Jason T and I met up this weekend for a few hours to discuss the future of our Ubisoft Game Lab project. After getting some feedback from Ubisoft, faculty, fellow students, and some industry pros in the area - we decided to take the game into a new direction. A direction that makes more sense creatively, functionally, and one that we can build. Read ON!
One of the most prominent criticisms of our game was the that combat did not coincide with the hook of our game - interacting with the bioluminescent alien jungle. So we decided to go back to just that - interacting with the jungle. But how? The first thing I looked at was the tools that the player already had at their disposal - the pulse and flashlight. I decided that rather than reinvent the game's mechanics, why can't we use the ones we already have but in slightly different ways. Take the pulse for example, it is mainly used as a means to see in the dark alien jungle. Perhaps it not only allows you to see but it also causes a reaction in the environment from it. Jason and I mulled over this notion for about a half an hour before I made my big pitch for how the gameplay would change.
You ready?
Reveal should be a survival puzzle game where you need to read and react to the environment in order to win/survive. The pulse mechanic causes the world to light up but it also "resets" it back to its original state. This comes in handy because the flashlight is now the main source of "activation" - it can cause new behaviors to occur in the world. An example of this would be using the flashlight to cause a venus fly-trap-like plant to seductively sway and lure in a predator and eat him which would allow the player to safely proceed through the jungle. Below is a white-board drawing of this type of puzzle.
