BA4: Game Design Document #19

Jess Plays More Games :D

Steam decided to have a special Halloween sale full of horror games just in time for me to buy, play and analyse them for my project. Thanks, Steam! I bought 4 games, Anna (Dreampainters, 2012), Dark Fall: Lost Souls (Darkling Room, 2009), Scratches: The Directors Cut (Nucleosys, 2006) and finally the Penumbra Collectors Pack (Frictional Games, 2007). I played Penumbra: Overture for research/this post. 

Jess Plays Dark Fall: Lost Souls & Scratches!

I bought these games on a total whim. I watched the short preview videos for them which were on their Steam game profiles and I honestly never realised they were point and click games *facepalm*. In other words, nothing like the gameplay we want! I had bought them though and wanted to try them out for the good of the research. Unlike my previous “Jess Plays” posts, these will be mainly focused around gameplay as that is my key area of focus.

Dark Fall: Lost Souls

  

Dark Fall: Lost Souls is an point & click horror adventure game with amazing sound design and clever mechanics to send shivers down your spine. When playing it I was on the edge of my seat and it was only because I had a short amount of time to play and take notes that I couldn’t continue further. 

I will admit that the point & click mechanic of the game confused me at first (it was my first try playing a P&C game) and there were times I felt frustrated that I wasn’t able to just move around freely. The atmosphere was still there though, I still felt like I was playing a horror game. 

Point and click core mechanic. 

Point and click to select an area which the game suggests is movable so that you can move yourself over to this area. 

First person perspective. 

Pointed finger suggests you can move left or right by moving the mouse to the appropriate areas of the screen. 

Magnifying glass means that you can investigate objects you are highlighting further.

There are puzzles to solve. 

The camera is clever, when you move round in a circle (by continuously selecting the left/right side of the screen) the perspective moves slowly at first then suddenly jolts into position as if you have turned around slowly but then felt scared and turned faster to see what is behind you. This adds a lot of tension. 

Scratches: Directors Cut

   

Scratches is an point & click horror adventure game set in creepy mansion grounds that you are visiting. The game is told to you in small pieces of information that you find as you go around the house exploring, clicking your little fingers away at interesting objects. 

Yes, its another P&C game which I just bought because it looked cool until I realised this very point. Please don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against P&C games and in fact both this and Dark Fall scared me and made me feel nervous to explore just like modern horror games such as Amnesia which is really interesting. What is bad is that they don’t reflect the type of gameplay we want in our game. I discussed this with my group and Stacey advised me to blog them anyway because it shows good depth to our research and I agree, it shows that even mistakes can be helpful! And these really were. 

Move mouse to select areas on the screen that are of interest. 

The screen glides left to right when to replicate how a person would look around. 

Point & click. 

A hand is your cursor and it changes shape to indicate where you can and cant go (i.e. it will point in directions the player can proceed to follow). 

Right click brings up your inventory, you can then double click items to use, right click to return to game with that item and if that item is usable it will glow.

On screen text.  

 

There are some items which spawn speech such as when the telephone rang and I clicked to pick it up and enter a conversation. 

It is of course in a first person perspective. 

If your hand is a clenched fist it means there is nothing to click on and activate. A pointed finger means you can “go back” and return to the room from investigating. Open hand means that you can activate/pick up items and a magnifying glass shows you that there is more to be learnt about this object. 

Click on an item to load new areas. 

The player can click to find and read notes themselves. 

There is no UI, only what you see through your screen (I was very early on in the game, this might have changed had I carried on). 

Conclusion Part 1

Both these games were right on the mark for horror games, I felt dread as I explored, anxious as I turned every corner and scared to carry on. Everything you want in a horror game and lets not forget I was only playing these games for roughly 40 minutes each. All those emotions, in an point and click game, in the opening chapters is fantastic. It draws the player in and sets the scene. While we know we don’t want out game to have point and click core mechanics, we can take a lot from item finding and PC horror controls which will help such as how we can communicate to the player where they need to interact with items and show them that an item is helpful in some way whilst not making is totally obvious.

