Premise
Player Role
The player is Bowser, a purple Jellycat hippo who lives at the Paper Source in Stanford’s Town and Country. He is initially an arrogant, pompous hippo who thinks he deserves the best treatment (as he is a $32 dollar Jellycat, a most superior stuffed animal).
Player Goals
After Bowser gets dropped into the clearance bin, dumped outside of the Paper Source, and dragged to Stanford campus, he must find his way back to his initial place on the shelf. This is the only way somebody can buy him and bring him home (which is the goal of any stuffed animal).
Along the way, he also has goals to make friends and build connections with them.
Player Conflict
Bowser faces external conflict, such as coffee getting spilled on him / being lost on Stanford campus, as well as internal conflict, such as whether or not to be nice to strangers on his journey. Most of the interesting conflict comes from him deciding whether or not to change.
Player Choices
Bowser can choose different actions/dialogues, which lead to different outcomes. He can be nice, mean, or neutral in his dialogue. For his actions, some of them are pretty general (i.e. call for help or freeze).
Player Actions
Bowser is mostly limited to what the story line permits, which is talking to different stuffed animals and a few actions.
Resources
There is no specific resource tracking in the game.
Game Events
- Bowser is knocked to the floor
- Bowser meets Ellie in the clearance bin
- Bowser is trapped outside the Paper Source
- A dog carries Bowser to the Oval
- Bowser meets Unicorn Cat
- Bowser meets Cork
- Bowser meets Axe
- His friends take him to DJUNGELSKOG the bear, who arranges him passage back home on the Marg
- Bowser heads back to the Paper Source on the marg, and rescues Ellie from the clearance bin
- Bowser and Ellie head to the top shelf, where they are picked by Angela
- They reunite with Unicorn Cat, Cork, and Axe in Angela’s room
Map
Project Plan
- October 19th: Second playtest with updated v2 prototype
- October 20th/21st: Revise prototype + add more paths with various difficulties
- October 22nd: Playtest 3, gather feedback
- October 23rd: Revise prototype
- October 24th: Playtest 4, gather feedback
- October 25th-26th: Transfer game over digitally to Twine (or maybe another digital platform)?
- October 27th: Playtest 5: digital version
- October 28th/29th: Revise + iterate on feedback
- October 30th: Final playtest
- October 31st: Polish game + submit, write up my work
