I looked at a a couple of games that share a certain atmosphere and mood in them. I like the mood in Journey and Flower. I like the idea of a game that is peaceful and celebrates life instead of destruction.
SUMMARY OF NOVA VOS
I tried to summarize the gameplay and story of Nova Vos. It's hard...
In
Nova Vos, the player takes role of a figure in a spacesuit on an
unknown planet. After an introductory cut-scene, the player is shown
a beautiful planet where a spaceship suddenly crashes. The player
takes control of the figure in a spacesuit called: Nova. Nova jumps
out of the spaceship and looks at her wrist revealing the main
mission of the game: Find Life. The player's role is then to explore
the planet and find life form. As the game progresses, strange shadow
figures point the player towards a direction. It leads them towards a
cave where the player finds the first life form on the planet. The
creature is aggressive and won't let the player near it, but loud
stomps in the distance frighten it, making it returns to its cave.
The stomps come closer and the player has to quickly run into the
cave, giving them a small glimpse at a large figure with spotlights.
Once
in the cave, the player teams up with the Creature and have to
explore the cave. Inside is a large door which the player has to find
a way to open, which leads them into a large temple where more
puzzles await. Once the player reaches the end of the temple, they
have to find the other 4 Temples in order to destroy the large shadow
figure which is a Machine that roams the planet at night. It is up to
the player which temple they want to find first and can play them in
different order. In each temple there is a body with the same
spacesuit as Nova but its head is missing. Once the 3rd
temple is found, the player finds a body with the helmet still on.
STORY
The
main character of the story is a female robot, who crashes on a
planet with the mission to find life form.
The
main focus of the experience is world exploration and narrative, the
player is meant to have a lot of freedom at the start of the game and
just explore the planet. As the player gets deeper in the game more
hints at story are presented which keep the player playing to find
out more.
The
game starts off with the protagonist (female main character, NOVA)
crashing on a planet. The player then takes full control; Nova's
main mission is to find life form. Nova has a sensor detect life
from, so if the player gets close to one it will 'beep'. However, the
sensor sometimes detects life where there is none, shadows appear on
the ground and run away and the player has to follow them. The day
and nights on the planet draw quickly, as the planet's circulation is
faster than on earth. The shadows lead the player to a cave where
they find a life form. Nova takes off her helmet in a friendly
gesture but the creature gets aggressive and won't let the player
near it. Nova quickly puts on her helmet again. (this is all out of
view for the player so they don't get to see her face). Night strikes
and loud stomps are heard in the distance. The creature whimpers and
quickly hides in its cave. A large black machine-like creature with
spotlights as eyes circles the planet. The player then has to quickly
hide with the creature in the cave. Inide the cave, Nova has to
gather wood to make a fire. When the fire is lit, it illuminates
markings inside the cave, showing that humans have been on the
planet. The player and the creature venture deeper inside the cave
until they arrive at a large door where the player has to figure out
the puzzle in order to open it. Once it is opened more puzzles await
the player inside a large temple. The player has to jump onto things
and always make sure that nothing happens to the creature they are
travelling with. Once the player reaches the end of the temple, they
find a large switch with a note attached to it: find all 5 temples.
The player activates the switch which causes the temple to fall
apart. The player has to quickly escape the temple with its new
sidekick. Once outside, the player has a new task: to find all 5
temples. Nova takes off her helmet and the creature doesn't budge
this time, showing that it trusts her now. Nova's fave is revealed to
the player: a bald young woman. The player then has to explore the
planet and hide away at night when the machine comes and find all 5
temples. Throughout the planet, there are spaceships scattered, which
if the player finds them, reveal that they all look the same as
Nova's spaceship. As the player progresses through each temple, more
things will be revealed; there is the body of the pilot hidden in
every temple, they all wear the same outfit as Nova and have a
micro-chip, the player has to collect all of them to find out the
backstory, but their heads are missing. The player can choose to
which temple they want to go first, it doesn't matter in which order
they play in. When the player reaches the fourth one, they find
another pilot body, but with its head still attached. Nova decides to
take off their helmet; it reveals the same face as Nova's. Nova sees
that she was looking at something. Nova traces her look and sees a
drawing of the machine; the last temple. The player then has to wait
till night to search for the Machine and find a way inside it. Once
the player is inside, more clever puzzles await and once the player
reaches the end of the temple, they are presented with the last pilot
body. The player collects the last micro-chip and takes off their
helmet. Nova puts the micro-chip at the back of her neck, it reveals
the backstory: The Earth had become too overpopulated that mankind seek out a new planet to move to. They found this one. There were
too many animals living on it so they send out engineers and
scientists to create a machine that would destroy half of the
planet's population so that mankind could move there. The machine
started to malfunction and destroyed all the life form on the planet,
the scientists and engineers quickly realized and send out help to
earth, no response came back. They lost all hope and were killed by
the machine.
Nova
then activates the last switch and the machine dies. Nova comes out
of the machine with her sidekick and looks at her wrist; bush button
if life found. Nova smiles and turns away from it, towards her
friend. The creatures eggs hatch and the flowers start to bloom.
GAME
ENTITIES
Who
or what populates your game? E.g. player characters, non-player
characters, monsters, enemies, etc. Descriptions of a minimum of 3
game entities must be provided unless otherwise agreed upon with your
lecturer.
The
player character is Nova: a robot with artifical intelligence
who is send from earth to destroy the machine and find life on the
planet Genesis.
The
enemy of the game is Nox: a machine created by mankind, that
roams the planet at night, seeking out life to destroy.
The
non-player character is a creature that is the only life form left on
the planet and the player has to keep it safe.
GAME
GOALS
What/who
do the players control? What are players trying to achieve? What do
they do? What are the major challenges?
The
player takes role of Nova. The players are trying to achieve tasks in
a linear storyline through exploration and puzzle solving. The
gamplay varies from open world exploration (the planet) and puzzle
solving (the temples). By completing each temple the player receives
new abilities which they can use in order to finish each temple.
The
major challenges are finding the temples through exploration,
figuring out the puzzles inside the temples and to keep the creature
alive.
REASON:
Why
create this game? What is special, exciting or fun about it?
Novas
Vos is more about the mood/atmosphere the player experiences while
playing it. The sense of mystery keeps the player moving forward.
Novas Vos has a strong message behind it and the focus of gameplay
makes it interesting to play. It has a strong sense of exploration
why allows the player a lot of freedom.
Influential
games: Include
screenshots of similar games you could use for ideas/reference while
designing the game further (5 minimum). Annotate your screenshots
with reasons why they are interesting and will be useful (key
features, gameplay, look, layout, controls, etc.).
No
Man's Sky, Uncharted, Red Dead Redemption, Journey, Zelda
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