End of the First Week

This first week has ended very well. The team has been play-testing games that seem to share common elements that inspiration can be drawn from. It has worked out quite well in the brain-storming and development of ideas. The high concept and pitch documents were handed in with everybody contributing in some shape or form.

At the moment, the game is centered around the idea that the player must survive against waves of attacking enemies. There will be a day and night cycle where the player can scavenge during the day for resources as well as set environment-based traps to help defeat on-coming waves. The waves will come during the night and the player must survive using the environment. The game will be based around the phrase "Control the environment to the control the enemy."

As mentioned in a previous post, cover will also play a major part in the game. The player will need to use cover effectively to survive, either by creating it using their nano-bots, or moving parts of the environment around to create better defensive positions.

Resource management is one idea that came up during play-testing. To simplify this, only one resource will need to be managed; nano-bots. The nano-bots can be harvested from fallen enemy foes. They will also slowly reproduce over time. Players will be able to use the nano-bots to access higher tiered weaponry, ammo and even create forms of cover. Players will also be able to breakdown anything that is made using the nano-bots. This means that players can sacrifice their cover to replenish their ammo, but this means that they will be open to fire. This will introduce a new dynamic to game where the player will need to think carefully about how they manage this resource rather than being gung-ho about blasting everything they see.

This is pretty much a breakdown of what the game is at the moment. Next week the team will be ironing out the finer details of the game while writing the first draft of the Game Design Document. Scoping the game appropriately while keeping the gameplay fresh and fun will be a difficult task but this needs to be done properly. Keep posted for further updates....By the way, the game has a name, "Illithidia."