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
page revision: 0, last edited: 22 Jul 2009 20:31