Illusions

Our group quickly agreed that the DS style visual novel would suit a Portopia reimagining very well. It was decided that in order to keep true to the spirit of the original, we would retain the murder mystery theme while revamping the dated interface. Sam took the role of 2D character design, and Chloe the design of 3D assets. Stina took charge of anything photoshop related, such as logo design, game document design (I'm working primarily on the content) and game screenshot mockups. I requested to take control of the narrative and some of the gameplay aspects, though most things gameplay related are fed back and forth through all members of the group.

While I originally wanted to map out the entire flow of the game, the scope of the project would have gotten away from me and Matt advised that the project is not a creative writing one. Therefore, within the game design document, I am creating a timeline of the flow of only one of the first sections of the game. This shows how it would be played, without going into excessive detail or straying from the point of a game design document.

Setting wise, our group chose to keep the game world within Japan, in an unspecified city. Inspired by the geisha of Kyoto, Stina suggested we base our murder mystery around the beauty of their world. She and I later decided after a little deliberation that we would create our own version of a geisha-like entertainment, named the Illusionists. I found it interesting that Stina had the wish to base the game in a culture so idealized and beautiful considering Portopia's subject matter. However, I liked the idea of such a stark contrast and started thinking about opposites and incorporating that into the theme of the game. It was an easy theme to consider implementing, as it could be done across many different areas of the game; through the characters, through the visual style and through the setting vs the subject matter.

With this in mind and knowing our setting was firmly based in the east, I began to contemplate how to counterbalance it. I decided on using the main character to do so, knowing he would be present at all times and always able to provide that opposite view point. With the setting in the east, I wanted a character from the west -- this would allow for the portayal of very different cultural views, as well as allowing these views to influence gameplay (cultural ignorance creating conflict between characters, for example).

With the Illusionists being so graceful and an attempt at embodying 'perfection' through beauty and idyllism, I wanted to create a character who was very much a cynic and blunt in his interaction and handling of culture differences and barriers. I wanted to portray these things and get them across immediately -- so the character could be something familiar to the player in an unfamiliar environment. I didn't want to give the player an empty avatar to control, but I also didn't want the main character's past, motives and personality to distract too much from the main story and other characters. Thus, I began to create a character who drew on the established traits of a private investigator or former detective/policeman. In doing so, I hoped to create something that would be immediately recognizable as that kind of person in the first few minutes of gameplay.

I began by mapping out the beginning, middle and end of the scenario I wanted to take place, as well as establishing the dynamic between the two main characters. Many games that are story heavy feature a 'sidekick' type character so that multiple views, personalities and ideas can be bounced back and forth while keeping the fourth wall intact. Furthermore, many crime based and murder mystery shows feature two partners for the same purpose; to present multiple views and ideas and allow a conclusion to the case to be plausibly reached without becoming unlikely or unrealistic. Keeping with my theme of opposites, I wanted the second main character to be someone to counter the main character -- it made sense to make the secondary character a member of the Illusionists, considering that was what the main character was meant to be the opposite of.

I wanted a secondary character that was light hearted and optimistic. This was an easy trait to find in youth, and I got the idea to use a younger character from the shrine in multiple roles; the best friend left behind, the sidekick, and the red herring.

Above: Maia Fey and Louis DeNonno, the optimistic side kicks to the more serious main character.
Below: BBC Sherlock's Watson, the realistic, empathetic and exasperated sidekick to Sherlock -- eccentric, at times sociopathic, and ever energetic.

I looked into television shows and games about police work and detectives in order to determine some reoccuring situations and attempt to incorporate them into gameplay mechanics. Some of the reoccuring things I found were:

Reoccurring situations:

• Interrogation/Interviews.
• Clue hunting. 
• Evidence examination.
• Suspects.
• Red Herrings.
• Audience kept at the same level of knowledge as the investigators – maintaining the mystery.

Shows like CSI are well known for their 'forensic science' and evidence examination. It also has interrogation/interview sections, suspects, red herrings, clue hunting, and generally the audience doesn't know who commited the murder any sooner than the characters. LA Noire, a game in which the player follows Cole during his rise through the ranks of the police force features evidence examination and interrogation both.

Evidence scanning from CSI: The Game.

An issue with this form of 'interrogation' or 'interview' is that the options of 'truth', 'doubt' and 'lie' are very vague. The player doesn't know exactly what they're getting in to when they click each one, or how Cole will vocalize what they selected. This can lead to frustration when one thing is expected and another occured.

