Emotions: wonder, thrilled, engrossed
The idea for the game is to make a Metroidvania featuring a samurai exploring an ancient crypt in search of treasure. The game will also feature various puzzles that the player has to solve to progress in the game.
Potential directions
- Rich story and engaging narrative. The narrative of the game should have some crazy twists. The biggest twist we are planning is that although the game starts off with the setting of samurai exploring ancient crypt, as the player progresses through the game, they discover that the crypt is not what it seems. At some point in the early game, the player discover that the crypt is actually a spaceship of an ancient alien bad guy who wants to destroy the world. The old derelict ruins that the player travels through gradually turns into a sci-fi environment. We can have a wise old man spirit NPC who guides the player in the crypt and originally introduces himself as the friendly spirit buried in the crypt. Later it is revealed that the old man is actually the alien bad guy, and his true objective is to lure the player into the crypt to free him so that he can destroy the world. The final boss battle will be against this alien. The engaging narrative filled with twists and turns should create the aesthetics of narrative, fantasy, and discovery.
- Innovative and deceptive puzzles. One big draw of the game will be how it deceives the user in both plot and mechanics. On the mechanics side, we can feature various puzzles with surprising solutions, that take advantage of the narrative transition from ancient fantasy to sci-fi. For example, one puzzle can involve moving rooms on the minimap to progress (narratively explained by sci-fi spacetime warping mechanisms). One puzzle can involve decrepit stairs which turn out to be high-tech elevators. As players solve these puzzles, they experience the aesthetic of challenge and discovery.
- Engaging combat. I think combat in this game doesn’t have to be too complex given the short timeline. Simple button mashing to swing a sword should be okay as long as it is fun. We can have diverse enemies, starting with mummies and spiders (to fit with ancient crypt theme) then transitioning to alien creatures. We should also have a few standout boss fights. Perhaps the player could pick up a light saber or laser beam later on. The combat will provide the aesthetic of challenge.
- Platforming challenges. An alternative to a combat-focused game could be to have a greater emphasis on platforming (so more similar to games like Mario and Jump King). This will also appeal to the aesthetic of challenge.
- Deep moral of the story. It will be nice for all the plot twists and deceptive mechanics in the game to have a deeper meaning rather than just for the sake of being there. I’m thinking about the games that have the best twists and narratives out there like Bioshock, Nier Automata, and Undertale, where the twists are good because they all contribute greatly to a more meaningful narrative rather than just for the surprise factor. I hope our game can do something similar, but not sure about how to accomplish this yet.
Playlist: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4UTQcIISbSYsu3J-GHPQq3cWZHFdtIyH&si=PFhalGBerzQEeg-r
