custom props and effects to a character. I attempted this in hopes of adding extra iconism of the archetype I wish to embody through this NPC. I added the hardhat, Walkie Talkie, Hammer, and feedback effect without disrupting the overall design of the character by adding a gaussian blur which matched the original screenshot.
WEEK 5 WEEK 5
I finally worked on my systems prototype for the studio 230 exhbition. After a lot of brainstorming I ended up going with a maze game, as ANYONE can understand the concept of escaping. Especially when the only options for interaction are movement. This allows the game to be picked up at any point, by anyone, and any number of people, while retaining the same level of entertainment and understanding. This gives me a frictionless way to showcase my NZ assets!
I am using a first person dungeon crawler esque movement system to achieve this.
I chose this route purely because it had the camera perspective I am working with in the main game, as well as a grid based movement system. This gives me more control over what the player can see, while simplfying interactions expected from them. I want players to move through the physical exhibition space and use the floor to vote for the directions/actions of the player.
I succeeded in this by buying a webcam, setting up a live camera feed within unity, creating a script to greyscale the camera feed, then send it through a colour threshold (All colours are observed and converted to either black or white) From there, the camera tracks the pixels within 4 different locations. If any of the locations detect a mass of black pixels, a trigger will occur.
My plan is it mount the webcam on the ceiling of the exhibiton space, with UI directional arrows for the player to trigger, All someone needs to do is stand ontop of an arrow and the game will respond.
I chose this route purely because it had the camera perspective I am working with in the main game, as well as a grid based movement system. This gives me more control over what the player can see, while simplfying interactions expected from them. I want players to move through the physical exhibition space and use the floor to vote for the directions/actions of the player.
I succeeded in this by buying a webcam, setting up a live camera feed within unity, creating a script to greyscale the camera feed, then send it through a colour threshold (All colours are observed and converted to either black or white) From there, the camera tracks the pixels within 4 different locations. If any of the locations detect a mass of black pixels, a trigger will occur.
My plan is it mount the webcam on the ceiling of the exhibiton space, with UI directional arrows for the player to trigger, All someone needs to do is stand ontop of an arrow and the game will respond.
To make the project more exhbition-friendly I set up a developer console and commands that allow me to change the variables of the camera and detection scripts on runtime. I also setup the UI mentioned earlier and I added an optional floor cam, which will show on the floor in real life due to the projector resoultion and aspect ratio.
I am incredibly pleased and shocked I managed to pull this off. this was all I needed to know that the exhibition would be possible. HOORAY, NOW BACK TO THE GAME!!
WEEK 6 WEEK 6
it appears that I am currently on track to achieve my goal!
What Not everything is perfect though,
I wish I could increase my capacity to competently document,
either by creating youtube videos, writing about my explorations more effectively, or something short form like tiktok.
I recognise this is almost essential in order to build community or garner attention in the modern age.
I also need to focus on maximising play through creation, deciding point A and B then doing whatever I want whenever I want as long as it gets me closer, until i finally arrive.
I must avoid perfectionism.
I must be free.
Thank you so much for reading, watching, and listening,
i am so happy i get to do this :)
Have a wonderful day,
ethyn