Our group met with Paul on Friday to discuss the gameplay for our project. We first broke down our intentions with the use of headtracking, explaining that we wanted to have the gameplay revolve around the importance of the headtracking otherwise its just a novelty that really is not needed. Paul made a good point that with the way the headtracking was going to be used for the first gameplay, a player could essentially lean to one side then not move for the rest of the game. He made the suggestion that the game be fast paced so a player would have to constantly move back and forth to see what the adjacent players are doing. The group agreed on the idea so once we were done meeting with Paul, we sat for the next 2.5 hours and discussed a way that the gameplay could do this resulting in our new (and much improved) game concept.

We threw out the old idea of different landscapes and went to a more abstract concept where each side is just a flat plane with 1 character standing on a cube platform. Each player starts with an initial cube library of about 10 cubes. The object is for the player to get their character to the opposite corner of the plane before the other players do. The game is now a competition instead of cooperative. The player has to lay the cubes to give the character a pathway to get to their corner. However, the player can also view other adjacent sides to see where their competition is progressing and try to delay them. However, doing so leaves their own side in jeopardy because they are not paying attention to their blocks, which can be altered different ways (which I will address soon). During play, any blocks that were not in their initial library float in front of the characters view, slightly obscuring their line of sight. These blocks, while floating, can be stolen by adjacent players if not being used. It is up to the player’s discretion if they want to quickly lay their route or wait and stockpile their blocks for later use since they are at risk when laid down.

The player will never be able to get to the end point with their initial starter set of blocks. They will have to either steal blocks that are left out by other players or wait for more blocks to become available. Every 15-30 seconds, blocks will erupt from the top of the main cube and send new blocks into orbit around the cube. These are free-for-all blocks that can be grabbed by anyone. However, some of these blocks can be special that affect other players. For example, earthquake blocks can be used on other players to cause blocks to fall off their surface and into orbit. Other special blocks may be sent to adjacent sides to bomb and destroy the pathway that they have laid out. Another special block can change the end point of a a competing player.

As far as how these blocks are laid out through the level, we would like to have different colored blocks throughout the game. Each side’s plane will have random spots that are a certain color where only that color block can be placed. However, there are mostly universal spots there any type of block can work. Players will try to navigate to the end point, but along the way, they will have offshoots that may be worth taking. Bubbles containing specialty blocks (that were described previously) and regular blocks will be floating around the game that can be collecting and used by the player.

This idea is not completely final, and we have sent it to Paul for review and suggestions. We really like this idea because of how much will be going on. Players will have to deal with the paranoia that their side can be manipulated without them, as well as their desire to complete the level/delay their competition. There will also be blocks flying through space as well as in front of them. The game is now able to be random and always changing as well compared to the previous version that was linear. We all like the idea of a unique experience every time compared to the linear one.

Here is a visual example of what we’re thinking:  comp-11