The player can pick up various clues at the crime scene and turn them over to hear commentary from Cole.

Evidence is then filed!

Phoenix Wright has a form of this, too. Evidence examination was touched upon in a previous blog post, but characters can also be 'interrogated' outside of the court room. The process is slightly more fantastical than the more down to earth LA Noire.

When asked a question they don't want to answer, characters will lock down. This is portrayed literally with 'psyche locks' holding back their secrets. The player must prevent relevant evidence to answer the green key questions Phoenix asks during the process in order to break the locks and find out the secret a character is keeping.

One interesting and well known form of testing is using luminol. Luminol is a versitile chemical that reacts with appropriate oxidizing agents. It is useful in crime investigations in that it reacts to the iron found in hemoglobin. Upon react, the chemical turns a distinctive glowing blue.

With the Illusionists presenting themselves as something fantastical and unreal, I wanted to make the UI very grounded and immersive. After walking with Stina, we considered a system wherein the player had to go into the main character's bag and withdraw items that corresponded to whatever function they wanted to perform. Inspiration for the bag took the form of Stina's actual satchel.

The following items were chosen to perform various functions within the game:

Save/Load System: Character's mobile phone.

Travel System: A map of the city.

Character Profiles: Kept within the MC's case file.

Notes on what happened previously and where to go next: A journal/memo book kept by the MC.

Suspect List: A page of the character's journal.
Player made memos: A pen that the player uses to write in the MC's journal.
Inventory: A zip-lock bag of evidence.

Below are the draft pages for the suspect list and journal pages.

Hotel Dusk - UI and Gameplay

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 is a visual novel and logic puzzle game for the Nintendo DS. It follows former detective Kyle Hyde as he attempts to uncover the mystery behind his missing partner. While similar to Phoenix Wright in terms of story being the main part of the game, the overall tone is far more serious. Hotel Dusk attempts to immerse the player and make them feel like Kyle himself via an in-character interface. Also interesting is the way the player is required to hold the DS. Unlike many games, Hotel Dusk requires the player to turn the DS on its side, as though they are holding a book in one hand.

As a standard when moving, Kyle's view of the room is shown on the left and the floor plan esque map representation is shown on the right. To move Kyle around, the player touches the stylus to the screen and drags, much like in Phoenix Wright spinoff Ace Attorney Investigations. For accessibility, the player can choose to set the game to left handed mode, allowing them to turn the DS the other way around and play in exactly the same way in comfort. Other games in this format neglect to implement such an option, so this is a smart decision on the part of the developers. As can be seen below, the layout is very versitile, swapping screens around when needed.

When investigating an area..

Questioning another character..

Observing character reactions..

Or solving children's puzzles!

As mentioned previously, the UI keeps the player immersed in their character of Kyle Hyde. By selecting the notebook item while in movement mode, the player can access the save/load menu, the character list, the item list and the memos (a free draw page where the player can write info for themselves). Please excuse the quality of some of the screenshots below -- my capture device didn't like the horizontal layout.

Note: All screenshots below were taken using the left handed setting.

The memo pad, seen on the menu screen above, allows the player to record their own notes. However, with the small stylus and limited screen space, notes often end up squashed and difficult to read. Combined with the game's own very adept way of recording information via the characters screen below, the memo feature ends up seeing very little use. In my own multiple playthroughs, I've only ever used it when forcing myself to attempt to involve the feature.

The mood maintained in Hotel Dusk is one similar to old detective and crime shows. Colours are muted and are regularly absent entirely, with character portraits often done entirely in black and white. The main protagonist is dry and reflects this art style quite accurately. Stylistically, the artists involved with the game have chosen to regularly leave things looking incomplete or unfinished -- possibly a reflection of the run down state of the hotel and many of the characters involved.

Phoenix Wright - UI and Gameplay

Phoenix Wright, originally designed for the GBA in Japan and moved over to the DS with its first English release, is a relatively simple game in terms of gameplay mechanics and graphical style. The Phoenix Wright main series covers four games, with a couple of spinoff games already published or in the works. The bottom screen is dedicated to UI functions, movement and other commands while the top screen is used almost entirely for conversations.

On the top screen, you can see character dialogue (the blue, bracketed text indicates internal thought) and on the bottom screen is the character's court record. This record holds evidence and profiles for the various people involved within the case. The player can tap specific pieces of evidence in order to view more information regarding them.

