I actually had the oppertunity to speak to James about this idea as it was the only one I had set about working on for the 1-1 talk I had with him during week 6. His contributions and suggestions that I have taken aboard are highlighted in red.

 

Adaptive Exploration Game

• 1st Person/3rd Person 3D game - Player can sporadically catch reflections of themselves in metal/glass/plastic in 1st person

  • If in 1st person the player won't know that their character changes in different environments until they see a reflection​

  • ​If in 3rd person this could be a gradual phase tied to how far into the level the player is​

• Collect “trinkets” - Cool rocks, fallen items, etc

• Some kind of reason to go to the bottom

  • ​Safety from predators keep driving you further down​​

• Focus on the environments 

  • Make the environment beautiful

• Structure like a rollercoaster - can just have a beginning and an end and something between 

• About the way the character sees and reacts to the environment 

• Photogenerate real life models into blender

• The journey is stage based. Four or five key areas to explore

  • Have points of interest for the player to pass through 

  • Cutscenes to show the transition

• Gameplay:

  • Player adapts to the environment as they descend

    • Start off like a normal merperson 

    • Adapt to the environments in the different stages

      1. Become bioluminescent as you reach the darkness

      2. Grow more and more transparent

      3. Lost the ability to see, but gain echolocation

         • (Find a real life touch-sensitive equivelent to echolocation)

      4. Become a predator. Sharp teeth, etc.

  • Environment changes as it descends

    • Normal seafloor near the trench

    • Rough and rocky walls and seafloor

    • Continually gets darker, and the pressure increases

    • Eventually pitch black

    • Bottom of the trench is absent of all life aside from the player

  • Find different points of interest

    • Caves

    • Magma deposits/Hot springs

    • Sunken ships

    • Space debris

      • More people have been to space than to the surface of Challenger Deep. Would be a cool way to highlight this fact​

    • Escape ships, submarines and divers close to the surface

    • Escape predators near the bottom

• Swim among other types of animals

• Aim is to just take in the environment and reach the bottom of the trench

​

Concerns

• I am quite inexperienced with 3D modelling - The game would be at its best in a 3D world and I am concerned about my knowledge in this area. I would have to set aside time for personal development alongside actual development

• The game is quite large - As it stands the game will be made up of 5 explorable areas and I am worried about how in depth these could be to align with the short play time I need for the arcade (approximately 20 minutes.)