4.03 -

Idea for October 9, 2008


Theme: Pirates

includes topics that expand on the theme

  • sailing/ships/crew (brotherhood/mutiny)
  • treasure (burying/stealing) - swashbuckling
  • brutal executions - wenches - food/grog
  • cannons - tough/scarred - lawlessness
  • Cap'n Jack - parrots - manly - fighting/brawling
  • not limited to time periods - clothing - social/dialect

Genre: Action/Adventure

game genre with possible significant changes or important points

  • Open adventure game, with in depth systems for exploration and ship/crew management

Mechanics/Systems

individual gameplay mechanics and mechanics categorized by system

  • Death must happen? (ie. permanent death of a crew members, character loss, mature theme)
  • Respect System
    • dependent on: crew interaction and player’s decisions
    • morale affects crew performance, affects battle and other game elements
    • choose pirate or navy allegiance? determines game path?
    • notoriety affects ranking/title ( the Great, the Wise, the Legendary etc.)
  • Player Character Control
    • face to face interaction with crew when issuing commands, when fighting
    • 3rd person perspective of game world, direct control of character
    • commands are issued in person to each NPC crew member, in realtime
    • no overhead view (even during sea battle), all done from character’s perspective (think Sly 3 pirate ship combat), this includes navigation
  • Ship Control
    • command a single ship, not fleets (not directly, at least)
    • fully customizable ship
    • ship/crew upkeep and maintenance important, affects gameplay
  • Crew
    • Crew members possess unique abilities and gain experience as game progresses
    • Morale/Respect towards player affect crew’s performance
    • commands need face-to-face communication
  • World Elements (environment, towns, etc.)
    • in true Pirate fashion, player can raid ports/pillage
    • ship to port/ship to ship combat
    • exploration and navigation of the world/charting courses (navigation affected by crew experience)
  • Parrot-controlling mini-game? (hasn’t been done before, as far as we know)

Story

narrative elements concerning plot, characters, world

  • Classical Pirate World
  • tragic past: a group embargoed islands (of maybe criminals, political prisoners), nearing desperation/starvation, forced to become pirates - the pirates consist of a very close-knit and unique group of people, unique ship
  • Unique characters are in important roles, immune to death or replacement in normal gameplay (character shields); regular ship-hands (working under each of the unique characters) are not immune to death or replacement
  • vengeful theme to story, goal is to save island home by breaking the embargo
  • POSSIBLE CHANGE: dungeon crawler-style exploration of island, in which every advancement in abilities from off the island will allow further progression in to the island
  • side-quests are essential
  • real elements (people, guns), but stylized artistic look/feel

Audience

includes possible target user group traits

  • appeal would seem to work for more open-minded gamers, such as fans of Sid Meier’s Pirates!

Possible Technology

includes hardware that would best support the game

  • typical consoles (PS3/Xbox 360) with power, space and standard controls, maybe Wii if graphics were not intensive

Contributors

includes GDDG members who contributed to this idea and were present during the discussion

  • Mediator: Cody Church
  • Kevin Lee
  • Mark Lauman
  • Shane Morin
  • Sergey Khomutovskiy
  • Kristin Kobayashi
  • Alexander Ryan
  • Scott Inglis
  • Lanz Singbeil
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