As can be seen below, the user can also cycle between profiles and evidence by tapping the button in the top right corner.

This setup allows the player to examine evidence and profiles against whatever is happening in the top screen, useful when attempting to find inconsistencies and lies within witness testimony. Generally, the player looks between these  two screens at all times when participating in court trials.

Out of the courtroom, the interface changes slightly. While evidence and profiles are still available via the court record button, the player is also given a set of commands that they can perform on any given screen.

This is very similar to the old point and click menus featured in games like Deja Vu, Portopia, and Simon the Sorcerer. However, in Phoenix Wright, the player does not move, talk or present to the background environment. Talk and present are relevant only to whichever character is on screen at the time. Examine allows the player to look at objects in the background, and the player need only tap each object to interact with it. The move command allows the player to select an area out of a list of discovered places in order to travel to it.

When examining, the bottom screen becomes searchable.

Introduced in the last case of the first game was a special examine evidence feature, put into place on the English translation of the game in order to show off the touch screen on the DS (the original Japanese edition was on the GBA, and didn't have these features). This examine evidence feature was not heavily expanded upon in later games.

The player was able to take a piece of evidence out on the lower screen and twist and turn it around in order to find less obvious clues. The player could also use fingerprint powder and luminol in order to find further clues.

All of these features are convenient and help with the player's engrossment in the game, giving them the freedom to look over the evidence and people involved with a case in a way that does not break immersion and keeps the player in character.

It's worth noting that the style of the main series means that the player is not given free roam movement. While this likely started out as a way to compensate for hardware limitations of the GBA, it eventually became a signature style for the series. However, one of the spin-off series for the franchise breaks away from this formula. Based on one of the main characters (who becomes a reoccuring character in subsequent games) of the main game, it focuses entirely on out-of-court witnesses and evidence gathering. The game features fully animated models in a 2D environment, and, unlike the original game, allows the player to view the action instead of just reading the text that accompanies it. In the original games, actions were generally dictated by sound effects and character reactions before, after and during. In the spin offs, the player was able to witness movements around the screen and limited amounts of animated interactions between models. They were also able to move the main character and his partner around directly.

Much of the original game is still visible in the spin off, including the text and dialog style. While not shown above, the usual character portraits are still regularly used when characters are speaking to each other. The character art on these portraits has been updated, though, and two often appear on screen at the same time during conversations. Also worth noting is that the main character is regularly seen on screen, as is shown below. This is interesting as in the main game, Phoenix (the MC) is only ever shown in the courtroom phases and never makes an appearance during any other section of the game.

  

 Movement around the game no longer relies on move menus. Instead, the player can freely steer their character around the crime scene, and must place him at the relevant location in order to examine something.

The player moves the character around through dragging the stylus along the floor map featured on the bottom screen. The MC will then move relevant to where the stylus is being dragged on the top screen. This movement system is similar to the one in Hotel Dusk, with enhancements.

Also worth noting is the game's use of colour and art relevant to the tone and genre of the narrative. While the game deals with murder and the criminals involved, the dialog within the game and the overall humor is very lighthearted. The game has some emotionally touching moments, but overall the series is very much known for its puns, lively characters and pop culture references. This is reflected in the use of bright colours and cartoony art.

 

Illusions - Game Design

For this project, we were given the task of reimagining one of a selection of games given to us. After a little bit of debate within our group, we chose to do the Portopia Serial Murder Case. This presented quite a challenge in regards to research, as the game was never translated into English and is pretty aged on top of that. Outside of flat out piracy, the easiest way to get some experience with the game was to search up various lets plays. Eventually I stumbled across a Let's Play that took screenshot form, along with flavour text in paragraphs below each one.

Link to Let's Play.

One of the most important things I took away from this Let's Play was that the threads to follow for the red herrings and to the murderer themselves were not overly convoluted. Most of it was as simple as following directions and pursuing each possible suspect until they could be dismissed/cleared of suspicion. This was a huge relief to me, as one of the most daunting ideas about doing a game in the spirit a murder mystery was the idea of having to weave the various pieces of the plot intricately together in the style of a murder mystery novel. With that worry eased, I looked into other areas of the game. In terms of UI, Portopia features a menu based command system, the kind seen in titles such as Deja Vu. Portopia, as I found after looking into the history of point and click games, was indeed an inspiration for titles like Hideo Kojima's Snatcher and Deja Vu.

