One Page Pitch and Target Audience Moodboard

ONE PAGE PITCH

Went over my One Page Pitch and did little fix ups where I think I could write something more clear or improve more.

Title of the Game:

Novas Vos
CONCEPT
Story Summary:

A spaceship lands on a foreign planet, and a human figure steps out. Her main mission is to find life. Nova explores the planet and after no success finally finds the last life form. At the same time a large machine roams the planet at night. Nova has to find a way to destroy the machine and decides to protect the last life form on Genesis. Nova has to travel to 2 temples on Genesis in order to destroy NOX. After completing the 2^nd temple she finds out that she is a robot that has been sent to Genesis from earth to seek out life and to destroy NOX , so that humans can inhabit the planet. Once Nova completes the mission of destroying Nox, earth sends her another task: kill the last life form. Nova defies her order and decides to stay on the planet and restore life.

Logline

A robot lands on a planet to find life, but discovers hidden secrets.

Justification

Novas Vos challenges the idea of what makes us human by showing that Nova has more humanity than mankind even though she is a robot.

GAME PILLARS

Aesthetics:

The characters in the game are simplified with minimum detail, making them contrast with the detail and depth of the environment. This emphasizes the emptiness of life on Genesis which presents an atmosphere of unsettling loneliness.

The animation style is fluid, Nova moves fast (almost robotic-like) while Nox moves very mechanically (minimal amount of movement) which is contrasted by the movement of the Creature that is very organic-like.

Genre (Story):

Sci Fi, Fantasy

Genre (Game):

Adventure, Art game, puzzle

Justification:

The genre Sci Fi and Fantasy are associated with futuristic, creative worlds/planets which fits into my story as the focus of the story is mainly the environment of the planet. The environment plays a big part of the story as it continuous shows the player one of the main themes of the story.

Adventure is the exploration part of the game (the planet). The genre Art Game fits in with the story as the game's message is strong: that mankind is losing touch of what makes us humans.

Puzzle is part of the puzzle-solving aspect of the game (in the temples).

Gameplay style:

3^rd person, exploration, platforming and puzzle solving.

Justification:

The 3^rd person view fits with my story, as the view is intended to make the player feel small on the vast planet, and to give a sense that the environment is almost more important than the characters.

Exploration part of the game gives the player a sense of excitement to explore a new planet but also a sense of loneliness as the planet is lifeless.

Puzzle solving emphasizes the theme of the game.

Platform:

PS4

Justification:

Novas Vos would be for Playstation 4, as I think the Playstation platforms have been more experimental with their games; Journey, Flower and Little Big planet. All of these are very different from the “main-stream” games. I think Sony has a good reputation and would be good for my design of a game.

Player Goals:

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 the next temple.

The player is motivated and driven through the game by exploration and solving puzzles which leads to narrative cut-scenes.

Main Character:

Name: Nova

Age: 1

Nova is white with a saturated color highlighting certain aspects of her design. She wears a helmet, but two bright blue eyes shine through the helmet. Her design is slender, and her most distinguishing feature is her helmet.

Background: Nova is the first Robot to be designed with artificial intelligence and is sent to the planet, Genesis to find life. She wakes up as she arrives on the planet.

Nova's main mission is to find life and to find a way to destroy the machine.

Nova discovers the only life form on the planet and befriends it, creating a strong bond between the two characters.

Nova is intelligent, and follows orders until her morality is questioned when she finds out that the planet's inhabitants had been wiped out by the humans she was created by. Nova is curious, strict and stern. She always wants things to go her way and gets angry if they don't, however as the player progresses through the game, Nova becomes more care-free and learns that not everything she is told is true.

The biggest challenge Nova faces is learning to follow her own “orders”, and making her own decisions.

Near the end of the game, Nova finds out that she is a robot, due to her AI she thought she was an organic life form.

Setting:

The Planet “Genesis” is small: there are only two main continents: one is tropical and the other is ice. The days/nights on the planet pass quicker as the planet's circulation is faster than earth's. The colors of both the Ice continent and the tropical one are vibrant/saturated colors. The tropical continent has warm colors (red, pink, green, yellow) while the ice continent has cold colors (white, blue, turquoise, purple) which contrasts the two.

On each continent is a temple. One of them is in the tropical continent, which was created by the engineers and shows off their personality through its environment: rusty, sand, dirt with some of the plants growing within it.

The Temple on the ice continent is frozen. The inside reflect the scientist's personality: neat, white and futuristic.

The puzzles in the Tropical Temple reflect how the engineers think humans work while the puzzles in the Ice Temple reflect how the scientists think humans work.

The Tropical continent's geological features are: waterfalls, beaches, swamps and rain forests. At night, some of the plants lit up.

The ice continent's geological features are: spikes, ice caves and ice mountains. At night, the ice lights up in vibrant colors.

The ice continent wraps around the planet (bottom and top) while the Tropical continent is in the middle of the planet, one side being hotter (rain forest, swamps). The temple is located between the hottest part of the planet and the warm part.

MARKETING

Games for comparison:

Shadow of the Colossus, Journey

Point of Difference:

In Novas Vos the player has control of the character from the start, with no real knowledge of why they are on this planet; except for one goal: find life from, similar to how Journey starts. But as the game progresses more questions are answered and more character development takes place, making the game's story a mix between Shadow of the Colossus and Journey.

Back of the Box Statements:

Experience an unforgettable journey into an abandoned planet, filled with secrets to reveal.... a story about companionship and finding your own path.

Target Demographics:

Aging Gamers, Young Adults, mid-core gamers, Aged between 13-30

Appeal:

Novas Vos is more about what the player experiences through the game, and its theme is more mature, appealing more to young adults and aging gamers. There is only the development of the character and her relationship to the creature but the how and the why of the backstory is up to the player to figure out as micro-narratives are scattered throughput the game, making it both appealing for young adults who just want to play the game and for aging gamers who want to venture deeper into the narrative of the game.

DEVELOPMENT

Possible Areas for Narrative Design:

The Key areas of narrative design which should be focused on for the development of this game are: Character and micro-narrative. The main storyline is about the relationship between the protagonist and their sidekick, and the micro-narrative is the backstory of the planet.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Worked on the Target Audience Moodboard, I had quite a bit of trouble with it but Frans helped me out heaps in terms of what I have to do for it. I recognized that most of the cartoons/movies I like all have a cartoony style but have quite a mature theme behind it.