Moodboard
I’m going for a groovy, overstimulating, silly mood. I looked for games that make me feel like I’m running late to class while tripping on something.
Spotify Playlist (link)
Narrative Directions
Direction 1: physic based platformer (challenge, sense pleasure, discovery)
I am taking a page off of Monkey Ball and Getting Over It. Games such as these it utilize complex physics mechanics to challenge the player to go from A to B. This is used as a medium to explore new environments without it being the main focus of your attention. If we are to focus on set building around a weird trip inside of a frat house, with different interconnected dimensions, exploration should be at the core of the game while still making it a fun experience. This would have players being sent to different worlds representing different corners of the frathouse (e.g. the fridge, a keg, the basement). The players will be tasked in escaping these worlds through quirky modes of transportation (e.g. a ball or a QWOP controlled robot) while battling obstacles and platforms. Players will get to feel frustrated and overstimulated and kept going by a groovy track and the promise of world exploration
Direction 2: PvP racing (challenge, sense pleasure)
I am inspired by games such as Lethal League and Head Ball for quirky 1v1 games. For this direction, we will have two human players who choose their own character, each with their own college student stereotype (e.g. athlete has a dash, nerd can slow the enemy down). They are racing to get to the front of Wilbur dining dinner special first and beat the line. They get to race like in mario kart, picking up weapons as they go to get an advantage. However, instead of a car, they have to control their characters with QWOP controls.
Direction 3: side scroller (challenge, sense pleasure, discovery)
I think of this as a mix of sonic and crazy taxi. For this game, the players will play an entrepreneurial student who wants to start their own delivery service in campus. They will have to run around a sonic type environment themed around Stanford picking up and dropping off random knick knacks to customers around campus. For example, you might get tasked with picking a lightbulb from tressider and taking it to a student in eng quad who needs it to finish building the rocket. You might also get tasked with picking up a guitar player and delivering them to a concert in the Xanadu backyard. The key is SPEED because you have to complete this order before the time runs out. However, every successful delivery will extend the time. As times run out, you will get messages from your customers egging you to come faster and revealing their own personalities. It is an endlessly replayable game where you get to discover new corners of the map every run and get to know the different characters that inhabit it.
