One Page Pitch Edit

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 surviving life form: a large crocodile-like creature, Lux . 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 Lux. Nova has to travel to 2 temples on Mortem in order to destroy NOX. After completing the 2^nd temple she finds out that she is a robot that has been sent to Mortem from earth to seek out life and to destroy NOX , so that humans can inhabit the planet. Nova empathizes with NOX, and re-purposes it: restore life. Nova decides to stay with NOX and Lux on the planet that Nova gave a new name to: Vita.

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 game's art 2D, stylized. The art style of Novas Vos is cell-shaded and abstract: Nova has limited amount of colors (cold) while the Creature and the Environments have vibrant colors with a little more detail, which makes Nova stand out.

The Tropical Continent is made of waterfalls, water trees, grass, lakes and has coral-like features.

The ice continent is made of spikes, ice caves and ice mountains. At night, some of the ice lights up with bright blue colors.

This emphasizes the emptiness of life on Genesis which presents an atmosphere of unsettling loneliness.

Genre (Story):

Sci Fi, Fantasy

Genre (Game):

Adventure, Art game, puzzle

Justification:

The genre Sci Fi and Fantasy are associated with futuristic, alternate 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 continuously shows the player one of the main theme of the story, loneliness.

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:

side-scroller 2D, exploration, platforming and puzzle solving.

Justification:

The side scroller view is quite far away, which 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: what makes us human.

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 story-line through exploration and puzzle solving. The game-play varies from 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 puzzles involve Nova and Lux to work together. The temples are dark, so Lux is the only light source, the player has to navigate through the temple telling Lux where to stand in order to see where to go next. The puzzles involve the player proving they are human through physical tasks such as lifting objects/pushing, and finding ways to climb up certain areas.

The player is motivated and driven through the game by exploration and solving puzzles.

Main Character:

Name: Nova

Age: 1

Nova is white with a saturated colour highlighting certain aspects of her design. She wears a helmet through the first half of the game, she takes it off when she finds out she is a robot. Her design is slender, and her most distinguishing feature is her helmet.

Background: Nova is the first Robot to be designed with artifical 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 “Mortem” 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: puddles, rusty material and corals growing inside.

The Temple on the ice continent is frozen. The inside reflect the scientist's personality: frozen, cold, 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 ice continent is at the bottom of the planet and the Tropical continent is on the top. 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 Differenece:

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:

Explore a planet full of rich and beautiful environments, and take on the tasks to find life and destroy a mysterious machine that roams the planet. Experience an unforgettable journey through exploration of the planet. Solve challenging puzzles to reveal the truth.

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 the development of the character and her relationship to the creature and the backstory of the planet. All of this is shown through the game, there are interactive cut-scenes as the backstory of the planet is up to the player to find out. The younger gamers would enjoy playing the game through the mechanics while the aging gamers are both interested in the game mechanics and the story aspect of the game. The micro-narrative of the backstory would make the player play the game again to find all the clues to find out what happened to the planet.

DEVELOPMENT

Possible Areas for Narrative Design:

The Key area of narrative design which should be focused on for the development of this game is: Diegesis and supporting character. The diegesis narrative is about the environment showing the theme of the game: loneliness and hinting at what happened to the planet, while the character narrative is more about Nova finding out she is a robot.