Review: Two

The task for our second review was to be able to talk about what you have done so far with your essential experience and game idea. I decided to get all the visual aids I currently had on my website to be able to talk to my group properly instead of having to flick through different pages of my website (like I plan to do with my finalised GDD). I was with Charisma, Kaya and Raf. I explained everything and I then took down their feedback as notes. This is what I got:

This is a quick rough sketch I did of my Protagonist for things like promotional artwork and action scenes. The idea was to also go down a more androgynous route as Protagnoist is gender natural so I will constantly refer to Protagonist with they/them.

Everything in black are the notes I was given and everything in the dark pink/maroon is my own notes while thinking about what they said to me. I was happy with the notes I was given, it's really helping me think about the finer details of my game, especially after I was prompted to think more after the Matrixes lesson. The main thing that was frustrating was the fact that I need something that separates it from games like 'Blair Witch' and 'Slender: The Eight Pages'. I've been trying my best to not compare my game idea to other games- especially as I know that the horror genre of everything in media is oversaturated. My game idea will be different from those games especially 'Slender' as I won't have the main character going around collecting scraps of paper.

This prompted me to think more through everything and kind of go back a few steps to really try and think through how I could have things worked. As I was struggling, I went onto Discord and messaged my other classmates for help:

As you can see, with the help of other classmates too, we were able to bat more ideas around and get to the bottom of what I could look into in developing my game more. I was really happy that Marvin (Gremblin) suggested I look into Folie à deux. It is a very interesting concept and with the idea of urban legends about creatures that lurk in the park (Like Mothman at Point Pleasant- West Virginia and how they all collectively obsess over him), it could easily lead into an idea like Folie à deux. To make sure I am getting this right, I will do more research into this psychological phenomenon and then go from there on how the overall story of the game will work in relation to the idea of the mechanics that I have and make sure they all link in well to be able to make a good experience that will spook and freak out my players.

I also want to mention the fact that I like the idea Molly (Trademark), gave me with using the sound to further confuse my players and make them feel more disorientated and scared of my experience!

Plan of Action

Explore anticipation.
Explore Folie à deux.
Make a post about the idea in relation to the research above.

Pictures and notes gathered on 6th of November and explained on 11th November 2020.