Impending Doom
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This is an essay that I wrote for my game design course. It is just copied from the document that I handed in and i felt like posting it here for easy access. Introduction This essay is about the design of an impending doom game where the player will lose in the end but has to feel like they could have made it. I choose to make a game about surviving alone in space with the only thing to do is controlling your breath and looking out to the stars. In this essay I will go into more detail about the gameplay and how it is done. I will also explain why I made my decisions. Setting The game takes place in the vast emptiness of space with a beautiful scenery that the player can take in. The player has been left stranded there in a spacesuit with a radio and an emergency beacon to help the rescuers locate him/her, and a limited amount of oxygen as shown by a meter on the suit. The game opens up with the player receiving a message that their emergency beacon signal has been located and that help is on the way. With the constant beeping of the emergency beacon, all the player has to do now is to maintain their oxygen by controlling their breath in order to survive long enough for rescue to arrive and save you. Gameplay The main element of the gameplay is breathing. This is done by pressing and holding the spacebar to breathe in and releasing in order to breathe out. If the player does not breathe in the screen will start to grey out and eventually turn black. When this happens the player character has dies and the game is over. The same will happen if the player breathes in and does not breathe out. The secondary gameplay element is looking around by the player moving the mouse in the direction they would like to look. The player can look down towards their left arm in order to see a meter that shows how much oxygen that is remaining. When the player has on oxygen left and the screen start top fade to black, the rescue ship becomes visible to the player but it will not reach them in time. Why I chose as I did I chose the setting of empty space and being alone with no rescue, because I have always wanted to go to space but the thought of being stranded there with no help is something that terrifies me. The reason for giving the player control over their breath is to give the player the sense that they have an opportunity to survive this ordeal and to trick them that they are in control. I chose to put the meter on the left arm because I put my watch on my left arm and therefore I felt it fitting to put the meter there. The constant beeping of the emergency beacon is there in order to never let the player forget that help is on its way. To trick them to believe that they have a chance of survival. During the end of the game, when the screen starts fading to black, I decided to show the rescue ship. This was done in order to create the feeling of “Of f***, I could have made it”, and hopefully create some urge to play the game again. Conclusion The point of the game is to trick the player that they can survive the situation they have been put in, but it ends with them knowing they will not make it. With the setting I chose and the gameplay to go along with it, I have hopefully managed to get this point across and I am looking forward to making this a playable experience in the future.  |
