Menu and MonsterHunterRoom

This week was about getting the final room ready for the AI implementation in the next few weeks. The room is a basic, pick up the key and the monster appears.

 

I have decided to add a run key for the player, otherwise it will feel like you are just casually walking away when this thing is chasing you.
I think I will be playing with the room to get timings right as at the moment the key is behind you (which isn't obvious to start)  and then you click it and the monster will be there. Very anti climactic even without testing it!
I have researched a few ways in which enemies are first revealed in some horror games, below is Pewdiepie's video of the Witches house, similar to my game in that you are exploring an unknown area finding clue to the next area.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiEnQbDJSHc#t=08m05s
(I have cut to the specific bit, only like 10 seconds is relevant for this example)

I will be going into a bit more detail of the monster itself in the future. I have a feeling Il have a few problems coding it all together but for now the room is ready!

In terms of menu I have decided to use a scene that has already been made, remove the current 1st person controller and add in a camera and some floating text that tells you how to play the game.
I have also created a simple GUI for it, this is currently a single button 'Start' (Not shown in pic below)

Room 3

Initially my floor plan had all the rooms the same sort of size with the house being mostly symmetrical.
Having played around with this idea it became obvious that having the same looking rooms throughout became tedious, especially as the actual content of each of these rooms is pretty similar. Instead I decided to use the third room a little differently. The key would be set in an obvious position and the player would be able to easily walk up to it. However the room would change. I made it so that the room shrank in size once the key was picked up.This was purely a technical experiment to see how the player would respond to a sudden change in what they thought was likely to happen, they have been introduced to a simple house and at this point shouldn't be expecting drastic changes in the environment itself.

The preconceived knowledge is then destroyed thus putting them on the edge for the next change in what's going to happen. I wanted to break down the barrier of what already would have felt like normality to the player. Make them wonder what's actually going on.

I will be working on this room more in the future as I am still not happy with its outcome. But for now I will move on to reach an end game state and add in a monster of sorts!

Pacing

Looking into the pacing of games, I found an article on casual games which made to be 'pick up and play', the article discusses the uses of simplicity against complexity. The simpler the game (much like bejewelled) the faster pace the game will reach as the player doesn't need to learn a massive expanse of moves. If the player has a lot of possibilities the game will slow down.

This theory from casual games works well in games much like chess or bejewelled as they have a set pattern of moves etc however in my game as the levels develop I cant just give the player more moves to slow down their pace so I need to look into different methods.

The article does outline a helpful point that my game could use quite effectively.

'the learning happens as the game moves forward, and this type of game should not require the player to invest a considerable amount of time learning its patterns. It is supposed to be fast and organic' Rather than using this to make the player move quickly through the game I will use this to drop the player straight into the game without much time for instructions.

 'The reason why the gameplay slowed down is that players would now have a broader space of possibility' - The player will therefore be in the game with possibly limitless moves. The game starts off in a dark room, the player wont know the room they are in so they will need to explore to get used to the area they are in. This gives the player a broader space of possibilities. They will start off unsure of where to go. But after a short while they will pick up some pace.

Space of Possibility and Pacing in Casual Game Design 
Marcos Venturelli, 2009,Kranio Studio
http://wwwusers.rdc.puc-rio.br/sbgames/09/_proceedings/dat/_pdfs/artedesign/60345.pdf