The Hidden Conquest
Third-Person Turn Base RPG
The Cycle of Life
A Philosophical Approach to System Design
Platform: PC & Consoles
Team Size: 1
Role: Game Designer
Tools: Machination.io
Period: 20 Days
URL: https://bit.ly/39CFm3P
System Design Visual Simulation
❖ Preface ❖
The foundation of this write up is based on my decision of learning system design more in-depth after the completion of one of my level design project.
After reading many articles and academia about systematic design I decided to give a new approach to the system while designing them and i.e. a philosophical approach to system design under an authored narrative.
I love games with heavy systems such as Civilization, Spore, different card and board games but the goal of this approach is to create a system that is more than just increasing and decreasing numbers on the screen.
The primary goal is to create an intimate interactive system that tends to create meaningful outcomes and the capacity to be aware of feelings in contrast with the system.
My initial thoughts were to just write about the system in detail but it doesn’t seem understandable without any complete concept and a narrative. So, this document includes a brief game concept incorporating the newly defined approach to system design.
❖ High Concept❖
The idea was to create an intimate relationship between nature and humans from a nature perspective where you have to play as a plant in a first-person view. The player will have to make food for the plants, similarly as plant do to live. So directly, the player will be living the life of the plant, tree or whatever connected to the living nature as the narrative requirement.
In the whole game player can’t move he can just look around at 360° and observe the different activities around him.
The main objective for the player was to make food for the plant by managing different resources. If a plant makes good food then he will be a healthy flowering plant as they are born to function and all of that is entirely dependent upon the player because he will be playing as a plant. If the player is unable to manage those resource then the plant will be unhealthy and will not give fruits, flower etc. If the plant doesn’t perform as expected then the undertaking or guarding human will through him off.
So the main idea behind this gameplay was a sensory experience that plants have a life too just like us, they also have to make their food and perform better under a certain condition so they will live and survive. They are not just a part of nature whose sole purpose is to make the environment healthy, there is more to it. How they feel when they are thrown out by humans just by saying that “I have poured a lot of water to it but still it doesn’t look good, make a fresh flower, fruits etc.” Plants are living beings just like us who also fail in life. So, every state of the game system is connected with the deep meaning inside it, not just a traditional game overstate.
Plants are one of the oldest species and the first living being on this planet. How in their evolution they had learned different strategies to live and have observe this planet from its origin and seen the evolution of consciousness in many living being.
This game wants you to experience all the experiences of plants journey.
So, this game will show you the complete cycle of life on this planet from the plant perspective which eventually is the oldest living being and our main playable character will also be the plant, tree under different narrative beats of the game.
❖ Game Mechanics❖
The core mechanics of the game lies under the infamous genre of resource management. These resources are pretty much taken from real life as a plant need to make their food.
The game is divided into eight chapters in which the player will be playing with different plants and other activities like humans, animals doing things around them so they will know more about their behaviour and psychology.
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The primary objective for the player is to survive and use these resources to make the food so that plant will be healthy and he can produce goods to impress humans.
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There will be four core resources that the player can apply and he can apply them in any order he wants.
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The main goal for the payer is to reach certain health that will trigger the NPC who will check the plant state.
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NPC’s will interact with the plant only to pour more resources into it or to check the state of the plant i.e. his health.
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If health was good then there will be the end of the current chapter or NPC will just pour more resources like water, opening the window for more air, putting in the minerals etc. and again player had to manage all the resources to reach a certain health amount.
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If the player fails to manage and plant health reaches zero then NPC will come and throw the plant away because he is unable to produce goods.
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After that, the current chapter will start again from the start. So indirectly it’s permadeath. To proceed further player had to complete the current chapter.
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The resources will be shown with the 2D user interface with the amount circling them.
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The plant 3D mesh will also be shown on the screen which reflects the health and current state of the plant.
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At last, the player can always look around in the first person all around him to grasp the view because each chapter will have only one view with a strong emphasis on the beauty of nature and narrative that binds the whole scene together.
