(tentative title)
Temporal Diffusion game design document v1.0
Heather M Decker
Interactive Design/Media App | ITGM-705-OL Savannah College of Art and Design Professor David Edwin Meyers August 4, 2010
Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................................................ 2 Design Statement ............................................................................. 3 Audience and Context ..................................................................... 3 Motivation ............................................................................................ 3 Story (version 1)................................................................................. 3 General Description ........................................................................ 3 ART STYLE............................................................................................... 3
Design Statement
My external goal is to develop a gameplay mechanic that could possibly be applied to a multi-player Facebook game at some point in the future. The mechanic of time and the puzzle game genre seem full of potential, and the spirit and style of steampunk just lends itself to the time travel theme.
Audience and Context
The target audience is the casual puzzle game crowd, most notably fans of the steampunk genre. The context it is to be played in is (currently) single-player computer gaming sessions, such as browser-based Flash gaming.
Motivation
My own particular motivation is to explore the game mechanic of time in a puzzle setting, as well as reacquaint myself with Flash. Externally, players should feel compelled by the story elements and appealing style of the game, and intrigued by the prospect of solving puzzles based on the relationship between objects in the field of three phases of time.
Story (version 1)
In this vast and amazing steampunk world, you are a brilliant inventor preparing to launch your amazing new time machine to save the world from a fatal mistake that caused the eruption of a worldwide conflict. However, something went terribly wrong with your maiden voyage. As the smoke clears, you realize that you’re neither here nor there. In fact, you seem to have become lodged somewhere in an off-branch of the time stream, with only the smallest components of your time device in your possession. At this moment you are trapped in a series of pan-dimensional rooms that somehow relate to the tragic world events you set out to fix. Using your limited time-altering functionality and what radiated tools you can find around you, you must free yourself from the labyrinth of rooms and find your time device.
General Description
The object is to exit the room in the future, and the player has three phases to work with: past, present and future. Players are given time-warped pieces found in the room, which they can play and use only in specific phases (indicated on the pieces.) For instance, the player is given a door piece they can only play in the past and only interact with in the future.
ART STYLE
Reference images