PILLARS AND PROTOTYPES
Exciting times in the OtherSide dojo! We have been up to our ears in concept art, models, level design, and AI creatures running about. We are on the cusp of seeing our world come alive for the first time in the coming weeks.
We are currently midway into our first playable prototype. A playable prototype is small, working corner of the underworld. . It includes everything from character movement, to the look of the place, to core systems. It is designed such that we can stop, take a look at it, test it out, and decide what works well and what not so much.
It starts with ideas, which we call 'core pillars'. Currently we have decided on 3 core pillars for our prototype.
- We are an Underworld game. What ties us back to the past?
- Player authored experience.
- Create a fantastic magical world.
Pretty broad right? We break that down further of course and pick a couple of key pieces from each pillar that we would want to prove out.
For example, for the player authored experience, we have already played around with physics, but have not spent too much time on magic, or physical object reactions such as burning things, smashing things and other generally destructive...er...creative ways of using the environment. So we have decided for the first prototype to focus on a couple of spells, using the actual bones of a real spell system, and ensuring that our design practices have objects in the world understand their physical state.
An example of this is a rope. For our vertical slice, our rope will think 'I'm a rope. I can bend and flow because of weight, and other environmental things like wind. I don't like fire and will burn when it touches me.' As with most of the Underworld, this is not canned, but reactive. Rope and wood burn. You can use that to your benefit, or your detriment.
So we have our core pillars and we start thinking about the layout of a map where we want to have gameplay. Design writes a script for the area, our thoughts of what this area is, and what will be going on in broad strokes.
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