Well, where to start. The team is great. Everyone has their strengths and is both creative and eager. I’m really excited to get to building of this project. After getting to know them and spending time working and talking with them, I am much more confident in this project. That being said we have a mountain of work ahead of us. That’s not what I want to focus on.
By far the hardest part of this project so far was picking the product, and I want to take some time to reflect on that. In the first two weeks we had to decide what our game was going to be. While the initial proposal listed a potential game I had intentionally left it open to suggestions from other members just in case. While I believe that I had some good ideas I wanted to hear what other people were interested in. So, this is where we started, discussing our different ideas and going through a round of pitches. While there weren’t many ideas to begin with we immediately were excited about two the side-scroller that was initially pitched, and a social sim.
Since we initially couldn’t decide on which project, split basically down the middle, I proposed that we take a couple days to come up with ideas. The idea was to take a couple of days and focus on ideas for a single proposal. So that is what we proceeded to do.
Apocalypse Farm
The social sim was were we decided to focus our energy first. Early on in the proposal phase Jon and I found we had a similar idea of mixing a social sim type farming game (e.g. Harvest Moon, Stardew Valley), with a post apocalyptic setting. From his perspective he wanted to make a game that him and his wife could play together and be excited about each aspect. I just thought the idea of advanced technology, farming, and bringing humanity back from the brink of extinction would make for a great story.
The four of us took two, maybe three, days and put a bunch of effort into the ideas of what would make this game fun. Various functionality, features, and story hooks were all compiled into a document. After those couple of days we met again to discuss and synthesize our ideas.
We took at least two hours to discuss the various ideas that we came up with. The stand outs, besides the farming, were defending the farm against raids, building your own town, and building relationships with NPCs. We discussed various story ideas with branching outcomes, how stats and abilities would work, and art and color styles. I think this is where we really started growing as a team and began to understand who we were working with. I saw my team mates for the creatives that they were and more than just their potential abilities.
The synth wave code ninja
After the first meeting we repeated the process but with the ninja side scroller. I have to say, there are some really cool ideas floating around this game. My original idea was all about pure speed and obstacles that would reflect that, but as we started talking about this concept my whole world for this game flipped over in the best of ways. Brandon proposed a wonderful idea for the game story where you are a ninja fighting against a samurai and both get pulled into retro style video game. This idea expanded into there’s two families fighting over an Artificial Intelligence that has become corrupted. The AI system helped keep humanity prosperous but some unknown force changed that. The two families, a ninja family and a samurai family, were trying to gain control over the AI and eventually learned that they have to access it in a way similar to The Matrix.
From here we expanded the idea from a basic side scroller to something akin to a Metroidvania. Metroidvania is genre of side scrolling games based around exploring a limited region, and as you find items and beat bosses you unlock abilities. These abilities help in combat as well as exploring the world, and that is how the world expands and new areas are introduced.
There were a ton of cool ideas in this session, a vibrant art style based on 80’s synthwave, and cyberpunk themes. Having locations around the map where the player didn’t have to worry about combat. These locations would be like a noodle stand, a calm and tranquil shrine, or even a solitary campfire where the character would heal and save. These locations would feature NPCs that would share stories, and guide the player to the next goal or a hidden treasure. Each would have its own calming vibe, with the goal of allowing the player to relax.
We had a strong understanding of what functionality the game would have, tight controls, smooth physics, wall jumping, and combat. So this was discussed minimally, but we did take plenty of time to discuss how the game should look and feel. I think the ideas around this game could culminate to make something great.
Deciding the farm
Ultimately, we decided on project Apocalypse Farm, the title is undecided, but my favorite contender is “Still Here.” The vote was close to unanimous after all the discussion and brainstorming. There were voiced reservations, mostly due to the size of the project, but in the end we decided on the farm by popular vote. There are a lot of cool ideas floating around this project, some brought in from the ninja game, and a couple of homages to titles that we love.
The goal is just to get through the first chapter, and build the game in a modular manner. I think all of us want to see this project through to completion even if it goes beyond just an assignment. My main focus is writing a story and world that make sense, ensure accessibility is maximized, and to create a game that is enjoyable. It’s a big mountain to climb, but I believe we can get there through teamwork and effective planning. I don’t see us giving up on this, we each have our reasons for choosing our degrees and careers. That and a passion for great stories told through games. While I understand there is a lot of work ahead of us, I am excited to get through it.