XB3002 - Command: Korean Peninsula 2 Page Concept Doc

XB3002 - The DMZ 2 Page Concept Doc

XB3002 - Spec Ops: DMZ Revised Concept - "THE DMZ" Unformatted

The DMZ

Genre	Theme	Players
Squad Based Third Person Shooter	Horror of War, Morality	Offline: 1 Online: 8-24

Game Overview

The DMZ (referencing the De-Militarised Zone between North and South Korea) is a third person, squad based shooter designed as a moral quandary, immersing the player into challenging situations and choices. Set in the near future; North Korea has appeared to rationalise, moving away from its dictatorship ideals. Opening up its population and borders to foreign products and ideas, but after public embarrassment (through mass drug test failure at the Olympics), the leaders relapse and take their nation back off the radar, falling silent for a decade. The player assumes the role of a medic in a Korean-American recon squad who are crossing the DMZ to rescue a patrol that is MIA. The player quickly finds themselves as the commanding officer of the unit deep behind enemy lines.

Unique Selling Points

1. MEDIC!!: All supplies are sparse, players must learn to collect and conserve. Comrades may get injured, a bullet to the shoulder (impeding accuracy) does it justify treatment? Occasionally the player will stumble upon POW’s, eager to join the fight. Many of these will require nourishment forcing the player to choose to give up their precious supplies. This system is also utilised in the online multiplayer amongst teams.

2. Moral Deliberation: The DMZ provides morally challenging entertainment and lets players’ actions craft the story. The player’s role of a medic strengthens this experience, forcing the player to make difficult, involving decisions, immersing them into the experience.

Gameplay

The DMZ is a third-person war game with an emphasis on morality, or awareness of morality. The game has a cover mechanic, utilising the camera angle, and also includes a simple squad-tactics system; allowing the player to choose targets, positions and the movement of their comrades.

As a medic and the highest ranking officer (after the squad leader is KIA early in the game) the player is required to guide and care for their team. New weapons can be found as the game progresses – mainly North Korean because of the location but the player will sporadically receive care packages providing supplies, equipment and/or weapons.

If the player acts rashly (immoral) characters in the game will start to become frustrated, questioning the player’s authority and actions, occasionally even refusing to comply. On the flip side if the player acts responsibly – especially in terms of their medical duties, they will respond and perform better.

An online multiplayer mode is also included supporting 6-24 players. Gameplay is team based, facing 2 teams against one another across 5 modes and 10 maps.

GUI

The game is presented with hyper-realistic visuals with no HUD - to heighten immersion in order to achieve the best moral/emotional connection with the player. The game portrays all information diegetically, for example ammo is displayed on the weaponry which can clearly be seen in the 3^rd person perspective, and health is displayed through character animation and clarity of the screen. Equipment can be seen upon the player, as will weapon attachments.

The DMZ adopts a familiar control layout akin to many third person shooters, with the addition of the Medic mechanics and development on the squad tactics, which simply expand on features previously provided.

Game Reference

Inspired by Spec Ops: The Line this game works on the element of moral conflict that it tried to convey, influenced by films like Errol Morris’ Fog of War, The Act of Killing and Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir.

XB3002 - Unify, 2 Page Concept Doc

XB3002 - Command: Korean Peninsula Concept Unformatted

Command: Korean Peninsula

Genre	Theme	Players
Turn Based Strategy	War, Mystery, Simulation	Offline: 1

Game Overview

Command: Korean Peninsula is a realistic Turn-Based Strategy-Simulation War game with Real Time Tactic sub-sections. Set on the Korean Peninsula and based on the tension between North and South Korea, the player assumes the role of South Korea in 2020. Through a turn based campaign map with real-time skirmishes the player must unify Korea whilst maintaining political stability in the neighbouring regions. Using diplomacy and tactical politics by cooperating with neighbours and residents involving resource management, economics, and military intervention to complete objectives and unify Korea.

Unique Selling Points

1. Fight for every inch: Skirmishes can occur anywhere on the Korean Peninsula, the entire area is active and skirmish-maps can occur anywhere. Making each skirmish/playthrough a unique experience.

