Introduction & Narrative
Our game is a puzzle box, inspired by escape rooms, designed for one or more players.
You, the player, are an alien who wakes up in an unfamiliar starship, unsure of where you are and frantic to get home. You look around the room and see another alien. However, upon asking for help, you realize that your alien counterpart cannot understand you. On a quest to return home, you look around the starship for clues that reveal more about the mysterious alien language. Through various puzzles, you are able to learn more and more about the new language, until you are able to ask your new alien friend to help you enter the next room. However, you must do so quickly such that the starship’s crew members do not catch up to you. Progressing through different rooms of the starship, you eventually arrive at the cockpit at the top of the starship where you are finally able to ask the captain to steer you home.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/apollo-8-earthrise/
Types of Fun
Our game relies on four primary sources of fun to make gameplay engaging and enjoyable.
Discovery. As players solve puzzles and crack codes, they’ll receive new pieces of information previously unknown to them. This sense of exploration and discovery will provide players with enjoyment as they uncover hidden clues and new pieces of the narrative.
Challenge. As with any typical puzzle box or escape room, this game involves a series of challenging puzzles for players to work together on and solve. Thus, in a way, the game is almost like an mental obstacle course requiring problem solving and critical thinking skills.
Narrative. Our game’s narrative exposition will be introduced to the players in the instruction manual. We believe that players will be invested in progressing through the game to see the storyline unfold and discover the fate of each of the characters.
Sensation. Our game box comes with a large physical display of a spaceship to help fully immerse players into the game. We plan to make the spaceship visually interesting through our use of color, texture, interior decor, and electrically wired lights. We believe the experience of looking at the spaceship will be exciting for players and increase engagement.
https://www.amazon.com/CP-Toy-Mission-Including-Astronauts/dp/B009M6G1YC
Tone
We create an environment that is exciting yet cohesive, and leans into playful and artistic depictions of outer space rather than scientific ones. Our spaceship is retro-futuristic, and our alien characters are cute. To complement the thrill of the escape room, the tone of this game is lively and bright.
Wonder. The spaceship is filled with flashing lights and futuristic technology. You’re lightyears away from planet Earth and have never felt so far from home. Without knowing when or where you are, you must explore your puzzling surroundings to find your way back. We want our game to feel as otherworldly as the I Spy books and as intricate as Where’s Waldo.
Engagement. Set against the backdrop of deep space, our game is bright and immersive, utilizing LEDs and motorized parts to transport the player to the space age. Throughout the game, a digital clock counts down the time remaining before all hope of getting back to Earth is lost. Unexpected allies and tricky adversaries bring the spaceship to life.
Curiosity. Details in every room of the game box draw the player in, inviting players to interact with the space. Shiny red buttons and mysterious levers decorate the control room. The gameplay requires players to poke and prod at the miniature scene, relying on curiosity just as much as problem solving. Dark hallways and hidden rooms keep the user guessing what’s around the corner.
(https://shop.moderndomesticpdx.com/copy-of-retro-futurism-canvas-black-space.html)
Gameplay Mechanics
Our game consists of a physical dollhouse-esque model spaceship, as well as various puzzle resources such as cards, cipher wheels, locks, keys, and more. The objective of the game is move from the bottom compartment of the spaceship to the top cabin before the time runs out, thereby redirecting the ship back to Earth before it’s too late.
The play style of this game is designed to be cooperative, allowing multiple players to collaborate and work together in a concerted effort to overcome the challenges posed by the game system. Individual gameplay is also an option, and in such cases time limits will be adjusted accordingly to account for the added difficulty of attempting all of the puzzles alone.
Players begin in the bottom compartment of the ship and are only able to proceed to the compartment above once they’ve unlocked the door separating them. In order to do this, they require a key that they’ll receive after solving a series of puzzles, cracking codes, and looking for hidden clues. This process repeats until the players have reached the top of the spaceship, in which case they’ll need to uncover the final secret code to reroute the ship back to Earth and win the game.
If the time runs out before the players have completed all of the tasks, technically they will have “lost”, but we will encourage them in the instruction manual to still finish the game. We will also have a packet of hints to help players in case they get stuck and need a nudge in the right direction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_%28rocket%29
Execution
Physical Components
For the execution of our puzzle box, players will navigate through a set of rooms in a dollhouse-style spaceship. Made out of shoeboxes stacked vertically on top of one another, this structure will include 4-5 rooms of the spaceship, each with specific challenges. Players will begin at the bottom left layer of the spaceship. Upon solving that layer of the spaceship, they will move on to the bottom right and so on and so forth in a zig-zagging fashion until reaching the top layer of the spaceship (see image to the right). 
Each room is covered with a cardboard door until the previous layer is solved. In order to solve a room and move on to the next room, players complete language-related challenges with the help of their alien allies and (possibly) with the sabotage of alien enemies. Players operate by the honor system so as to not move on to the next level without completing the previous level.
Digital Components
The challenges players solve to advance from room to room will involve digital components. For puzzle-related challenges, players scan QR codes that lead to computer-programmed locations to enter passwords and clues. This is one way that players know to move on to the next room. Additionally, when challenges are completed, parts of the spaceship light up or have other digital updates to let players know to move on to the next level.
