CONTRABAND
Scene: Checkpoint into the gated community.
Scene: Firefight outside the drug cartels estates.
Scene: Another firefight outside houses.
Scene: Screenshot of the Drug Cartels estate.
Scene: Hostage situation.
Questions:
Physical Dimension:
1: Does my game require a physical dimension? What is
it used for? Is it an essential part of game-play or merely cosmetic?
Yes the game requires a physical dimension to
provide the player a sense of being in the "magic circle". It’s
essential to the game play to create a sense of a small community. In the game
you can use these buildings for cover and other ways to survive.
2:
Leaving aside issues of
implementation or display, how many imaginary spatial dimensions does my game
require? If there are three or more, can objects move continuously through the
third and higher dimensions, or are these dimensions partitioned into discrete
"layers" or zones?
The game requires 3
spatial dimensions and everything but the buildings will be moving.
3: How big is my game world, in light-years or inches?
Is accuracy of scale critical, as in a football game, or not, as in a
cartoon-like action game?
The game world is
going to be accurately proportioned to the size of a normal small
town with small gated communities. The game requires
the proportions to be 100% accurate because this is going to be a
first person shooter game.
4: Will my game need more than one scale, for indoor
versus outdoor areas, for example? How many will it actually require?
The game will only require 2 scales, one for
indoors and one for the outdoors.
5: How am I going to handle the relative sizes of
objects and people? What about their relative speeds of movement?
The average person is
going to be around 5'8" so the buildings around them have to be proportioned
to their size. The speed will be accurately equivalent to real life.
6: Who is my world bounded? Am I going to make an
effort to disguise the "edge of the world," and if so, with what?
What happens if the player tries to go beyond so?
The game is going to be bounded by houses and
natural trees and mountains. There is going to be an
"invisible wall" that the players can’t pass but it’s going to
be disguised by the houses and trees.
Temporal Dimension:
1: Is time a meaningful element of my game? Does the
passage of time change anything in the game world even if the player does
nothing, or does the world simply sit still and wait for the player to do
something?
No
time will not be meaningful in any sort of way.
2: If time does change the world, what effects does it
have? Does food decay, and do light bulbs burn out?
2 - 6: Time will not affect
the game-play in any way.
3: How does time
affect the player's avatar? Does he get hungry or tired?
N/A
4: What is the actual
purpose of including time in my game? Is it only a part of the atmosphere, or
is it an essential part of the game-play?
N/A
5. Is there a time
scale for my game? Do I need to have measurable quantities of time, such as
hours, days, and years, or can I just let time go by without bothering to
measure it? Does the player need a clock to keep track of time?
N/A
6. Are there periods
of time that I'm going to skip or do without? Is this going to be visible to
the player, or will it happen seamlessly?
N/A
7. Do I need to implement day and night? If I do, what
will make night different from day? Will it merely look different, or will it
have other effects as well? What about seasons?
The only time the day and night
are going to effect the game-play is going to be
in different missions throughout the game. Some missions will be
"night" missions while the rest are going to be "day"
missions.
8:
Will any of the time in my game
need to be anomalous? If so, why? Will that bother the player? Do I need to
explain it away, and if so, how?
No, there will not be any sort of
time or timings in the game.
9:
Should the player be allowed to
adjust time in any way? Why, how, and when?
No
they wouldn't, if it’s simply a night mission then it’s going to remain
night until the mission is over, same with day missions.
Environmental
Dimension:
1: Is my game world set in a particular historical
period or geographic location? When and where? Is it an alternate reality, and
if so, what makes it different from outs?
The game world is set
on earth maybe somewhere in Cuba; however it has no historical locations.
The time period is in 2012 so it’s going to be a modern first person shooter
game in Cuba.
2: Are there any people in my game world? What are
they like? Do they have a complex, highly organized society or a simple, tribal
one? How do they govern themselves? How is this social structure reflected in
their physical surroundings? Are there different classes of people, guilds, or
specialized occupations?
