Tropical Continent Concepts and Game Development Page

TROPICAL CONTINENT CONCEPTS

I started sketching/rough coloring in some concepts for the Tropical Continent, I played around with different colors for the grass/trees/rocks to see what mood it gives. While I was playing around with ideas, I thought that perhaps as the player gets closer to the Ice Continent, the background (behind the sea, will start showing Ice Bergs.

The Tropical Continent is colorful during the day, but at night loses all its color and becomes very dark. The Ice Continent is the opposite: the day is cold and plain but during night bright colors appear around the icebergs.

CORALS

As I was researching plants/trees, I found that corals are very colorful and because they are underwater seem foreign to us. I think I will use corals in my plant designs, to give the player familiarity to the planet but also make it seem foreign.

GAME DEVELOPMENT - MECHANICS USED
My chosen narrative element is Diegesis, with an environment that tells a story through its physical and art design.

ENVIRONMENT – MOOD/ATMOSPHERE (ART DESIGN)

The Tropical Continent, is full of vibrant colors which gives the player a feeling of awe and an excitement to explore the colorful world. As night turns, all of the colors disappear, leaving the player the only light of the moon., this gives an atmosphere of unsettling loneliness, as it dawns on the player that they haven't found any life yet. Once the player finds the creature, it lights up during night, giving the player a sense of hope. The player ventures into the first temple which is dark, using the creature as their only light source.

Once the player finishes the first temple, they are presented with the tropical planet again. The colors are still vibrant, but sharp Ice bergs start to appear in the background as the player nears the Ice Continent. This creates an exciting but also uncomfortable feeling, the player is back in the Tropical Continent which sets a feeling of hope again but the Sharp Ice Bergs in the background give an unsettling feeling of the unknown.

As the player reaches the Ice Continent, it is full or sharp Ice bergs and caves that are dark. But once night dawns, the ice lights up with bright turquoise colors, this is the opposite of the Tropical Continent where when it was day, the colors are bright and colorful but at night its colors fades. This brings the player closer to the Machine, as the night-time when the machine starts to roam the planet is now not as dark as before.

The tropical continent has vibrant colors at day but is dark at night, while the Ice continent had plain colors during the day and vibrant colors at night.

ENVIRONMENT – STORY (PHYSICAL)

When the player first starts the game, the controls involve the player interacting with the environment: the player has to jump over water falls, climb up a tree etc. Once the player reaches the Creature, night dawns and the machine appears in the background, walking along the planet. The player has to hide inside the cave with the creature, and ventures deeper inside. Inside the cave are scribbles on the walls, this sets up the player to find out what happened to the planet. Once the player reaches the temple inside, the temple involves the player working together with the creature to work out the puzzles. Once the player completes the temple and reaches the end, they find a laboratory which has a switch. The player turns the switch to find that a diagram lights up next to it, showing that one of the arms of NOX is not working.

Once the player reaches the next temple and completes it, the end has another switch. After the player turns it on again, it shows that the other arm is now not working. When the player gets out of the temple they find a spacesuit similar to Nova on the ground, the player takes off the helmet of it to reveal mechanical parts inside. Nova takes off her own helmet to reveal the same. She looks in the water, and is shocked. The creature tries to comfort her, but Nova storms off. The player then has to jump and run through obstacles. Night dawns and Nova reaches NOX, to find him lying on the ground, trying to use its arms. Nova empathizes with it, and climbs inside it. The player then has to find a way through obstacles to get to the head of the machine. Nova re-programs the machine with a new purpose: restore life. The machine's eyes light up blue and its big forearms break off, revealing tubes with animals inside. NOX opens them and eggs are brought out.