John Szczepaniak (February 2011). "Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken". Retro Gamer. Retrieved 27-10-2012. (Reprinted at John Szczepaniak. "Retro Gamer 85". Hardcore Gaming 101. Retrieved 27-10-2012.)

This interface, while acceptable for the genre and time, could be considered cluttered and unnecessary in today's games. Modernized, many point and click games have a far simplified interface. Games took on more streamlined methods of interaction, either simplifying it straight to a click or allowing the player to scroll through a more condensed list of interactions via the mouse wheel or a quick menu. Often, this completely eliminates the need for most of a traditional UI.

From this..

To this!

Point and click games have found a comfortable home on the Nintendo DS system, replacing mouse based point and click with stylus based touch. Many DS games combine the point and click features with the feel of a visual novel, due to graphical limitations and stylistic choice. The ones that specifically caught my interest in this area due to their similarity to Portopia -- they feature detectives and murder mysteries.

The games focus more specifically on different areas. The first, Phoenix Wright, details the adventures of a lawyer and the murder cases of those he chooses to defend. The player participates in both the evidence hunt/detective work, but truly comes to life when the focus shifts to the courtroom. The second game, Hotel Dusk, follows former detective Kyle Hyde as he attempts to unravel the mystery of his missing partner. Both games focus heavily on plot and puzzles. The former uses puzzles in terms of the interrogation and detection of lies from witnesses, while the second features more traditional point and click puzzles -- using your items and environment to creatively overcome obstacles. These games, in my mind, feel very much like modernizations of what Portopia brought to the table -- though perhaps with much more complex a story due to relative budgets and project sizes.

Propp & Game worlds as character roles

We looked into Propp's Moprhology of a folktale today. Propp listed the following characters as ones used within folktales. It was our task to apply these characters to the worlds of games.

The villain — struggles against the hero.
The dispatcher — character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
The (magical) helper — helps the hero in their quest.
The princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.
Her father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father cannot be clearly distinguished.
The donor — prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess

Don't Starve is a game in which the player literally plays against the villainy and murderous intent of the world. Yet, at the exact same time, the player relies on the world for their survival. Don't Starve is entirely about survival, and the player's objective is to survive for as long as possible.

The world provides the player with the resources and means for survival - wood, flint, grass, rocks, minerals and food are all abundant. However, the player must not abuse these resources or become too greedy in their use of them. As likely as the world is to provide for you, it will just as quickly kill you. The player must always have a fire or source of light set up come sundown, for if caught in the dark they will be swiftly and immediately killed by unseen forces. If too quick to farm all of the trees around, the player will suffer death at the hands of the trees themselves. If the world is merciless, the player simply won't find what they need to survive at all and they will, inevitably, starve.

In Don't Starve, the world takes the role of the villain, but also plays the role of the helper and the donor.

A world which takes on a similar but somewhat different set of roles is the Dark World, featured in The Legend of Zelda's A Link to the Past. This world takes the role of a villain in that it attempts to hinder the hero's progress, like the world of Don't Starve. However, the Dark World's villainy is more subtle -- instead of directly attempting to harm the hero, it transforms all those who are a part of it into twisted monsters and reflections of their true selves. This nature actually renders the hero, Link, helpless against the other creatures transformed by the world.

Furthermore, the Dark World also fills the role of the 'Princess', or the reward. The hero's quest within A Link to the Past is to restore the world to how it was before it was corrupted by a more conventional human villain. The reward for completing the game, and for the hero's completion of the quest, is the restoration of the world to its normal form -- thus making the world a reward.

Dark Knight CS Questions

Question 2:

Within the Dark Knight's Alternate Reality game, players were required to follow a fairly linear path in that the majority of the game was a scavenger hunt. However, the linear path of one step of the game to another could actually be completed with a rather large amount of freedom to explore. For example, players were required to take a picture of themselves next to a 'famous monument' while wearing a Joker costume. This monument could be anything the players desired within the city limits of San Diego, setting the game world's barriers city-wide. Many of the game's puzzles and requests required players to cooperate across the real world and online, further expanding the game's limits.

While the path to advance through the game was very set in its structure with one victory in a task leading to the next, the game word itself was masssive and free, spanning an entire city and the world wide web across dozens of websites found within the pages of actual Gotham City newspapers delivered to fans and players.