There are going to be
people in the game world. Most of the game-play is going to be in gated
communities revolved around a small town. There are going to be roaming people
going about their daily normal tasks; walking, driving, carrying groceries,
etc. The people are going to be independent and will be scared off when they
hear gun fire and explosions. The other groups of people will be the drug
cartels body guards and private security. They will guard the estates and shoot
down (you) the U.S Task Force soldiers who are trying to clear the drug cartels
in Cuba.
3: What do my people value? Trade, martial prowess,
imperialism, peace? What kind of lives do they lead in pursuit of these ends?
Are they hunters, nomadic, agrarian, industrialized, even postindustrial? How
does this affect their buildings and clothing?
The community people
will just be in the game-play simply for cosmetics. The drug cartels body
guards for example, will roam around the estates of the drug cartels and defend
their boss from the U.S Task Force soldiers, they will stop at nothing to defend
them. You and your team, the U.S Task Force, will take down the drug cartels
and their security. Your team will follow you in missions and depending on how
well you strategize, your team will either all live or they can die.
4:
Are my people superstitious or
religious? Do they have institutions or religious practices that will be
visible in the game? Are there religious buildings? Do the people carry charms
or display spiritual emblems?
Yes there will be some religious
institution but it won’t be exactly a specific detail in the game-play.
5: What are my people's aesthetics like? Are they
flamboyant or reserved, chaotic or orderly, bright or subtle? What colors do
they like? Do they prefer straight lines or curves?
The people of the
communities will be reserved and won’t be able to interact with, they will
have a destination point and once they get to that destination point they will
disappear by going inside a building or a vehicle (however the player won’t be
able to go into a building or a vehicle unless it’s part of the missions to go
inside the building or a vehicle.) The guards will be very curious and will
walk around the estates checking everything around their area they are
guarding. If they see suspicious activities, they will alert the other guards
and gun you down. Your team, the U.S Task Force will all follow the rules of
engagement. For example, they won’t start shooting unless you shoot first, or
if they are being shot upon.
6: If there aren't any people in the game, what are
there instead, and what do they look like and how do they behave?
N/A
7: Does my game take place indoors or outdoors, or
both? If indoors, what are the furnishings and interior decor like? If
outdoors, what is the geography and architecture like?
The
game "Contraband" takes place indoors and outdoors. The outdoors is
in a gated community and you will be able to see the big mansions of the drug
cartels and checkpoints. You can see houses and cars etc. The indoors will be
mostly a well furnished fancy house.
8: What are the style and mood of my game? How am I
going to create them with art, sound, and music?
The style is a first person
shooter game; the mood of the game is a serious action based game-play. The
mood will be created by the dramatic music that will be playing during the
missions and the sounds of guns, explosions, and vehicles will also set the
mood of a serious action based game world.
9: How much detail can I afford in my game? Will it be
rich and varied or sparse and uncluttered? How does this affect the way the
game is played?
The detail is going
to be rich and varied; it’s going to affect the game-play because it takes the
player to have a more sense of actually being in a U.S Task Force trying to
clear the drug cartels in Cuba. The detail will show the culture of Cuba but
also the details of the soldiers.
Emotional Dimension:
1: Does my game have a significant emotional
dimension? What emotions will my game world include?
The game wouldn’t
really have "emotional dimension" only in the case of the player. If
the player connects with his soldiers on his unit then he can have a deep
emotion connected to them, therefore the player will be more tactical and have
to use strategy in the missions to take the drug cartels down and keep their
soldiers alive. It all depends on the player and if they want that connection
to their soldiers.
2: How does emotion serve the entertainment value of
my game? Is it a key element of the plot? Does it motivate characters in the
game or the player himself?
Emotion will make the
game-play either harder or easier. If the players want to have that connection
with their soldiers, then they will be tactical so that their soldiers will
survive, thus making the chance of completing the mission much greater. If the
player doesn’t have an emotional connection with their soldiers, they won’t be
tactical and their soldiers will most likely die and the chances of completing
the missions are going to be slim. Caring about your unit and your soldiers is
motivation because you want to complete the missions.
