Target Audience

I was responsible for defining the target audience for the proposed game. The target audience are players that belong to the Seeker, Survivor and Mastermind classes of BrainHex taxonomy. The Seekers enjoy exploring and looking for interesting things and show curiosity; the Survivors enjoy escaping from threats and pulse-pounding risks, feeling the intense excitement of escaping and the relief of being safe; the Masterminds enjoy solving problems and puzzles.

The game won’t require domain knowledge or a set of specific skills since the movement mechanics will be simple and the puzzles won’t be targeted to any specific age range. Additionally, the proposed game is mainly targeted to players who like to play alone since it will be single-player.

Play Scenarios

Defined several play scenarios that cover activities and challenges throughout the players’ journey. A few examples can be found below:

• The player wakes up disoriented and finds himself almost naked and with minimal equipment, stranded on an abandoned island and wondering how he got there. The player starts exploring the island and his surroundings, looking for a clue of what happened.
• The player feels hungry (the food bar has a low percentage). There are no animals nearby, but the player notices a small bush at the distance. He walks towards the bush and notices small edible berries on it. He harvests the bush, eats a couple of berries and his stomach becomes cozier, increasing his food bar percentage.
• After sprinting for a while, the player’s stamina bar is low. For him to run again, he needs to rest for a bit.
• Both the food and the water bar have low percentages. The player cannot find any food or water around him, and his health bar starts depleting. Once it reaches zero, the player dies. He respawns without any of the items previously gathered on the initial area of the map.
• The player encounters a mysterious temple that grabs his attention. He decides to venture out and explore this odd ancient construction. As he climbs the stairs of the entrance of the old temple, he starts to notice some paintings on the walls that appear to tell a small story of a long-gone civilization. These small pieces of story contextualize the player of the past of the mysterious island.
• After solving the last puzzle of the remaining temple, the player hears a sound on the background. It seems that the last part of the bridge that connects this island to the next one is raising out of the water. He can now explore the new island and encounter new challenges and adventures.

Core Gameplay Loop(s)

This week I focused on defining the Core Gameplay Loops, namely:

• Main Gameplay Loop – The player must explore the environment, collect food and water to assure the maintenance of his health and find or build shelter to spend the night.

• Specific Gameplay Loops – Such as the fight with a wild animal, eating an animal and solving a puzzle.

Domain Analysis

This week I defined play scenarios and analyzed references from the domain that can be used as a source of inspiration for the development of the game, per example:

• Man vs. Wild – Bear Grylls is left stranded in a region and each episode documents his efforts to survive and find a way back to civilization, usually requiring an overnight shelter of some kind. Mostly there are wild terrains – jungles, forests or similar non-urban areas.
• Cast Away – The film depicts the character abandoned on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes in the South Pacific and his attempts to survive on the island using remnants of his plane’s cargo. He searches for food, water, and shelter, and opens the packages, making use of several items. Years later, the main character has adapted to the island’s meager living conditions, having become adept at spearing fish and making fires.
• Lost – The TV show follows the survivors of a plane crash on a mysterious tropical island somewhere in the South Pacific Ocean.  The survivors are forced to work together since their survival is threatened by several mysterious entities.
• The Island – The survival skills reality television series follows fourteen men that are dropped on a deserted island, where they must work together to survive. The men struggle to find fresh water while battling exhaustion and dehydration and grow desperate for food, and the mental and physical challenges take their toll on the participants.