Growth shrink gameplay sketches

Caravan: some size-puzzle scribbles

the end

what happens at the end? ideas:

• On god in each direction. If you reach on of them, they will grant you a huge power, like growing plants wherever you walk.
• If you reach all four gods in all directions you get the “complete” achievement and get 15% off our next title.

 

Caravan: meaningful achievement system

Today we thought about adding an achievement system to caravan. But wait, not the achievement system everyone else uses. So whats the same? We also use funny achievements to grade the player progress. (obviously) But the difference is, that we use that, to give ingame things to the players. So the achievement system somehow resembles a leveling system. So you may get a bigger bottle of water, if you left 100 signs for your fellow players, or you may be granted a new rune, after you have completed 5 funny tasks.

This way, we can also reward players for investing in the community progress or for simply having fun.

• wet feet: unlock your first oasis
• hard feet: walk 1000 miles
• hot feet: walk on hot sand
• hardliner: follow a spirit at least 1 mile
• lover: hug at least 10 trees
• size matters: grow at least 20 metres
• head in the clouds: grow above the cloud level
• In control 1-5: walk, look around, pickup sands
• achievements for all surface types (wet sand, rocky sand, etc.)
• the lions den: get eaten by a lion
• Scare the spirits: scare off a spirit
• friedlist: befriend 5 spirits
• the postman: write 500 signs
• walking dead: die 10 times in 5 minutes
• cleaner: clean 1 square mile of rubbish
• getting things done: when the desert is entirely cleaned of rubbish, all players get this award
• achievements for being other characters:
• altair: watch the desert from a high spot
• journey: surf down 10 dunes

achievements could be tied to gods, ie. ariane, the goddess of wealth approves your newly found item: “unlockeed XY …”

combo achievements: only unlocked if you unlock two achievements at once:

wet toes: unlock wet ground and size matters at once.

Caravan: really big Mari

Another way, where the game could be going. It is important to take a step apart and improve the game, even if it means radical changes with an idea:

• There’s less water consumption, when you’re small
• There more water consumption, when you’re big
• You can grow bigger with growth runes, but will automatically be shrunken when there’s little water left in your bottle
• Maybe the absolute size you can reach is determined by the amount of available growth runes (leveling system?) i.e. 4 x 10m growth runes = 40 meters absulute growth
• This implies changes to the puzzle design, since they have to work in different character sizes now. The huge lava rock in the image above could be a simple trigger in this size.
• Some examples:
• Big obstacle: 20m high sharp rocks, than can easily be passed when being small
• small obstacle: A huge gap, that can be crossed with a big step as a giant
• maybe there are something like corn circles, rune symbols, that are so big, they can only be spotted from high above. or a riverbed that forms a rune.
• Maybe the size even controls the passing of time, so when you are smaller, evrything happens much slower. So a giant which is walking may seem like s static rock when you are small. day&night pass by much faster when being a giant (visualization of time passing)
• There may be a giant, that has the rune to overcome him at his back, but it always faces the player. The trick could be to get smaller, which equals to “slow time”, move to his back, and then grow again.
• Also, besides examining objects from all sides, they now have to be examined from below and above, too.
• Your relative size will have an impact on your foes, they might flee, if they are much smaller, and attack you if your are much smaller (rules of nature)
• (Maybe the size also allows for bigger actions, like destroying things.)
• Being allows for crossing much bigger distances and scare others away, whereas being small will be used for detailed examination, exploration and interaction.

a new iteration and new brainstorming bits

Okay, now we’re back to caravan and we brainstormed, how we could make it more fun (like we always do ), most important things first, we’ll try to make it much faster (paced)

The problem is/was, that the water loss(which is effectively a timer) puts pressure onto the player, but the way he/she moves, won’t give enough control to feel in control. So the movement somwhat hindered the player in playing faster. Additionally, If we look what the game mechanics are made up from, it is clear, that the “reset-mechanic” is also borrowed from the more fast paced platformers/arcade-titles. So we will now give it a try to blend that together.

other brainstorming notes:

• graves as powerups
• maybe other main char to increase adventure feeling
• Community & water is still the main feature of the game
• we think we can even get more focus on the slower paced parts(refill water at oasis, respawn) if the rest of the game is faster paced. The same counts for more complex puzzles at places where you have to stop and think, before continuing.
• community ideas: Maybe we can even give some gifts to other players like playing powerups(water?) for them and getting a reward if it is picked up? (supporter?)
• some points need more focus, like the refilling of the water (checkpoint) which should reach a quality like the concept art examples (maybe like uncharted, with short cinematic switch)

 

Orhpeus and Eurydike

Its an Arcadegame. (really arcade, like in the old days, where you had to go to a place to play )
You have to invest two coins to pay the feryman(Charon)
You slay yourself trough the underworld, killing hades using your magic harp.
save your beloved  wife Euridike.