3: What emotions will I try to inspire in the player?
How will I do this? What will be at stake?
The emotions that
will arise are something along the lines of creating a brotherhood with your
soldiers. You would want to keep them alive so they can help you take down the
drug cartels and finish the mission with the least amount of U.S Task Force
casualties. The stake of not caring about your soldiers is asking for a harder
game-play because you won’t have back-up because since you’re not
using strategies, they will die making the game-play harder to complete
missions.
Ethical Dimension:
1: What constitutes right and wrong in my game? What
player actions do I reward and what do I punish?
The civilians walking
around the communities won’t be able to be targeted upon. If you try to shoot a
civilian or a hostage you are trying to save, you’re going to have to restart
the mission or go back to a checkpoint. The reward of taking down the drug cartels
is the satisfaction of cleaning Cuba and saving their communities,
also with ever mission completed, you can upgrade your weapons and armor for
your unit.
2: How will I explain
the ethical dimensions of the world to the player? What tells him how to behave
and what is expected of him?
The game will have tips and rules that will show up like
"remember, no shooting your team or civilians" or "complete
missions with less than 1 causality in your team to upgrade weapons and
armor".
3: If my game world includes conflict or competition,
is it represented as violence or as something else (racing to a finish, winning
an economic competition, outmaneuvering the other side)?
The representation of
conflict (the drug cartels and the U.S Task Force) is going to be representated
by violence. It’s simple, take down the drug cartels.
4: What range of
choices am I offering my player? Are there both violent and nonviolent ways to
accomplish something? Is the player rewarded in any way for minimizing
casualties or is he punished for ignoring them?
The players won’t have a choice in killing the main drug cartel boss, however, they
will have the choice to either sneak around the security and just only kill the
boss or go all out and kill all the security as well as the boss. Both will be
rewarding, the sneaking around the security effectively and completing the
mission will result in upgraded weapons to have silencers, more tactical
gadgets, and tips on how to sneak into the next mission. If you take the other
approach, killing everyone and being loud with no causalities, then this
will result in upgraded weapon firepower and more armor.
5: In many games, the end -winning the game- justifies
any means that the game allows. Do I want to define the victory conditions in
such a way that not all means are acceptable?
The end of the game
will simply just be a mission in whom the player has accumulated the weapons
and tactics from previous missions and take down the biggest drug cartel in all
of Cuba.
6: Are any other ethical questions present in my game
world? Can my player lie, cheat, steal, break promises, or double-cross anyone?
Can she abuse, torture, or enslave anyone? Are there positive or negative
consequences for these actions?
No, the player will
not be able to make choices on who to kill, they have to kill the drug cartel.
However, they can choose not to kill the security guards.
7: Does my world contain any ethical ambiguities or
moral dilemmas? How does making one choice over another affect the player, the
plot, and the game-play?
The only moral
dilemma is if you’re going to allow the security guards to kill your
unit or if you’re going to use tactics to make your unit survive and also sneak
around the security. In the end, it’s up to the player if they have morals or
not. If they have high morals then they will try their hardest to sneak around
the security to prevent casualties. If the player has no morals
or doesn't care, then they simply wouldn't care if their
unit dies.
8: How realistic is
my portrayal of violence? Does the realism appropriately serve the
entertainment value of the game?
The violence in the game is going to show blood but to a minimal.
For example, when you shoot the guards or if they shoot your unit, there will
be a blood splatter but it wouldn't be exaggerated. When the guard or
a soldier dies, their body will lie on the floor and there will be a small blood pool around them. Their won’t be any "head-shots" with explosive brains flying or
dismemberment. The realism of the violence is going to serve the game-play
evenly because it’s going to be enough to show blood but it’s not going to be exaggerated to the point that it makes the
players not want to play.