2. Decision and Consequence:

The player is challenged throughout the game with tough choices presented to them in the world map overview.

Sovereignty: The player must be aware of problems that may arise as a result of the conflict with North Korea; will China take sides or feel threatened? Is nuclear fallout likely? Can it be prevented?

Business Management: Utilising the South Korean economy and advanced electronic markets the player can upgrade military equipment, defences, facilities and unlock new squad types (through the games technology tree) to help the player in the world map and skirmishes.

Egalitarianism: The player has to be diplomatic in order to keep existing citizens happy whilst also accommodating the adopted North Korean population. Failing to do this may result in revolt.

Gameplay

The main game mode of C:KP is the campaign. This is a long-term game mode where the player must tactically govern Korea on a global level and in small scale combat skirmishes in order to try and Unify Korea and complete the game.

Gameplay starts during a time of peace, this “tutorial stage” allows mechanics and features to be introduced to the player gradually before any substantial events occur. The start of the game presents the player with objectives to complete to progress, as the player gets further in however objectives become larger and less frequent making every player’s experience very different and enables excellent replay-ability.

Both elements of the gameplay are presented in 3D with an isometric camera (which can easily be moved by the player). The World Map is predominantly flat with Google Earth style detailing, in combination with hovering annotations over cities, units and facilities.

Skirmishes take place in full 3D environments from a section of the Korean Peninsula. These are small scale in terms of units, reflecting the nature of modern warfare; this also heightens player control, interaction and immersion. Skirmishes require the player to resist or eliminate enemy forces, players will gain bonuses for completing side-missions within this.

GUI

The player interacts with the game through a toolbar at the bottom of the screen combined with point-and-click interaction and hotkey support. The toolbar consist of; buttons linking to all the elements the player is required to manipulate, a list of recent events and a mini-map showing the player’s current position.

Game Reference

The over-world turn-based strategy of Total War, the simulated narrative progression of DEFCON, the challenging decisions of XCOM and the skirmish combat of Dawn of War 2.

XB3002 - Spec Ops: DMZ Concept Unformatted

Spec Ops: DMZ

Genre	Theme	Players
Squad Based Third Person Shooter	Horror of War, Morality	Offline: 1 Online: 8-24

Game Overview

Spec Ops: DMZ is the second game in the rebooted Spec Ops series, designed as a greater moral quandary than its predecessor, immersing the player into challenging situations and choices. Set in the near future; North Korea has appeared to rationalise, moving away from its dictatorship ideals. Opening up its population and borders to foreign products and ideas, but after public embarrassment (through mass drug test failure at the Olympics), the leaders relapse and take their nation back off the radar, falling silent for a decade. The player assumes the role of a medic in a Korean-American recon squad who are crossing the DMZ to rescue a patrol that is MIA. The player quickly finds themselves the commanding officer of the unit deep behind enemy lines.

Unique Selling Points

1. MEDIC!!: All supplies are sparse, players must learn to collect and conserve. Comrades may get injured, a bullet to the shoulder (impeding accuracy) does it justify treatment? Occasionally the player will stumble upon POW’s, eager to join the fight. Many of these will require nourishment forcing the player to choose to give up their precious supplies. This system is also utilised in the online multiplayer amongst teams.

2. Moral Deliberation: The Spec Ops is known for providing morally challenging entertainment. SO:DMZ takes this concept a step further providing alternate story arcs depending on the player’s actions. The player’s role of a medic strengthens this experience. Forcing the player to make difficult decisions, immersing them into the experience.

Gameplay

Spec Ops: DMZ is a third-person war game with an emphasis on morality, or awareness of morality. The game has a cover mechanic, utilising the camera angle, and also includes a simple squad-tactics system; allowing the player to choose targets, positions and the movement of their comrades.

As a medic and the highest ranking officer (after the squad leader is KIA early in the game) the player is required to guide and care for their team. New weapons can be found as the game progresses – mainly North Korean because of the location but the player will sporadically receive care packages providing supplies, equipment and/or weapons.

