Homework 6: Chapter 4-5

1. For each of the four elements of the Tetrad, explain how it is addressed by your game. If one of the four elements is not used, please state this. 

AESTHETICS

The Lunar world and scenery of the environment adds to the aesthetics. The designs of the surrounding colonies with a few still under construction will give the appearance of a group of people separating from Earth. The fragile appearance of the space suits will force to user to be careful when piloting the avatar.  Even if our models will not turn out to be highly detailed, they will be detailed enough to portray the mysteries of space, mainly from the surface of the moon and the imminent future of human civilization.

STORY

 The story will have a broad scope on the time period and will focus less on the actual character the user will be controlling. The game will be set during a time when the lunar colonies are breaking away from the earth, mirroring the American Revolution, and as one of the lunar civilians, the user takes his or her stand to fight off the united countries with the tactical knowledge of the forces governed by the moon's small gravitational field.

TECHNOLOGY

We will be using blender for most of the modeling and game making, but we will also use ogre for the multi-player aspect. Ogre may as be used to play the game as well, but that is still in debate.

GAME MECHANIC

Our game will use the lunar gravity physics mechanic as the center of gameplay. The player will quickly realize how movement and actions on the moon's surface is very different from earth's gravity. Another aspect of the gaming mechanic is the use of unorthodox-ed weaponry. The player will have the ability to pick up a variety of weapons to attack his or her enemies with.

     2. Do the four (or less) elements work towards a current theme? 

All of these elements work towards are game's theme.

    3. In your own words, describe the meaning of a "theme", and how does it differ from an "experience" (see book for examples in Chapters 2 and 5. 

          Theme is the unifying idea that ties all of our game's elements together into one package. It is the reason each of the aesthetics, story, technology, and game mechanics were chosen.

          The experience is what the player will undergo as he or she will play the game. The experience will tie into the theme as we want the player to experience what has been drawn out by our reoccurring theme.

    4. What is your game's theme? 


The theme is the independence of the lunar colonies and how they go about retrieving it. 


   5. What are the elements in your game that are meant to reinforce this theme? 

The game mechanic of lunar physics reinforces the theme's implication of the colonies using what they have to fight back. Also using what weapons the player can find shows desperation-driven ingenuity his or her character has come up with to fight his or her enemies. The scenery of space in the background with the makeup of colonies being constructed will give personality to the lunar colonies.

   6. What is it about your game that you feel makes it special and powerful?

There have been games in the past that experimented with gravity mechanics, but the game we are designing has the factors of use of unusual weapons, a great story, and a unique map for the player or players to fight on.