❖ System Design❖
The core of the system lies in the calculations of how these resources going to work and different parameters defined by multiple rulesets. Values of these resources will completely depend upon how long we want the chapter.
Let’s take an example of one chapter, there will be four primary resources that are water, sunlight, air and soil.
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Each has 16 resources further divided into four sections so on single press player can apply only four resources or he can apply all by pressing on it four times.
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After that, each resource would take its own time to produce glucose i.e. food. Water will be converted instantly and sunlight will take three seconds for an amount of two.
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So that player can apply all of them at once and queue them so they will be converted into food accordingly.
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If the food amount is equal to zero then plant health will decrease because it’s obvious that he needs more food to stay fresh.
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When health or food reaches zero after initiated the system then it will trigger the AI that will come to either check the plant state if health is zero or to pour more resources into the plant. So, the AI will completely be based on the system values of different parameters.
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Numerical values of each parameter and rules for those parameters will be chapter-based which also helps in determining the length of the chapter.
❖ Narrative & Settings❖
The whole narrative is divided into eight consecutive chapters each having its own set of the playable character, setting and NPC’s. This is a brief description of each chapter for their look, feel and mood.
Chapter 1 – “Origin”
This chapter defines the creation of the universe i.e. Big Bang. The player will be playing in FPS and can only look around by panning the mouse. Around everything, there will be just unknown colourful forces colliding with each other.
The player will jump one scene from another in chapter one as there were first forces, then the creation of galaxy and then volcano blowing up which were cooled down by the water and leads to the creation of rocks, mountains.
So the player will be in a locked movement where he can look around and experience the magnificent beauty around him.
Chapter 2 – “The Beginning”
This chapter introduces us to the first playable character and one of the first lifeforms on this planer i.e. aquatic life. You will be playing as an aquatic plant in a deep-sea surrounded by early life form like jellyfish etc. Player just had to follow up the system and use resources.
Every scene will be as beautiful so that when the player applied all the resources and they are converting them into food, he can just grasp this profound beauty of nature.
Chapter 3 – “Land of Hope”
This chapter is one step forward where the player will play first time on the land surrounded by early life on land dinosaurs, crocodiles and big mountains and water.
Chapter 4 – “Consciousness”
This chapter set in the deserted area introduces the chimpanzees, gorillas in the first few minutes then after some there will be dears, elephants, giraffe and lion where the lion hunting his bait and humans just seeing or learning to survive.
This chapter is an example of the evolution of human consciousness over the years from Apes to humans.
Chapter 5 – “Upbringing”
This chapter will start from the nursery where someone is buying that particular plant you are playing so at the start you can only look around and see what is happening.
After some time your owner will be driving you home and you can see the outer environment of how the world grows from nothing.
Then you will start playing in a house near the window where kids are playing in front of you and the housemaid is going to pour resources into the plant when needed. The kids are the main focus here on what they doing and how they interacting with each other.
Chapter 6 – “Life”
The plant location for this chapter will be in an office where one couple is managing the office. The plant will be located in the window of the top floor and from there he can look down and see people coming daily to work and on inside the couple doing their work, having their moment sad or happy.
The idea for this chapter was that what happens when the child grew up they marry or live their life with someone they love. They have their moments every day and that’s called life.
Chapter 7 – “End”
This chapter is dedicated to the death of human life. The plant will be located as usual near the window and can see an old dying man in his final moment with the nurse helping him around.
In this chapter, the player will experience the dawn of human life over the progression of the previous three chapters.
Chapter 8 – “The New Beginning”
This chapter is the last chapter which also embarks on the death of the plant. The chapter will start with the plant been moved out in the dumpster truck where the player can look around and the truck dropped the plant at the bank of some river.
At that moment player can play the usual but the resources he had limited and when he applies them nothing happened and the plant health keep gets decreasing because of the plant at his dying stage.
In front of the plant, the player can see a new plant growing out of the land and simultaneously sun rising in front of him.
