Introduction
In my last post, I introduced the concept of the “Walking Challenge RPG”. I talked about what it was and why we wanted to make it. Now, I will explain how exactly you would go about playing the game.
Walking
This is a mockup of what the main menu will look like. This menu is what will greet the user when they open the game (it will look better in its completed form, don’t worry!). This keeps track of the number of steps walked each day, and also shows the player’s gold. This lets the user know how much they need to walk to get enough gold for what they want by directly telling them how much they have in total. Lastly, it keeps track of any walking challenges the player may have. This way, the user will know what challenges they need to fulfill to get extra rewards without having to go all the way into the main game. You may notice that it says “Title of Game.” That is because we have not thought of an actual title for the game yet. It won’t be called “Walking Challenge RPG”. We want to give it a good title so we haven’t finalized it yet.
Battle
Where does the RPG part of the game come into play? Well, when you have walked enough to get enough gold, you can open the “Castle Area”, which is where the actual gameplay takes place. Here, you can buy equipment for the Cat Hero. This equipment will allow him to engage in battles and earn experience, which lets him use more powerful (but expensive) equipment. To actually enter battle, the castle (hence, Castle Area) in the center of the area takes the player to the world map, where they can see many worlds and levels in those worlds. Entering a level allows the player to start a battle. Here is an example of the battle screen:
The Cat Hero fights alone on the left side of the screen. The enemies are on the right, which there may be more than one of them. This is still just a mockup; on a phone screen, I will increase the size of the buttons to make them easier to press with fingers. The player chooses which targets to attack with “Fight” and tries to win. The enemy health is not displayed, which we may change later. Items can also be used to help Cat Hero achieve victory, which can be obtained by completing the walking challenges mentioned earlier. Naturally, to win the battle, all the enemies health must be depleted to zero. When an enemy has no more health, they are defeated and leave the battle. When there are no more enemies, Cat Hero wins and is awarded experience.
Conclusion
As you can see, the premise of gameplay is pretty simple. This will make the game easily accessible to anyone who wants to play it. Once we get more experience with the coding and framework, we may be able to make it more complicated. The pace of the game is slowed by the fact that the user needs to exercise to obtain gold, but that is the point. A slower gameplay loop means the game is easier to extend in length. The user will take longer to complete every level, which means they will stay motivated to complete the game for longer, and motivation is key to exercise.
