September design meetings overview
Tuesday, September 23, 1997
The main focus of the design discussion is what do we visualize in Prey that will set it apart and make it different from the other 1st person games we’ve played (on a game level, not a technology level).
Environment
The game environments should be original, unique and very detailed
Very diverse environments (humanoid areas should be very different from saurian areas, etc.)
Show off the massive scale of the Trocaran ship
Play
Multiple ways to achieve a goal (blasting, stealth, puzzle solving, etc.)
Replayabiltiy (variable enemy start positions, each instance of an actor can posses unique traits—within a specified range—either set randomly or by the mapper)
Use environment as a tool (move boxes to climb up to an area, create cover, etc.)
The gun the player model holds is the gun the player sees—trajectory tracks down the gun accurately (which means that it’s far harder to shoot accurately when running, etc.)
Entities
Actor types can have "script paths" which they will move towards if there is no external stimulus—these might be guard routes, movement (with animation) from one terminal to another, working with a machine, etc.)
Enemies have very real seeming senses, especially hearing (it’ll be cool if the player must utilize stealth in the game)
Plenty of "non-classified" creatures on the Trocaran ship—non-intelligent beings like parasites, domesticated animals, wild animals, etc.
Other
Unbelievable special effects
User interface that is fully functional with nothing ancillary on the screen (heartbeat for health, ammo count and low ammo warnings on gun, etc.)—we’ll still have visual displays that can be toggled on if the player wants
Many variations on standard weaponry
Wednesday, September 24, 1997
This discussion centered around the pace of the game. Do we want it to be a twitch fest? Do we want Golden Eye type pacing? Or something completely different?
Of course, we "wandered" off into different subjects J
Pace
Vary the pace in single play
We want to make the player value Talon’s life
The frenetic "twitch and shoot" pace, particularly of multiplayer Quake, is something we don’t want to duplicate.
You can never kill everything—some creatures will always respawn (but not ammo and health)—sometimes, the respawning creature(s) will increase in power and number, so that a player cannot simply hunker down and kill forever.
Clues
Learning by dying is generally a bad design philosophy
Let’s use NPCs as a way to give Talon information at points about how to solve a certain problem
Scott Miller’s ideas about the "hawk familiar" (a different incarnation of the spirit of the great grandfather that can be summoned if Talon has enough mana points available) is a great device to allow Talon to learn about puzzles and traps
Remote camera (both a mounted security camera and a remotely controlled camera drone) is a great way to learn about hidden dangers
Question: does informing the player about dangers ahead even lessen the value of Talon’s life in the game?
Saving the game
Players will probably anticipate saving at anytime
What’s wrong with saving at anytime? It really devalues the player’s life.
Save at certain save terminals (placed wisely by the mappers).
We could allow the player to save at any time, but have a limit, per episodes, of the number of saves allowed
Scoring
What if we have a scoring system, which is reported whenever the player exits the game, at the end of episodes and after the game—this can keep track of number of saves made, number of kills (perhaps even broken down more) and the number of times the player died during the game.
Friday, September 26, 1997
In this meeting, we discussed multiplayer design issues (see separate document) as well as the "mood" we want to achieve in Prey.
General mood
Bladerunner, Aliens like
Gothic science fiction
Very alien
Gritty, grungy
A frightening play experience—tighten the player’s sphincter and keep it tight
Outlandish, cool and dramatic lighting
Intense, eclectic and crazy ambient sounds
Species moods
Humanoid
Dark and Bladerunner like
If they had a factory, it would be dirty, broken down, non-ornamental
Insane—not mentally sound
Poorly taken care of
Saurian
Regal and dripping with tradition (Mayan, Aztec, Greek, Roman, etc.)
Formal
Not so dark
Ornamental
If the saurians had a factory, it would be clean, neat, a masterwork of design and it would feature much non-utilitarian ornamentation
Insectoid
Wet, secretions
Dark, alein, thick, exotic and radical
Fog and mist
If you shot a grenade at an insectoid wall, it would make a wet sound and probably stick there