Game Vision Statement

My game will be called The Mysterious Island and will be available to play on the PC. The main first player character named Detective Craine will venture on a journey to a mysterious island known for it's creepy reputation and suspicious locals in order to try and help solve the disappearance of one of it's local residents named Jane. There's also a large dark mansion that sits on the edge of town where nobody dares to visit. This is where Detective Craine will eventually explore and uncover the truth about her disappearance.

It's an adventure game suitable for audiences between the ages of 12-20. It's a mind-racking game at best as its demanding to the player mentally as they try to solve all the riddles/puzzles and reach the end goal of the game. Detective Craine embarks on this journey by himself through the little town located on the mysterious island. He must search for clues which will then present him with a riddle or puzzle. In order to progress and continue on through the game he has to solve each riddle and talk to some of the locals for clues.

Once he completes all the riddles and puzzles Detective Craine will come to the end of the game where he reaches the final riddle. Once this is solved the missing girl is found and the game is completed.

The idea of this game is to teach players that once they overcome obstacles in their lives they can move on to bigger and better things like the Detective Craine is doing in this game. This game is definitely suitable for anyone who loves a challenge and those who have a heightened sense of curiosity about them.

The key features of this game include the undirected exploration as the player has the ability to roam freely while they look for clues and hints. Another key feature is the riddles and puzzles. An example of one of the riddles would be something like "I'm often running yet I've no legs. You need me but I don't need you. What am I?" (The answer is water!). To help the player solve each riddle they'll be able to type in an answer and suggest it to see whether it's right or wrong. If it's wrong the player just has to keep trying until they succeed! Other key features include the specific storyline, the background music, it's an adventure based platform game and the challenge aspect of the game.

There'll also be some background music possibly inquisitive/curious sounding music throughout the game. As for the setting the game will be centered in the little town on the island so the background will likely contain houses, street lamps and some greenery. There will also be a large forest on the edge of the town.

I think this game will stand out with it's deep background story and unusual gameplay. This game gives off an inviting and curiosity driven vibe which I think will attract players and encourage them to take a look at it and hopefully give it a go!

Some links to sources
Kotaku
Packt

Game Concept
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Games MDA

I started today's post by watching a video on MDA Framework and reading the academic papers by LeBlanc, Hunicke and Zabek. I firstly learned that there's a difference between mechanics and dynamics. Mechanics are more or less the rules/restrictions that each game operates under while dynamics are the "play" of the game when the rules are in full swing. Dynamics and mechanics are different views of games with dynamics emerging from mechanics.

An example of dynamics is Time Pressure which can easily create a sense of dramatic tension. The mechanics that make up time pressure include depleting resources, a simple time limit and a "pace monster".
Aesthetics refer to the players experience of the game instead of focusing on the visual elements.
Models are formulas or abstractions and can also be referred to as "lenses". Formal models have no Grand Unified Theory but have a lot of smaller models instead. MDA for models is the knowledge of the links and interactions between aesthetics, dynamics and mechanics. Some properties of solid good models are formal, abstract and proven. Abstract means refers to this as widely applicable while formal refers to a good model as well-identified.

The next part explored a new meaning of the word "fun" as we are encouraged to think and use this word differently. The authors then go on to introduce us to eight new forms of "fun". The first way was Sensation which in game terms refers to the game as sense - pleasure, the second way is Fantasy which portrays the game as make - believe. The third way is Narrative which is the drama aspect of the game, the next way is Challenge which refers to the game as an obstacle course. The fifth way is Fellowship which refers to the game's social framework. Next is Discovery which refers to the game as uncharted territory. Expression and Submission refer to the game as self - discovery and positive.

Next was a very interesting part of the article where the authors explored the individual aesthetics of different games such as Charades, Quake and Final Fantasy. Each game contained different aesthetics and none were the same as the other. An aesthetic model is described as a rigorous definition of an aesthetic goal which states the criteria for both success and failure.
An example of this is given to us in the article along with more examples of each. Models of game dynamics include once again no Grand Unified Theory but instead a collection of many dynamic models which are analytical in nature.
Finally an example of the feedback system is shown which was very useful to me. I enjoyed reading more about game MDA and found all these articles and video to be very informative.

Links:
Link 1
Link 2
Link 3

Game mechanics
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