Character design

For the main character I want a strong individual to make sure the player knows they are the leader and able to make decisions. This may change their ethical decisions which I want to challenge.

These are some images of the feeling I want to portray although not necessarily the complexity or style.

Development

I want to split my game into more sequential parts to give it more opportunity to have development. The idea will therefore change to be about reaching certain checkpoints which become the 'levels' and breakpoints for all intensive purposes. 

For instance the above map (as an example) would show the checkpoints that the characters would have to get to and they would be in the safe zone as they reached them and would be able to save the game, but the end point and the way to win the game would be the red star finish point.

Each level would consist of you as the main character trying to get as many of your group to the checkpoint and therefore to the end of the group. The basis of the resource management elements will still be a major part of the game as it will determine the route you take to get to the checkpoint. 

The safer route:

Taking the safe route would obviously mean you're more likely to be able to keep the group together and less likely to get fatalities. However in this case you are more likely to be slower and have the attackers who are following you to catch up. This may not be an immediate threat but could take its toll over the course of the game. 

The more dangerous route:

This route is a lot more likely to cause fatalities and there would be choices all along it as to force resource management and sacrifice. For instance there could be a rickety bridge where the rope snaps and you have to decide between pulling up a child who has slipped or a stronger member who could help you later. 

Differences and examples of the contrasting routes

For instance crossing a river-

You could either take a bridge thats down the river but which will take longer to get to or you could take the rickety swing bridge. 

These are obviously over complicated circumstances but give the idea of the choice mechanic within the game

This image illustrates the kind of thought process that I really want to engage- if the quicker option isn't viable for some members do you take the time or in the long run who do you sacrifice to win?

Moodboard

This mood board sums up the different types of colourings, textures and balance that I want.

I want to aim for a natural looking website as it is for a cattery and so should be something that reminds of animals. I also want a lot of white space with a base in brown and a clean cut typography and layout. Because of this I used a lot of photos that have linear aspects such as the books and architecture. 

Website layout concept

These are my base setups for my website for the macbook pro 15", the iPad and the iPhone in that order.

The base idea will be that there will be certain break points for each resolution and that the layout will be specific to the device. Although they look quite standard I want the greyed out area to scroll upwards over the rest of the content in parallels. For instance, in the mobile option the greyed area would slowly go over the 'Home' 'About Us' and 'Contact Us' as the user scrolled down until only the logo and the title of the website was showing.

The box with the cross through it and the dots underneath represent a slideshow of pictures. 

Concept to develop

Taking the idea of disposable people I've tried to enhance the idea and create opposing reasons for keeping different types of people over disposing them. For instance a child being able to crawl into smaller spaces that adults would be an opposing reason to keep them around even though they might not be as strong or as fast.

Within this idea you control a group of people running away from something (I haven't decided if this  is a monster, a virus, a group of attackers yet) and you have to decide the different path you'll go down- each with its own perils, advantages and disadvantages. You also must take into account which path will be the most beneficial for the group or whether you take a path which could mean some of the group not making it, but which will take you further from the threat.

For instance there would be paths which would be more difficult for children because of the spaces they needed to jump or the heights they had to reach but the path would mean the 'monster' falls behind also and therefore it could be an option to take the path despite the fact that the children may not make it.

To keep things tense and make the decisions harder to make certain paths would require specific members of the group to do specific tasks. For instance there might be a path later on where it requires someone small, like a child to climb across a small plank to release a wider path for the rest.

These opposing reasons to keep different members create an emotional and ethical tension which would keep the game interesting and still holding onto a main mechanic of resource management in relation to people as the resources and deciding on who is necessary to continue running.

Iterated Ideas

I wanted to take away the idea that I already had and focus on the base idea of how people see other and whether they see them as disposable and why. 

Through this base idea I wanted to come up with an idea that demonstrates the ethical challenges and whether people would sacrifice others for the greater good or for their own survival.

The first idea I had was based around a small boat that was loaded with different types of people- including children, women and men- both strong and weak. The aim is to get the boat to a certain location by rowing using the oars and the people in the boat. However there is the problem of the boat sinking at the same time because of the weight of the people. The player has to chose if any of the people are disposable- do you sacrifice the children because they can't contribute to rowing or keep them because they're not heavy.

Although this idea may have had merit in the way it made people examine if they see people as disposable or who was the most valuable but there wasn't any more than that to the idea. It doesn't seem to have any other redeeming fun features or interesting gameplay so I'll try to remove the placidity of this idea into something more fast paced

Base ideas

My first base ideas for the 3D game proposal were all based on the idea of ethics and how we can often justify certain actions if we believe its either for the greater good or for the advancement of ourselves or someone we care about.

These ideas all look into the idea of people as disposable and how people take on amorality and the disregard for the moral when it helps them achieve their goals.

However this could be too complicated as it would mean having multiple different people animated and interacting with each others to figure out whether they're infecting each other and the rate that they're infecting.

I will try to bring this down to a simpler idea which holds the same ethical challenges. I want to see if I can bring this down to a single player game also to simply the gameplay and really focus on the core mechanics.