Jess Plays Anna and Penumbra: Overture!

I have heard good things about both these games so I really needed to research them for my project. Both horror adventure games with survival elements (Penumbra more so) they proved incredibly helpful for me as I am in the final stages of writing up our gameplay mechanics. Penumbra is actually made by the same people who made Amnesia (one of our key influences if you hadn’t already guessed) and I can see the similarities even from only having played the game for half an hour.

 Anna was incredibly puzzle based and I didn’t actually make it past the first door (I ran out of time as a result of writing notes and trying to figure out the puzzle both on a limited time frame)  but the controls influenced me a lot so it wasn’t a waste! 

 

Anna 

      

Anna uses standard and common W - S - A - D keyboard controls. W moves you forward, A moves you left, S moves you backwards and D moves you right. 

You left click the mouse to examine objects and items. 

There is a red aiming reticule which is visible when there are objects to be interacted with. 

Small hand icon appears on the screen to show that I could go through the door, the door is obviously important and interactive. 

Middle mouse button click for the inventory. 

Left click an item from the inventory to use it in game. 

Right click on objects which can be opened and pull or push with the mouse to activate them. 

Aiming your vision towards something you think is important and the game will tell you what that item is, even if its not really integral to the game. 

Penumbra: Overture

     Players pick up notes they find by left clicking to activate them and then choosing whether or not the read the item or ignore it. 

 

The inventory system is bought up by pressing the tab button and is presented in tile form with various objects taking up 1 tile. Items could be assigned to number keys by clicking and dragging. 

Health is presented by the small silhouette of the man on the left of the screen outlined in bright green. He moves position when you’re hit and losing health to indicate how bad you are. When hovering the mouse over the image there is on screen in game text which tells you how badly injured you are but there is no definitive “hit point” system. 

When hit by an enemy the screen pulses red and you hear your heartbeat. When you're this badly hurt you health will re generate to a certain amount so that the pulsing red screen does not annoy you. It’s just an indication of how close to death you became and are getting. 

When you die there is a game over screen  with a simple continue or quit option presented to the player which is clickable by them. 

  

There is a difficulty choice at the start. 

There are static image cut scenes at the start with voice over's to begin the story. 

The game gives an instant tutorial in a safe environment (much like our safe museum section) where it establishes control with the player;  left mouse click to pick up and right mouse click to look at objects and points of interest/significance. 

A pointed finger icon appears when the player can interact with an object; important or not.

 

There is an eye icon when you can investigate an area or object further. 

Use the left mouse click to pick up the item (from the pointed finger stage) and then use the mouse to move that object where you like. 

W - S - A - D controls, forward, let right and back. 

To use doors or set pieces that can open, left click them and then push or pull with the mouse. 

The “G” key is a shortcut for the glow torch in case you run out of batteries in your torch. 

Hit left CRTL to toggle crouch, when crouched you can restore your night vision (nothing fancy or supernatural, just get better ability to see in the dark as your calm and getting used to it). This is signified by a blue tint on the screen.

By pressing “Q” or “E” you can  peek around corners to scope out your path and check for enemies.

  

If an item is important to the game it will glow. 

 

The blue tint on the screen also suggests that you are hidden from enemies which is helpful if your hiding place isn't very good. 

You are also told not to stare at enemies as this makes you panic and causes you to be more obvious. 

Clicking on certain items will cause flashbacks and reveal parts of the story. 

When a monster is near by or knows you are around there is a musical cue, this music is very unsettling and scary. 

Conclusion Part 2

Anna and Penumbra have core gameplay mechanics that are much more alike to our own thoughts and ideas and this research and testing has really helped me solidify my ideas for the gameplay mechanic designs. The notes I have taken have been far more gameplay related which has helped a lot. The core mechanics of both these games are all similar to the ones we want to use for our game so ultimately I feel really good about where our design is heading knowing that I have done a lot of first hand research so that it can be perfected.