Text: Assignment 1: Upgrading a Toy
Try out the skeletal game Boomshine, found on Blackboard. In its current state, there is some basic activity, but the software is strictly a toy: there are no goals.
Your task will be to design some structure to enhance the game. For this assignment, YOU DO NOT NEED TO IMPLEMENT ANYTHING, only suggest some design ideas. Be creative but realistic; try to preserve the harmony of the game, and provide a variety of suggestions, not just a single one that you describe in detail. Do be specific, though; provide enough detail that someone could attempt an implementation of your ideas. If you are adapting an idea from a game you know, say what game the idea came from.
For this assignment, we will concentrate on four aspects of the game: goals, choice, resources, and variety of encounter. Structure your response as follows: provide an initial overview describing the basic gameplay you envision, followed by four more sections, one for each design direction. Try to consider the following questions:
Goals: What goals does the player have in the game? Can you include multiple goals, both short-term and long-term? What obstacles prevent the player from easily reaching all goals?
Choice: What choices does the player make? Are there choices with long-term consequences, or is everything immediate? Are there multiple good choices? Are the choices only performative? (Try to include some strategic choices, not only performative ones.)
Resources: What resources are in the game? How will the player spend the resources? How will new resources be acquired? Can resources be converted between types? Your designs here will potentially have an effect on goals, choices, and variety of encounter; identify connections wherever you can.
Variety of Encounter: How can you increase the variety of encounters? Identify possible sources of variety (maybe levels, enemies, player powers). If different enemies are a source of variety, list some ideas for different enemy types; try to make them as varied as possible.
Your design should be 1-2 pages single-spaced, probably about 300-600 words. It can be slightly longer if necessary, but should not be any shorter -- if it is that short, probably you have not given many ideas or have not given enough detail on each idea.
