Machimania

Battle system

How do we ideate? Chat, deliberate agendas, mood boards, inspirations from other games…? How do you visualize plot?

What should the prototype look like?

What is the vision of the final game? What’s the “marketing story”?

How are discussions held? How are discussions structured?

How is information about the game design / development structure stored?

What do we use for developing the game?

How much control does the player have over the game? What actions cause deliberate changes? What actions cost anything?

What’s the expected game time? How fast does the narrative unfold? How

Includes prompts, hints, notes, cues, that are provided to the player in order for them to have a better gameplay experience with QOL.

How does the player “win”? What is the player’s goal?

What broader strategies do we want the player to execute or learn as they progress through the game? What challenges exist? What solutions exist to complete the “core mission”?

Related to “Strategy and challenge”. How difficult do we want the game to be?

What “vibe” do we want with the game? Is it supposed to be immersive? What’s the atmosphere - dark? Or is it more detached, like management games? How do we give information do we give (see: Pacing) - is it like Minecraft’s mystery that arises from no dialogue with NPCs? Are the themes in-your-face, or are they subtle?

Are there some particular narrative sturcture we want to explore - e.g. monomyth, three-act/Aristotelian structure. Do we use in medias res? W What plot devices do we want to use - e.g. deus ex machina, plot vouchers (objects given to a player that then play a specific role later), red herrings, flashbacks, unreliable narrator, non-linear narratives, … character flaws, irony, motif, stock characters, character arcs, deuteragonists, narration, verisimilitude (belivability/degree suspension of disbelief), genre… What tropes do we want to use or subvert?

How is the writing done (i.e. what does the player read)? Do we use description, exposition, narration, …

We don’t want to be too ambitious. We can explore a lot of features, or world-building, but not all will be part of the final game. Heuristics like “keep it simple” can help with the pruning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feature_creep

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scope_creep

A lot of planning without concrete work doesn’t lead to anything substantial (unless the expectation is just a fun exploration of game design and ideation).

Differences in vision, lack of consensus regarding features, lack of communication, lack of definitions or agreed definitions, lack of purpose in discussion.

Is this an actual project and what are the commitments and expectations?

Refers to the overarching ideas to be explored in the game’s narrative elements. If you had a “message”, or “perspective” or “argument ” as an author - what would that be? Themes guide the writing and design and gameplay.

What time period or locations exist in the world? What are the assumptions (i.e. “magic exists”) of this world, as in, what differences-from-IRL-world exist here?"

Why is the world the way it is? If it’s based in real life, what are the points of divergence? How did things go differently in history - i.e. perhaps New World cultures were not massively wiped out. If it’s not based in real life, what was the world generally like, and what are the events that lead to now?

The MC’s history can be explored here too.

Informed by theme, works within setting, history. How is the social landscape? What values are important? How does normal life go? Why is it the way it is? Why are these systems in place? What subcultures are there?

Who is our main character, what is their past, what is their personality, their goals, and relationships to other characters and the world? What are some points of growth for our main character to be explored through the main plot (and themes?

What is the main plot progression? If it’s non-linear, what are points of divergence? Can it be graphed? Remember, this is “in-universe” and not necessarily “in-game”. Consider a universe - let’s call it America. An author writes about America. How does the plot progress?

If there’s a main plot that explores the themes and “answers” the question posed (e.g. “how will society progress in a technological post-apocalyptic world”, “what will our relationship to technology be and will it be good or bad”), there are subplots that are tangents to the main plot. These can be explored by quests or interactions.

They can influence the main plot but not too much – if it’s a particular section of the actual main plot, it belongs in the main plot progression.

Who are the other characters and what role do they play?

What locations are there in the world? Not all necessarily exist as in-game locations, they can be alluded to in plot.

Refers to the persistent, over-arching mechanics of the game.

They give a sense of continuity or progression (i.e. stats or bestiary or personal wiki increasing over time) (quests), help with information overload (bestiary, stats, wiki, quests), add some beyond battle strategizing (time, stats in battle, stats affecting movement in map, stats affecting dialogue trees) and interacts with narrative (quests determining where to go, wiki)…

Refers to the mechanics present when you interact with things or NPCs in the map.