Stephen Vos

Game Presentation:Unforgiven

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Overview

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Similar to the movies; Hunger Games, The Condemned, Battle Royale. Essentially it is a death match game with 6 or 12 players which are dropped into an arena and have to “out survive” the other players. The player can choose to achieve this in two ways: •Simply surviving the many perils that dwell within the battle arena. •Offensively seeking out the other players and eliminating them aggressively. Rounds are intended to last for roughly 30 minutes at a time, although once dead a player can obviously leave.

Main Features

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Survival System: The player will have a number of stats to monitor and keep track of, requiring them to forage for or catch food, find water to drink, and even maintain a healthy body temperature

Crafted Weapons: The player will be able to interact with their environment and gather resources which can be used to create basic weapons to use against their opponents. Sharpening a animal bone with a stone to create a dagger for example.

Animated Inventory: Items that the player collects can be inserted into ‘pockets’ in their jacket or even a backpack, in order to interact with these items the player will physically open their jacket and look at the items.

Triggered Encounters: As the game reaches the final stages and only a few competitors are remaining, the game will release dangers into the field which the players will have to either avoid or hope to point towards their enemies.

Level Design

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The maps can be roughly the same size as a 32 player battlefield map (Needs to be tested). The intention is to have it small enough that the players can find each other when looking. But large enough that a skilled player can remain elusive.

As an example I will use a map created with a jungle setting. Maps will be created in such a way that most flora and fauna are intractable. In a similar manner to TES: Oblivion or Skyrim, many plants will be harvestable and each plant will have various attributes that the players will have to learn and understand. Some can be beneficial and provide boosts to the players Nourishment and Hydration bars, and others can treated as poisonous and will adversely effect these status’s. Plants will provide a low to average level of nourishment.

These maps will also include various animals that can be captured and used as a source of nourishment via the use of player created traps. These animals will provide an average to high level of nourishment but will be far more difficult to capture so the player will have to make the decision to attempt to trap and animal which may cost them valuable time or simply forage for plants.

Interface

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Ideally the game would have next to no user interface to enhance the players immersion in the game. Inventory would be handled in a way similar to Alone in the Dark: 5 where the player opens up their coat or a roll out bag and has a number of pockets or slots where they can place items (done using 3d animated models in game). Vital statistics can be displayed to the player via a wristwatch similar to Fallout 3’s pip boy.

Combat

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When it comes to player on player combat the player is extremely fragile, most weapons only need a couple of attacks to inflict mortal wounds. The focus for the smart player will be to remain patient and sneak about, in order to find the greatest advantage when engaging with an enemy.When a kill has been achieved a kill animation similar to those implemented in Skyrim and Battlefield 3’s knife kills will be triggered to provide the winning combatant with a sense of triumph.

Survival System

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The main mechanic at play will be the survival system. The player will have a set of statistics that they have to monitor and take care of. In the broad spectrum the main statistic is energy. This affects how fast and long you can run for, and if it drains completely you will be killed. This energy meter is affected by other statistics that represent the player’s main needs for survival. Temperature, Hydration and Nourishment. •Hydration naturally represents the amount of water in the players system.

•Nourishment represents food in the players system.

•Temperature represents the players body temperature.

The player will have to establish a solid source of both Nourishment as well as Hydration in order to survive. Naturally an actual human being does not need to be fed or drink water multiple times within 30 minutes to survive, but for the sake of the challenge that monitoring these statistics will provide we can say the character has to in order to survive. (Due to a vastly increased metabolism or some similar reason). Temperature is a less important statistic that will only be affected in certain circumstances, for example prolonged exposure to cool water or possibly in a level or game state where the battle takes place at night.

Audio

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The use of audio within the game is fairly standard. There will be no musical soundtrack as the only sound assets that are required is sounds made by the player and their environment. The intention is to use audio as an additional indicator of the players status, if they are low on energy their breath can become laboured and heavy. This provides with the additional challenge of monitoring your audio levels, for if you are attempting to stalk an opponent or hide from one, your players breathing could easily be heard when heavy and divulge your location. Beyond simple player noises all that is required is ambient levels of sound for the level which are intended to further immerse the player in the experience.

Survival System – Example

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For the sake of explanation let’s say that Temperature, Nourishment and Hydration are rated on a scale of 1-10.

A rating of 1 being very bad, a 10 being optimal. Temperature is on a similar scale, 1 represents too cold, 5 represents optimal, 10 represents too hot. Hydration and Nourishment gradually reduce over time, but prolonged exertions cause them to reduce at a much greater rate, exertions such as running too much, swimming too much. I think to start off with having the player, in a 30 minute period, be required to eat and drink 3 times. (Can be changed after it is tested)

Having any of these statistics in a poor state will reduce the player’s energy, and as stated earlier when the player’s energy reaches zero, they die.

Survival System – Optional Concept

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(Optional) Additionally the player may also have a system of limbs similar also to the fallout franchise where they have to monitor leg, arm, chest bones etc. After a long fall the player may break a leg, which will have to be bound with a split created from found items. Arms and chest can be broken during combat with enemy players using blunt weapons.Slashing and stabbing weapons can also cause wounds which will also have to be attended to by the player using improvised means from collected items, plant leaves to stop bleeding for example. All wounds when healed will have an accompanying animation similar to Far Cry. This will be used as a means for the player to forcibly stop what they are doing in order to attend to their wounds, instead of simply hitting 3 on their hot-bar whilst running away to heal. This will create a tactical element where the player has to choose where and when to heal themselves, creating a period of vulnerability for other players to exploit.

Crafted Weapons

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In the games crafted weapons system, random items collected from plants or animal carcasses can be combined to create weapons. For example a player could collect a stone, and a bone from an animal carcass, and the stone can be used to sharpen the bone which will create a dagger like weapon. As well as this simple items such as stones etc can simply be used as thrown weapons. The aim is to have the players, based on which items they have collected have the ability to create a one handed blunt force weapon (small branch, animal bone or rock), two handed blunt force weapon (large log), one handed stabbing weapon (dagger as mentioned earlier), one handed slashing weapon(combination of a stick and sharpened bone somehow bound together), bow (created by a quality piece of wood tensioned by a crafted rope from plant leaves), arrows (crafted using plan leaves as fletching, twigs as shafts, and stone or bone arrow heads) and the possibility of thrown daggers or axes (which the player can choose to use as melee or thrown weapons)

Encounters

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As the game reaches the final stages and only a few competitors are remaining, the game will release dangers into the field which the players will have to either avoid or hope to point towards their enemies. This is done to ensure the last moments of game play are not two combatants simply sitting at separate sides of the map trying to camp it out. These encounters can range from a high quality weapon being dropped onto the field (such as a compound bow) or dangerous animals being released that will hunt down the players.

Encounters – Optional Concept

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As an added in possibility, players that have died early on in the game may choose to remain in the current scenario and have a small degree of control over these events. Providing aid for certain players in order to even the playing field, or sending out animals and influencing where they go. This is intended to add an extra element to the game for new players or those who are grouped up with friends who are still alive, instead of having to wait for your friends to finish playing you can still have some presence in the game. This will naturally have to be strictly balanced in order to not allow a group of people to go into the game, kill each other off then send a huge amount of aid to their friends or make things exceedingly difficult for the opponents.

Contact Me

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If this game concept interests you and you would like to form a group please contact me:

Stephen Vos

Email: stephenvos@hotmail.comSMS: 0405487725Workshop: Friday 3-5pm