Mind Factory: Pre-Production Deadline

Today is the final deadline for all our pre-production work for Art, Design and Programming. Mind Factory is finally starting to take shape and I am looking forward to next term for Production, after Christmas. Keep an eye out on my blog or the Dark Jester blog for more information on Mind Factory and to see our progression with the game. I am going to upload all the research I did earlier this year for Mind Factory, below:

Mind Factory Research Document - Gina

Summary of the purpose of this document:

In "Mind Factory" there will be two interactive windows, both in 3D. One will be focusing on "the factory", the brain of the protagonist and all its functions. The other window will be the world of the protagonist, seen through their eyes. In other words; their vision. The second window, which can be referred to as "the world", will be affected by whatever the player does in "the factory". The player will have to control and manage every part of the brain in order to complete simple tasks the protagonist is trying to do in "the world". This research document will be focusing on camera views and general art style, mainly of "the world". Whatever is found during research that is relevant to either of the two interactive windows will be included here. Anything that is found during this research will hopefully be of interest to the other team members of the group. Any general ideas that spring to mind will also be added into this document for future reference.

General Concept / Camera:

1. Second Life

Second Life is an online life simulator, basically a visual 3D chat room where you present yourself as a customised 3D model to your liking. There are gameplay elements like exploration and the collection of items (usually sold for real life currency) but it is mainly just an impressive and massive virtual chat room. The reason this is relevant to the project we are working on is because of two things: the art style is appropriate for the "world" of the protagonist, the general interaction with the world is a good source of inspiration for our concept.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=z3gHCupXSMs

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_life / http://secondlife.com/whatis/?lang=en-US

2. The Sims series

The Sims series may not be exactly what the team was thinking of when the concept of Mind Factory was introduced. The group already settled for 3D first person view, but the game series is still relevant to this research since you can control a character and its actions in life.

Mind Factory is basically a life simulator with the mechanic of controlling the brain which affects the protagonist's actions in a separated world, whereas the Sims is a life simulator where the whole point of the game is to control their actions by clicking objects and telling them what to do directly but without going too in-depth. Still an inspiration for our concept and a similar art style would be appropriate for any type of life simulator, including ours. The style of this game would be better suited for the "world".

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTyuRksaDds&feature=related

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sims_(series)

3. Live Action Videos

3a) Skyrim Live Action @ YouTube

This is a very good example of a well done Live Action video, like CollegeHumor, it is the same concept, except that this is based on/inspired by Skyrim and not real life. If we were to do live action, and include a health bar, ammunition or narrative, this would be the way to go about it for our concept.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzAVAkmGhSc

Source: http://www.youtube.com/user/NatesDailies

3b) College Humor POV @ YouTube

I tried to find an "appropriate" video of this but there aren't really any, but to make a point I've included one of their videos below. College Humor POV is a series of videos set in POV (point of view) of a college guy or girl, doing everyday things in and outside college, all in Live Action. Something similar would be good for our concept if we end up doing Live Action and not 3D, it's a good inspiration if we were to do it in 3D as well, with the same camera style. Video below:

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV--gIaYxGI&feature=relmfu

Source: http://www.collegehumor.com/tag/pov

Game play:

Window 1 (The Brain):

· Faster Than Light: http://www.ftlgame.com/

- Management of the crew, power balance and general strategy

· Point and Click (High Tea): http://www.kongregate.com/games/ExploreWellcome/high-tea

- The point and click feature, general management mechanic and general strategy

· Strategic Drag and Drop (Tentacle Wars, The Purple Menace) http://www.kongregate.com/games/gamezhero/tentacle-wars-the-purple-menace

Window 2 (The World):

· Live Action (as shown in concept/camera research)

· Semi-Interactive 3D 1st person camera

Think "Dear Esther", you have some control but it's mostly an interactive film. Since the player will be focusing on Window 1, the brain of the protagonist, there has to be a minimal amount of control and interaction with the second window. There are two options, having no control whatsoever of the second window as mentioned below, or small amounts of limited interaction (perhaps just walking or clicking things, as you do in Dear Esther).

· Non-interactive cut scene based 3D 1st person camera

- A realistic 1st person camera view through the protagonist's eyes, the character you control indirectly via the strategic window next to it. For the camera view alone (and not gameplay), good examples to have a look at are: Dark Messiah, Fallout and The Elder Scrolls series, Amnesia/Penumbra series, Thief series, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. Their cut scenes and general camera style would be perfect for the second window of the UI.

More In-Depth Gameplay Research

1. Faster than Light

"In Faster Than Light, the player controls a spacecraft and crew that intercepts a data packet from a rebel fleet. The player's goal is to reach a Federation fleet, which is waiting a long distance away, without being destroyed or caught by the rebel fleet in pursuit."

The concept of this game is very similar to Mind Factory, at least when it comes to the factory window. The goal of Mind Factory is to manage and give orders to the crew of the brain itself, that will make sure the brain functions as it should and the player must balance out the power of the crew to make sure there's enough workers in each part of the brain so the body of the protagonist functions properly. The Dark Jester group also mentioned that the player may be able to buy upgrades and such in order to improve performance and power of the crew of the brain, which is exactly what you can do in Faster Than Light.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4imWvoqxmc

Source: http://www.ftlgame.com/

2. Civilizations Wars

Not as relevant as "Faster Than Light" but a good example of a way we could handle all the mini-men in the brain. You capture buildings and give orders to a small civilization by dragging them to each building, which is basically what one would do in Mind Factory, just swap the buildings with sections of the brain that needs to be controlled by small groups of people. You learn skills and defeat enemies along the way, which could be something we could implement into our concept as well to make things a tad more interesting.

Game: http://www.kongregate.com/games/tjcarlos/civilizations-wars?acomplete=civili

Art style

Protagonist window research

1. Comic book/cartoon

a) XIII

b) Outlaws

c) Team Fortress

d) The Sims

I did research on The Sims on page 2 of this document where I explained why this is comparable to our concept, personally I think the art style is the most appropriate for our concept as it's not too serious and much more achievable in the time we have to make this game than having realistic real-life graphics.