Update 9/21/2014

Hail Wanderers!

Some rather interesting news on the tree game. The concept I've been working on mostly, the one that I posted the progression chart for, is actually getting rolled into the other two game concepts that my team and I have been working on. This is partially due to the fact that, though I've done several iterations on the core mechanics for the win state of the game, nothing has truly managed to fit with the original intended experience of growth and exploration. That being said, it is not as if the work done will go to waste, as the progression and combination system is being used to varying degrees in the other two game concepts.

The first concept that the team has decided to go forward with is actually the concept that my branching idea sprang from. It is closer to the original idea of having the player manage and grow their trees as they respond to the changing environment and try to get the upper hand on their opponent. The concept has really grown and now contains a working system of genetics where trees will gain different traits that are then passed down to other trees grown from that parent tree, random events that help or hinder both players (the most popular one at the moment being a lumberjack that will wander through the map and cut down any trees in his path that don't have the apple producing gene), and a changing environment system that accounts for both temperature and rainfall (with associated genes to make use of the various climate extremes). To add to the strategic complexity, the players will be able to select which type of tree they want to grow, with each tree type having a different set of possible genetic traits that it will draw from. In addition, the game will incorporate animals into a mock ecosystem of sorts. These animals will consume energy (as opposed to the trees which produce energy), but will have a greater impact on the game world as they are more damaging to the opponent's trees (though there are genes that mitigate this as well). Looking forward, we want to expand these systems further to allow for greater player choice over what trees they focus on developing and to allow them more options to counter and work with the changes in the environment, the random events, and the other player's actions.

The second concept is a slight departure from the tree theme, and has the player exploring a sequence of interconnected environments while using various magical seeds to navigate the areas. These seeds do everything from creating vine bridges, to burning through brambles, to even creating pillars of stone that the player can jump across. The game is focused on exploration and using an ever growing skillset to gain access to new and more diverse locations. This concept has been in the works on and off for a while now, but it has grown immensely in recent days and I must confess I am quite excited to be working on developing it further. The flow of the game has the player exploring new environments to try and find a group of elemental spirits that help the player by allowing them to grow the special seeds that the player uses to solve the various puzzles within each area. The player discovers new seed types at a farm that serves as the player's home base and place of rest. The player will grow the seeds and by experimenting with various combinations of the powers of the spirits, they will uncover new seeds that allow them to travel to previously inaccessible areas. I've been working on concepts for the various seed types that the player can discover, and have been building out a system for how the player will grow more of the seeds at the farm and discover new seed types. We have a few interesting narrative ideas already in the works for the game, but for the moment we are focusing more on the core systems for the gameplay while establishing just enough of the narrative to incorporate it into the game systems.

Over this next week, we will be preparing to challenge to try and move on to the next stage of the project, so expect to see more visual design documents and information about the shape of the core intent for both games as the week goes on.

Until next time,
Guardian Soul