Edits Daylight - High Concept and Prototype Screenshot

I'm currently working on the design document and prototype for the game "Edits Daylight" for my crazy random game idea. I've decided to post the high level blurb and a screenshot from the current state of the prototype.


High Level Concept

Edits Daylight is a game about growing flowers. These flowers are actually words. The player picks out which words to plant. The words begin as seeds that the player plants in the ground. The player then maintains the plants as they grown, giving the sun, shade and water. Once in bloom the player picks his flowers. The flowers have a memory and the remember how they have been treated through out their lifetimes. These memories enhance the words and become descriptors. If the word was a verb the descriptors are adverbs about how the plant was treated throughout its lifetime. If the word was a noun it has adjectives that describe its lifetime. After the player has picked all his flowers he can put these words together so that they become a poem.

There are three main stages to the game. The first is where the player picks out his seeds. He chooses words from randomly generated lists. These words are the seeds that will become the flowers. After the player has picked all of his seeds, the main game begins. He can then begin to use his tools to plant his seeds and must make sure they have the appropriate amount of water, sun and shade. The last stage of the game is where the player puts together his words and creates sentences that become his poetry.

Screenshot:

First Try - A fork edits his daylight

I have started my first "Random Game". I followed the directions set out in the previous blog post. Here are my results.

Random Sentence: A fork edits his daylight.

Your random word is: poetry

The initial idea:

The game takes place over a number of days. Each day is a complete phase. As the sun comes down its light can be broken up into shadow and sun with simple objects. The player is forking the sunlight. As the sunlight hits things they grow. You are actually growing words. Some words like a lot of sun, some like a lot of shade. They can also burn from too much exposure. How they are treated over the course of their lifetime effects the words. When they are plucked the words get modifiers based on how they were treated (adverbs if they are verbs, adjectives if they are nouns). Once they have grown enough they can be harvested. The order in which they are harvested in matters to the end game.

I will further develop this into a real design document and make posts as the game itself progresses.

Working the Brain - Designing a Game

In order to keep myself agile, in shape and ready for any design challenge that might come up, I've decided to start designing small games based off of themes. I searched around the net and stumbled upon a nice site that generates words and phrases in attempt to help brainstorming. It seemed a decent place to start.

I devised this system for coming up with a theme for a game.

1. Start At: http://watchout4snakes.com/CreativityTools/Brainstorm/BrainstormWord.aspx
2. Type a situation OR use a random sentence. I'm going to start with random sentences - this creates more of a challenge I think and forces me to think outside the 'box'.
3. Follow the rest of the instructions for brainstorming ideas.
4. Take these ideas and formulate a small game document.
5. Execute and Iterate on that game document.

Pretty simple really. I'll see how it works out.

Direction, Collaboration and Autonomy

Direction at the appropriate level with the appropriate detail.

Direction sets goals that are achievable, relevant and measurable. Goals answer questions with enough flexibility to not be directives. Goals are almost always immutable and rigid. Goals have enough detail as to not be interpreted in ways that conflict.

Collaboration in the correct Direction.

Collaboration is working together against common goals in ways in which we can measure our success. There is a synergy and understanding. Collaborate on "how we are doing..." not "why we are doing...".

Clear direction and good collaboration leads to autonomy in implementation.

Be autonomous enough to measure against our goals without guidance. Collaborate enough to continue without intervention. Set direction, collaborate and go.

Emergence and Simulation

For some reason when people talk about emergence in games other people get scared. I don't really understand it. I think people have some ill conceived notion that emergence involves tons of simulation and provides at best unpredictable results. It is hard to tune a game that you can't predict. I, of course, have a different view on things. I believe emergence in games is a beautiful thing and that it elevates a game to something more than the sum of its parts.

So, what do I mean by emergence - what is this magical mystical essence that evolves games beyond the ordinary? That is a tough question to answer succinctly. I think the essence of it is that complex behaviors emerge out of simpler ones. In games, this is mostly applied to solving problems. In fact, talking in terms of problems instead of puzzles begins to put some perspective on emergence. Puzzles only have one correct answer while problems can be solved in various ways. The essence of emergence is to allow players to solve problems in ways that make intuitive sense to them. This mean, first off, that players understand the game world. They understand the rules of this world and the effects of their actions. This effects might not always be predictable but that should be built into the rule. It is fine if the player's wand has some random effects on toads as long as the player knows when he points at a frog and uses his wand that it is likely to be something random. It is fine for the player to have to discover rules on his own as long as they are consistent. Consistency helps the player fully realize the game world and his place in it. It helps him learn the rules of the game world and how he can affect things and how he can solve problems. So, I think that emergence should come from simple interconnected consistent rules and systems.

So, this leads me to simulation. A lot of advocates of emergence also advocate heavy simulation. They believe it provides more opportunity for emergence. I get it. It does, because it makes the rules more believable. The problem is with heavy simulation you usually also involve heavy unpredictability. And this becomes a nightmare when you want to tune, debug and polish your game. Unpredictability can easily feel sloppy and that isn't something you really want your player to feel. I advocate a more relaxed method of developing systems. Develop the rules of your system first. For example, if you are building a fire system, enumerate all the things fire can do and all the things that can affect fire. It isn't super important how these rules are implemented but more so that they are implemented to the effect that they accomplish the rule and that it is consistent. I advocate simple rules that have complex interactions. In other words rules that are connected to objects in a complex web. I view these rules are connections between objects. For example, Water douses Fire is a rule that connects Water with Fire. The more connections you have to and from Water and Fire the more useful these objects become and the more ways that behaviors can emerge in new ways.

Simple interconnected consistent rules.

I could talk a lot more about this and in fact probably will at some point, maybe I'll include some of the charts I have done... that should be exciting.