Em0tions: calming, exciting, empathy with the characters (idk a word for that)
Moodboard (scenery + art style + Character design): attached as a featured image
Soundtrack (it goes hard) : https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0VvKAqvmoaUOVkOpDZ0Pi1?si=8cda0f486de443bc
My team has decided that our game will be about a chicken trapped in the city who dreams of flying home. With that lets consider a few directions this could go
Direction 1: Abnegation
Completely an abnegation aesthetic of fun: we could focus on making the game super cute and having a killer soundtrack. Instead entering starkly different levels that involve a increasing amounts of skill, we could slowly add new things into one or a few areas which give users pieces of the puzzle until the game ends. This version of the game would appeal heavily to the senses and be very atmospheric. It would be simple enough that new users could very quickly learn the mechanics and begin playing with no friction. I think it would garner excitement from seeing extensive visuals and unlocking new visuals and sounds, as well as possibly new characters.
Direction 2: Fellowship – Traveling Group
Another direction the game could go would be that the user is moving between distinctly noticible levels. I’m thinking ach level could be marked not only with a changing of scenery, but with a new character added to your group. You and your slowly accumulating friends (the added characters) would continue traversing the levels together, and complete continually harder challenges… as a team! This version of the game would introduce a fellowship aspect of the game between you and your party as your bond through completing challenges, and I can see players becoming attached to all the characters. I think it would also be easy to still make the game calming, yet exciting as you must face increasingly interesting challenges and test your skills in order to progress.
Direction 3: Competition
We could make a game that is competition based. To do this, we could shift the plot to have a goal of escaping a chicken factory and make a world that has live players present who can compete amongst each other for respawning resources needed to complete the game. Another way we could achieve a competition model is to have mini games which show a high score of the player who completed it with the highest speed/accuracy. Players could repeat the mini-games as many times as they want to try and beat the high score or move on to progress the plot. I think that introducing competition aesthetic of fun in this way though would heavily detract from the calm and fellowship style mood that would be curated with the other two approaches. It would, however invoke more excitement in my opinion so we could definitely think more about this.
