kristy norindr week 7

Coming up with a game concept is HARD!

One of the challenges in the development of our game, Asylum, is how to make a game simultaneously fun and novel. It was helpful to think less about the overarching story today and more about how/why a player might feel compelled to continue playing. In order to make a game fun, we must think about the game mechanic and how to balance the intrigue of our game with compelling challenges.

Games that I enjoy playing are fairly simple. There may be one game mechanic that seamlessly integrates with the objectives and visible space. Ideally, the atmosphere should give the player information about the game through the use of space and objects reflecting the games own objectives and challenges.

Working through the functionality of our game mechanic (injecting patients with different drugs in order to alter their intrinsic behavior) is providing us with some problems/research questions/challenges. What is essential in our game, and what is extraneous? How can we eliminate unnecessary elements and retain the essence of our game? Have we built a shaky foundation and not reconsidered the base before we pile on more elements?