DESIGN GOALS

STORY SUMMARY

After the head family of a small forest village’s twins go playing in the woods, they discover a mythical spirit deeply feared amongst the villagers. Attacking the twins, the spirit devours one of them only to recognise them as members of the head family. Out of long standing malice and resentment, the spirit gives the remaining twin a condition, if they can return their twins soul, now trapped in a mask given from the spirits tail, to a body within ten days the both of them will live, however if they fail all traces of the family will be destroyed.

SURFACE GAME GOAL

To return the ‘Lost Twin’ to a body within 10 days, this could conceptually be done through different endings IE self sacrifice, spirit route, possession of a dying child through befriending the villagers, etc, etc.

META GAME

player engagement will be ensured through the character interaction and puzzle aspect, the true purpose of the game is to provide an interesting world of characters and puzzle solving through communicating between the real world characters and the spirits. this will be implemented through the two main game mechanics which is the use of the ‘Lost Twin'(the twin trapped in a mask) to flip between and access the two different realities and the mechanic of time, which is experienced through in game day cycles but through the save mechanic you will be able to see exactly how much time you have left – IE – 3 days left etc.

MECHANICS

As brushed upon in my Meta game summary, there will be 2 main mechanics.

• Mask Mechanic – How this mechanic works is to give the player control over which reality they interact with. They will be able to perform a transformation action in which they switch to the opposite twin and with that switch between the realities. For example the living twin transforms into the lost twin and the spirit realm becomes accessible and then the lost twin switches to the living and the living world becomes accessible. This mechanic is to support and ensure the puzzle aspect of my game as the puzzles operate between characters and events in both worlds simultaneously. Such as deciphering a riddle or inside story from a spirit by returning to their family and searching their house/communicating to them etc.
• Time Mechanic – This mechanic enforces the playing structure and pacing of the game. The time mechanic is the day cycle and is vital to the story as it directly correlates to the prologue in which the condition to return the soul to the body is given. The way this mechanic exists in the game is through a day and night cycle and through subtle reminders given through dialogue at save points (save points being a cat and a nekomata in the spirit realm) – While thinking of this mechanic i realised whilst it is vital to include it in the game i needed to ensure the game would still be enjoyable as with my meta game summary i describe how the player engagement and enjoyment is ensured through enjoyable and meaningful character interactions and sub stories, with a ‘timer’ too aggressive or overt it would encourage a rushed style of game play which would compromise the enjoyment and ultimately ruin the game. An example of a game that uses a subtle timer mechanic is ‘Oxenfree’ in which you only have a night to explore the island, this also encourages replay value and i want my game to share these qualities.

 

SETTING

The setting is an accumulation of eastern Asian cultures which is expressed through the character design, culturally guiding clothing and aesthetic choices and is the main inspiration point for the spirits/spirit realm and i drew from multiple different cultures and mythos.

Platform PC

WASD – Movement. W move vertically upwards up ledges and vertical planes, S move vertically downwards, A move left D more right, Also used to navigate menus and dialogue choices.

E – Interact. Used to start dialogue and interact with environment aswell as activate save points.

Esc – Menu, used to access settings, save/load and exiting out of game. Press again to exit out of menu.

Q – Mask transformation. Triggers the animation sequence and enables the player to switch between worlds.

MAJOR – Concept art

MINOR – animation

CONTENTS – PITCH