Game 1: Turn Based
Strategy Game Xcom/Defcon Influenced/sequel
Set on Korean Peninsula (although the involvement of
neighbouring countries, relationships and politics are impossible to avoid)
Main interface is a World Map focussing on the Korean Peninsula (still using
the generic world map layout).
The game has local skirmish type combat – these can only
take place on the Korean Peninsula all other skirmish combat is out of the
player’s hands.
Korea is a fully populated area and skirmishes can happen in
any subsection of the map, making each playthrough of the game different
depending on the player’s actions, decisions and reacting AI.
Skirmishes are generally smaller scale (Small units like
Dawn of War 2 as opposed to a Total War game with thousands of troops)
reflecting the nature of modern warfare and maximising player interaction.
World Map is tactical Xcom style, throwing challenging
decisions at the player often with no clear “correct” answer.
Player’s aim is to quell NK and re-unite a peaceful Korea.
Game 2: Spec Ops: The
Line sequel
Set in near future. North Korea had appeared to rationalise
and move away from its dictatorship ideals, opening up to the World. But after
a public embarrassment (ie failure at Olympics – by disqualification because of
enhancement drug taking) they relapse, drop off the radar and are silent for a
decade.
3rd person shooter game with heavy weighting on
the moral ambiguity of what they are doing and what has/is happening around
them. Player controls a squad leader of a small group of US-South Korean
soldiers (US-South Korean forces have formed a coalition in this future
scenario). Game is light on squad tactics. Crossing the DMZ to rescue a recon
patrol behind enemy lines who had broken radio silence and are now MIA.
Game 3: Platformer
game with influences from Braid and Fez
The player controls a child, whose parents have divorced and
now hate one another. Player’s aim is to re-unite the parents by collecting…… (love
letters from their relationship – these are hidden throughout the game). The
divorced parents provide an analogy for the re-unification of Korea (North and
South) – influenced by the story of Okhwan Yoon. The player made aware of this
at the end of the game in an epiphany moment like the final stages of Braid.
Where the story elements are brought together and re-aligned to reveal their
true meaning.
Cartoon aesthetic, 2D, Art style heavy.
Storytelling influenced by Braid and Fez. Braid and Fez both
portray melancholy narratives (fez less so) whilst keeping a beautiful
aesthetic and despite this manage to hold emotional weight.
The game starts in a 2D village over-world, through which
the player unlocks different levels.
The player begins by talking to all their parent’s friends.
None of them are 100% happy with the idea of them getting back together (for
different personal reasons). The player has to try and satisfy each of them by
completing quests for them (ie collecting an object or convincing someone else
into something –potentially start a new relationship between these side
characters?). Completing these mini-quests rewards the player with a memento
from the parents’ past. These mementos can be equipped in levels to reveal
hidden areas or grant them passage to a previously unreachable location.
In the end the player finds it is very difficult/impossible
to satisfy everyone’s needs and the process isn’t as idyllic or straightforward
as they first thought.
