BA4: Game Design Document #39

Various In Game Screens

I have accomplished so much today. Since my last post I have created various “screen shots” for certain important parts of the game. Here they are! 

Lianna’s Interactive In Game Map

Scattered throughout Distorted Deliriums world will be various blood stained marks on the walls. When investigated, these marks will become maps which Lianna/the player can update in their journal so that they have a map around. The example here is blatantly obvious, slap bang in the middle of a wall and its very bright. As the game progresses the map markings will become increasingly harder to find and often players will be left without areas of the map filled in. 

Once the player does find a map, they can “activate it” and Lianna will draw it down in her journal. Once this is done, the player can access their journal at any point in the game and view their status in the game world. 

Lianna’s Journal will have a greyed out colour for the floor plan of the museum every time she discovers a new floor. This doesn’t mean the player will know every where on that floor, because its not the map, its simply a greyed out area which indicates to the player the areas they haven't discovered yet. This wont be told to the player however, players don’t really get much in this game >:D

Doors that the player has tried to enter and are locked are marked in red, doors which are open are marked in black. This is about as much help as the player gets ;)

  

When the Player Finds A Diary

Players will be able to find diaries written by various members of Lianna’s family as they travel around the museum, the harder they explore, the more diary entries they find leading to them learning more about the game and story. 

Like other intractable objects, diary clippings will glow so that the player can see them and tell them apart from other random objects. 

When a player picks up the diary page, the screen will blur out behind the note and fade to black as the player reads the diary entry. They will get the option to flick through to other pages of the diary (if it is a long entry) or they can return to the game or journal from viewing. 

I created these screen shots in Photoshop  using various new fonts, brushes and textures I have been referencing into my work recently. 

The idea is that it would happen like this: 

Player finds note > picks up note > as note comes up onto the screen, the edges around it blur into the background  eventually turning black > the player is then greeted with an over screen text box displaying the diary entry (as we fear the font may not be readable by everyone) > arrows pop up on screen indicating there might be more diary entry to read > if not, the player can simply quit back to game > the diary entry is then stored in the players journal. 

 Finding Family Photographs

Another way to find out more about the game and learn the story is to find family photographs. These are similar to the family diary entries only they are photographs. 

When the player picks them up, the same thing happens to the screen, however, instead of text obscuring the image there will simply be a small tag line appear which names the photograph and gives the player better understanding of it and how it relates to the game. 

For example, here I used a photograph I took recently in Florida of a bar because I really liked the way all the bottles were stacked up. I edited it in Photoshop to make it look more “vintage” (it was supposed to be taken when Lianna was very young) and slapped a caption on it. Its suppose to represent Lianna’s alcoholic parents. 

 Psyche Notes

Another in game collectable are psyche notes. These are notes which are spawned into the game in amounts relative to Lianna’s psyche, as well as just randomly.

They are split into 2 types, notes from Lianna’s “sane self” and notes from her “in-sane self”. The higher Lianna’s psyche the higher chance the player will have of picking up in-sane notes. In-sane notes will be disturbing and often very dark to try and twist Lianna’s mind into being mentally ill. An example is shown below…

  

However, if the player remains with a low psyche then they will find more sane notes. These are directly linked to the “good” ending of the game and will be rarer and harder to find! Sorry! Sane notes will often remind Lianna of her “good” life and possibilities for coming out of this nightmare “sane” as opposed to mentally ill. 

  

Navigating Lianna’s Journal

Lianna’s journal can be accessed from both an in game keyboard key short cut or by entering the inventory and manually selecting it. From there the player will see this page with some very basic options. 

Again, this is another piece I have been working on in Photoshop making use a various free textures and brushes I have downloaded specially for this project. 

The player can either access their map, family diaries,  sanity notes or family photo’s. We haven't included Lianna’s OWN photographs here because of two reasons. 1, she isn't using an instant camera such as a Polaroid and therefore can’t print off instant pictures to put in her photo journal and two, we are giving the player the ability to scroll through the photographs they take in the game on their actual camera as a separate mechanic. 

So, anyway, the player would simply click their mouse over the option and it would flick through as if it were an actual journal, making the paper sounds and everything, until they got to the right page. 

For example, if the player wanted to view any diary entries they had found, they would click the family diaries link and be taken to a page like this, where all the diary entries would be listed, in the order they were picked up, for the player to then click on to view. 

  

Once they have clicked on an entry they wish to view, the screen will fade instantly to black while the diary entry pops up on the screen. This time there is no wait for the white text to pop up, it comes up straight way for easy and fast reading in case there are any clues or important information that needs to be read! 

The same can be done with family photographs, once the player clicks on the family photograph link in Lianna's journal, they are taken to all the family photographs they have collected in game. From here, the player can click through in the same way to view all the photographs and their tag lines/information. 

 

In Game “Tells” When You’re Dying

Previously I wrote up the game mechanics and I specifically detailed the events which would occur when Lianna was in the process of dying. 

There are 3 stages of visual tells which indicate to the player that they are in a colossal amount of danger and must remove themselves quickly to safety.  Using one of Olives concept designs, http://olivegamesartanddesign.blogspot.co.uk/, I was able to illustrate over the top, using Photoshop and my new brushes, the visual stages of death. 

Here is the playing screen normally, without the player being close to death: 

 

Stage 1: minor desaturation of colour on screen

Stage 2: More desaturation of colour and red strokes appear in outer edges of the screen. 

Stage 3: Total loss/desaturation of colour and severely bright warning strokes pulse on screen with drips of blood.

Texture references

Lined paper texture for the sanity notes by Tyler White: http://cliffski.deviantart.com/art/Pristine-Looseleaf-Paper-105821382 

Various surface textures from free texture library: http://freestocktextures.com/