If the player acts rashly (immoral) characters in the game will start to become frustrated, questioning the player’s authority and actions, occasionally even refusing to comply. On the flip side if the player acts responsibly – especially in terms of their medical duties, they will respond and perform better.

An online multiplayer mode is also included supporting 6-24 players. Gameplay is team based, facing 2 teams against one another across 5 modes and 10 maps.

GUI

The game is presented with hyper-realistic visuals with no HUD - to heighten immersion in order to achieve the best moral/emotional connection with the player. The game portrays all information diegetically, for example ammo is displayed on the weaponry which can clearly be seen in the 3^rd person perspective, and health is displayed through character animation and clarity of the screen. Equipment can be seen upon the player, as will weapon attachments.

Spec Ops: DMZ adopts the same control structure as its predecessor, with the addition of the Medic mechanics and development on the squad tactics, which simply expand on the features previously provided.

Game Reference

Sequel to the popular shooter Spec Ops: The Line this game works on the element of moral conflict that the original tried to convey, influenced by films like Errol Morris’ Fog of War, The Act of Killing and Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir.

XB3002 - Unify Concept Unformatted

Unify

Genre	Themes	Players
Adventure Platformer	Fantasy, Re-union, Cupid	Offline: 1

Game Overview

Unify is a side-scrolling platformer. The player assumes the role of Charlie, a child whose parents have recently divorced. Designed as a commentary on uniting something that is now divided (namely North and South Korea) the player must do what they can to re-unite the mother and father. Charlie begins by talking to the people in the town, none of whom are willing to help or totally happy with the idea. The player has to pander to each by completing a quest or request, rewarding them with a memento from Charlie’s parents’ past.

Unique Selling Points

1. Letters to a Loved One: The narrative of Unify is progressed through Charlie collecting their parents love letters which have been scattered throughout the world. The letters pull the player into the mysterious narrative keeping them ever, the letters aren’t specifically organised, however the flow of the game encourages them to be discovered in a rough order. These letters amount to an epiphany “wow moment” ending.

2. Mementos: By completing the quests set by the townsfolk Charlie can collect mementos from their parents past. These can be equipped in-game each granting a different bonus, and can be used alone or in combination. These are used to reach new/secret areas, granting access to more letters.

Gameplay

Inspired by the efforts of Okhwan Yoon, Charlie must travel the world to re-unite their parents. Each of the 6 areas represents vastly different environments divided into; Artic, Jungle, Grassland, Desert, Coast and Mountain, each of these 6 areas have 10 stages increasing in difficulty.

The Narrative of the game is designed to culminate to an end-point where a slight twist is introduced revealing the metaphor behind the game. This point is reached by collecting the parents’ Love Letters. The player starts in the game over-world, Charlie’s village. The majority of the quests originate here (from the townsfolk), and also serves as a hub to access each of the 6 areas of the game.

Charlie can move left and right, can jump and slide (as a platformer jumping is more prevalent). Charlie has to interact with the world including, talking, pick-ups, switches etc all of which are activated with a single button. Movement is also occasionally aided by the help of moving platforms, ladders, springboards and ropes.

The Mementos add an extra dimension to the game each granting the player a different new ability, these are used to reach new areas, traverse puzzles quicker/easier and ultimately to reach the Love Letters. More than one memento can be equipped however some cannot be equipped at the same time for example Charlie cannot wear two hats at once. Abilities include, inverting gravity, strengthening usual abilities, smashing through certain elements, lighting up dark places, revealing hidden ladders/platforms, parachutes and grappling hooks amongst others.

GUI

Unify is presented in a pixel art format. The game has no HUD, dialogue is presented as speech bubbles, Unify has a 1-hit health system but players respawn at checkpoints which are evenly spaced throughout the levels. Players are recommended to use a gamepad especially for the harder platforming/movement based elements.

Game Reference

Unify’s levels have a mood and feel akin to Superbrothers: Sword and Sorcery EP, it is told through a narrative structure seen in games like Braid, accompanied with an art style similar to Fez, with replayability inspired by the Lego adventure titles.