The ways that this game is going to play like a 2D Metroidvania (a sub-genre of action adventure video games played in a retro 2D style). The term is formed of games like Metroid (Nintendo, 1986) and Castlevania (Konami, 1986).
The gameplay elements for this game will be a shooter, plat-former and adventure. What the shooter will have is the use of collectable guns that the player would use to defend themselves from other enemies and I might add some areas to have a first person feature to change the pace of the gameplay. The plat-former will have the player-controlled character to jump or climb from platforms of the game levels to proceed to the next area. The adventure side of the game will have the player to explore areas of the levels and collect items that can assist them in way possible. Another gameplay element that I would like to add for this ideal game is the ability to go in first person view. I believe adding a first person shooter or fps mode during some portions of the game can change the overall pace of the 2D gameplay and give a new perspective to the game and I can implement this by using virtual reality to test if it could be playable.
What I will need to be considering for the gameplay is create a difficulty for the player to be comfortable playing the game on their own pace. The difficulty of a game is way for the player to encompass their experience of the gameplay mechanics and a good learning curve can develop the players understanding by simply having fun with the mechanics.
What I have learned in my game design principle unit are various gameplay elements that I should consider adding to this game (Brooke, 2019). These elements I’m bearing in mind for are goals, challenges, rules, boundaries and feedback. These five are core mechanics that determine the depth of the content of a video game.
Goals – the goal of the game is to find a legendary item by exploring alien planets and I plan on delivering this information to the audience by a cut scene. In the cut scene it will show several space ships, with different kinds of alien races and the narrator explaining the plot synopsis of the game. The cut scene will end with the first appearance of the main character boarding an alien ship.
Challenges – the challenges this game contains is fighting of hostile enemies and solving puzzles through items found by exploring the areas of each world.
Rules – for the rules of this game the player will have to keep moving forward to reach the next destination and they must deal with every situation given to them.
Boundaries – the boundaries of a game is present for the sole purpose of having the player be restricted from the narrative and/or physical barrier.
Feedback – the feedback is when the player receives an internal game system, which notifies them of either progress or failure.
Reference
Brook, L. (2019). Week 3 Game Design Methods. Retrieved from https://blackboard.ecu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/ content/listContent
