WEEK 8 | Game Design Progress

Game:  The Bronze Horseman

Group:  Nathan, Leonie, Michael

Aim:  Create a prototype board game of The Bronze Horseman (or an element from it)

Premise:  The game thrusts players into a struggle for survival and ones self-worth, as they are confronted with the harsh realities of war. They must survive and save as many of their family members as possible by scavenging for supplies throughout a city under siege. 

Last week, the group was formed and we discussed the original game concept that was taken from a section of the novel The Bronze Horseman.  We played a quick play through of the prototype that I had developed for Assignment 1.  On the whole, the other guys liked the concept, in particular the emotional side of it (sacrificing family members, surviving a war) and also the mechanic of movement which is based on how much food the player has.  

We all picked up on areas that need changing or scrapping, which were elaborated on more in todays workshop by brainstorming, with the intention of getting ideas on refining the game goals and mechanics.  We feel that once we have these settled on, then the rest of the assignment should flow on easily.   

The element we wish to concentrate on is creating a really emotional game experience that the story has already provided us with - being the war survival situation, with the main character (player) having to find food each day to feed their family, and having to choose which family members to sacrifice if they can't find enough food.  This will be quite a sombre game, filled with desperation, dread and hopefully a sense of loss. 

The main ideas we had today were:

• having some vivid props in the game to strengthen the emotional story - something that moves the player when they have to choose which family member to sacrifice
• recognition that the scope of the original concept was perhaps too large and technical
• recognising the need to create more conflict between the players themselves, perhaps involving a combat system somehow (players stealing each others food)

At this stage, everything is going swimmingly and everyone is very enthusiastic at the possibilities the concept provides.  Now that we know that we want to create an emotional game by sticking to the original concept story, we have to knuckle down next week and play test the game in order to redefine the game mechanics.  

Here's our basic initial work breakdown:
1)  Define Mechanics

• define goal (1week) [All]
• define rules   (1week) [All]

2) Clarify Story  (1week) [All]

3) Design board

• layout   (1week) 
• props - food, family members, assets   (1week) 

4) Documentation

• write design document   (1week)  [All]
• write presentation   (1week) [All]