The next step in our games design after our essential experience is to take what we want our game to feel like and hone it into what the game actually is and how it will result in players responding in a way that resonates with our essential experience. This is done with a simple three step plan called a gameplay loop:
1. Activity and risk
2. Reward
3. Opportunity
these three steps will help show what direction the experience has gone to become the game idea, as well as, specifying certain themes and mechanics you would be using.
My essential experience has spawned a few different game ideas so i have made gameplay loops for all of them to further develop them and see which one seems to A. have more interesting ideas come from it and B. see what ones resinate with readers more.
1. Espionage: Reach the terminal in a restricted building, Getting caught will result in you having to run away, failing to do so will make you lose the level!
Getting to know more about the story and uncover a mystery.
Unlocking levels with more complex design allowing you to challenge yourself at the art of espionage.
2. Mechanic: repair broken part of a building/ structure that is normally unreachable by normal traversal, failing means you don’t get the money for completing the job and therefore can’t develop
With the money you get for completing said jobs you can fund research and development of your inventions making the job of your repairs more interesting and complex…
Harder jobs on more complex building are now available to take leading to more varied gameplay, where you will find multiple new ways to use the interesting inventions you’ve made.
3. Parkour:
Race against an opponent, better (and faster) paths to the objective being more risky. This gives the sense you can always catch up.
Once you beat an opponent you can challenge harder opponents and you will get a good sense of development of skills, also you get ‘ghosts’ of your best time so you can compete with others for the best time.
This opens up the idea that not only it’s about you besting and conquering the game but competition between others making the paths that you use more of a personal choice. Opening parts of the game up for discourse.
4. Heist Getaway: Get away from guards or cops by using parkour and movement to out manoeuvre them and escape the scene of a heist. If you get caught you fail you fail and lose money.
Once you escape with the money you can use it to upgrade and further increase your ability to move through the environment.
The move successful missions means you go for harder heists in more built up and densely packed areas, this means more guards, more built up environment and therefore more diversity in the ways you can escape the cops.
Summary:
My next step will be to further develop these ideas and bring some visuals to them to help expand my ideas and help portray them to others easier.