Oh, well. At least you're trying.

pfffssshhhtttt. I tried drawing up some more character designs for the Honours project. I guess the drawing Gods weren't with me today or something but I could not draw for shit. It was proper embarassing, and didn't even look good. I'm trying to come up with unique designs for the Medical staff, but what can I really do? Guys wearing scrubs but in the future? Oh boy bring on that one-two sucker punch of self-doubt. I know I'll be able to come up with some more ideas for it. I just can't come up with any now.

Got a free book in the Student Union today. "Wild Animus". It's written by an entrepeneur from America called Rich Shapero, and it came in a fancy box with three CDs. Haven't had a chance to listen to or read them yet, but it should be pretty good night reading. Got me thinking about mixed media, like the L4D comics coming up to the big DLC release. It's a clever idea, works well in engaging your audience and gives another angle for you to work with. Coheed and Cambria did it, releasing a bunch of comic books along with their album.

Bsffsdtadst I'm too depressed to do any more work. Here's some awesome fanart somebody else did.

It's not too late, you wanted it good.

This isn't working, Game Ideas

This was supposed to be a serious professional blog, but I'm not smart enough to do that and it's also boring. I'm going to be more informal, but also update more. Yeah. Deal with it.

So we needed to have three ideas for the Proposal. I thought we'd just come in with one and develop that, but I suppose this is better. I've put forwards my On the Road idea, as well as something based on Lovecraftian Horror. Essentially, you play as an ensemble of characters each with different skills based on abilities in the role playing game, and there's a whole bunch of cultists and eldritch horrors you have to defeat. Depending on how competent you are, all of the playable characters can and might die, adding consequence to your actions in the story. If they all die, then that'll be game over. If some of the characters survive, or if they all do, then you'll get different endings. Essentially, I just want to make a Cthulhu horror game that isn't Dark Corners of the Earth.

The other idea was playing in post-apocalyptic America where you're a mailman. The only way for the different cities to communicate with each other is by getting your player character and friends to deliver messages. One day, you're ambushed by rebels trying to stop the mail, and you can either work with or against them. The rebels are trying to take down the bourgeoisie upper classes. The main focus of the game would be moral choice and consequence, with things the player has chosen to do at the start of the game affecting actions towards the middle and end. I'd like to try a Karma system with it too, where good things happen to good characters, and bad characters receive their comeuppance later on in the game.

Here's a stupid video

It's a mechanical bull at number one, you'll take a ride from anyone.

Character Class ideas

In my board game, Research Outpost Hades, there will be four major character classes the players can choose from, each with their own unique skills and abilities. The four different jobs the characters can choose are Security, Engineering, Research and Development and Medical. While obviously, some classes will be better at some tasks than others, all of the classes will be able to attempt all of the challenges they may need to face over the course of the game.

The Security detail are the designated fighters of the game. They begin with a tier 1 weapon , have the highest health out of all the characters and are best trained to engage the monsters in combat if needed. They also can easily access the Armoury to recover more powerful tier 2 weapons, and can perform basic first aid if needed.

The Engineer characters are tasked with ensuring the facility is running well, as well as denying the monsters access to areas. The Engineers themselves are tougher than Medical and R&D, but not as strong as Security. Although they don't start with weapons, they can use their cunning to lock down large parts of the ship, trapping monsters in rooms that will not need to be used. The Engineers come armed with a welding tool to lock doors, as well as fixing hull breaches before they get out of hand. The final skill unique to Engineers is the ability to navigate the ship via the ventilation system, letting them travel from one side of the board to the other much more efficiently and safely than walking through the corridors.

Research and Development can be the most important characters in the game. They know how the entirety of the base works, and have clearance to activate a large number of functions such as the AI Core or the nuclear failsafe. Additionally, they can use advanced technology such as tier 3 weapons or other experimental weapons. The R&D class, although the most fragile, can be the most valuable characters when it comes to winning the game.

The final class, Medical, are at their most useful when it comes to keeping the characters alive. They can operate the Medical Wing of the research facility to fully heal themselves or another character. Not only that, but they have the greatest movement speed out of any character to enable them to get around the facility quicker. They can provide first aid to any injured characters, and can revive any characters with 1 point of health if they have been incapacitated.

Hopefully these four character classes will each provide a unique play style, and each be satisfying to play as. My aim with the unique classes is to let everybody be able to complete the game by themselves if needed, but they can work together to better achieve their goals. The game should never be impossible to beat if the Engineering and R&D staff are incapacitated.

When I came down, the dawn poured into me.

Outline for 3rd Year Projects

For my Game Proposal, I'm going to attempt to create a game based on the 1958 landmark title "On The Road" by Jack Kerouac. The game follows the nameless main character travelling from New York City to Los Angeles by hitchhiking, jumping on trains and stowing away on large vehicles.
The game itself would not have any failure states. If the characters lose all of their cash on hand, then they need to find a part time job at a carnival or restaurant and work to get more money. The game itself would not stick strictly to the plot of the book, allowing the players the opportunity to visit different cities along the route, meet and befriend new characters, or even end the story halfway through if they wish.

My Honours Project is going to be creating a full working prototype for a board game. Taking inspiration from productions such as Doom (video game), The Thing (movie) and Zombies! (board game) it features a group of researchers trapped in a remote research facility whilst trying to defeat, evade or simply survive a rampaging horde of monstrosities. The research facility itself has to be randomly generated by the players each time at the start of the game, and is randomly chosen to be in a different location each time the game is played (for example, in the desert, underwater or even in space!).
The players themselves will have randomly given objectives to carry out, many of which will work counter-productive to each other. For example, one player might need to ensure the research facility and all of their work survives, whereas another may need to sabotage the base and destroy any evidence of their work. Another mechanic that will be important in the game is the character's mental stability. If they see any shocking sites, such as monsters or dismembered corpses, then there is a chance their mind will begin to deteriorate, causing them to hallucinate or act irrationally.

As far as my Futures project goes, I haven't actually finalized what I want to work on. Possible opportunities are motion control, morale choice or digital distribution. I hope to spend the next few weeks deciding just what exactly I want my year's worth of work to be about.

I bet you're so surprised to see me

Introductory post

Hello internet, my name is Thomas Rosell and this is a written documentation of my third year of University. Over the course of the year, I will need to complete three major projects, the Game Proposal, Honours and Futures.

The Game Proposal is a large undertaking where we need to write an entire Design Document (approximately 100 pages) about a new, unique game title of our own devise. We will need to talk about literally everything in the game, from the characters and music, to the camera and front-end menus.

The Honours project allows us to be more creative. At the start of the year we will tell the tutors exactly what we aim to produce at the end of the year. What we can choose is entirely up to us, letting us choose to design characters, create levels, or even work on new ideas in Game Design.

The final project, Futures, requires us to look at the current trends in Games Hardware and Software, and predict what will be an important and popular trend in five year's time.

I will update this blog as I progress on the course, in order to provide a document of my entire work this year, and also so it may serve as a basis for a portfolio.

Remember how it was with you, remember how you pulled me through.