Dirty Bird (POC)
Brief:
Wanted to create a game that combines the mechanics of flappy/Angry bird games, but also wanted to target a serious aspect in the game created. So tried to incorporate the consumption of drugs in cities; in specific Methamphetamine. So the story as well is centered around the loss of a loved one due to drugs.
Game Type: Serious Game
Engine: construct 2, selection was so that level creation would be easier for kids (involvement)
Link: http://wvdr.github.io/
Controls: tap/click = fly, tap/click and hold = drop bomb.
Parts that work:
Controls
Story
Play/Game
Stats
Still working on:
Story: Needs to explain more what happens, when drugs take over one's life; excluded specifics as some people may be sensitive to it.
Scene Cycling: When the game starts, it should cycle between sceens, but only currently displays city scene.
Items: Current the later items (Veg), only grow the bomb size, should do something more fun.
LevelCity selection: Currently still trying to create a boss level for each city; sorry Durban and PE, only cape town and jozi.
Boss levels: There should be several for each city, current only fixed to one.
Website: to allow for boss level creation/submission.
Bugs
Currently, the boss level fails to trigger on mobile browser and has no sound, works fine on PC/Mac browser. Bad timing :(
Any comments welcome.
Wanted to create a game that combines the mechanics of flappy/Angry bird games, but also wanted to target a serious aspect in the game created. So tried to incorporate the consumption of drugs in cities; in specific Methamphetamine. So the story as well is centered around the loss of a loved one due to drugs.
Game Type: Serious Game
Engine: construct 2, selection was so that level creation would be easier for kids (involvement)
Link: http://wvdr.github.io/
Controls: tap/click = fly, tap/click and hold = drop bomb.
Parts that work:
Controls
Story
Play/Game
Stats
Still working on:
Story: Needs to explain more what happens, when drugs take over one's life; excluded specifics as some people may be sensitive to it.
Scene Cycling: When the game starts, it should cycle between sceens, but only currently displays city scene.
Items: Current the later items (Veg), only grow the bomb size, should do something more fun.
LevelCity selection: Currently still trying to create a boss level for each city; sorry Durban and PE, only cape town and jozi.
Boss levels: There should be several for each city, current only fixed to one.
Website: to allow for boss level creation/submission.
Bugs
Currently, the boss level fails to trigger on mobile browser and has no sound, works fine on PC/Mac browser. Bad timing :(
Any comments welcome.
Comments
-Why are seemingly friendly things like birds and hedgehogs a hindrance
-Why am I a pig without taking any 'tik'
-Why am I taking purple potions that I have no idea what they do as some sort of goal, this comes across as a bit twisted considering it's a anti-drug game
-Potion that is supposed to make me stronger instead makes me smaller, being smaller does seem to help in the game, but it's somehow upside down. In the context of anti-drug campaign, it could make sense, "get noticed less/keep a low profile" type of thing
-Police, medics and bums are missing, something that is inherent with any serious addiction
-Would be good if taking 'tik' had a more dramatic death animation to the others
-I see you listed the boss fights as not-done yet, giving more space and slack to the 'draw' animation and more than one try would be good
I don't think blatantly showing the points will make someone think about them and thus the reason I made them vague. It always made me think of those winners don't use drug screens right before an awesome game where I consume and take a questionable amount of medication and strange herbs... it just broke the message for me. and I was like 10 at the time.
A pig can be seen as dirty or negative, if I put a shiny metal hero there, it may seem like only those type of people can take on such a task as we assume a hero should. Also, we assume that a pig will eat anything? but as you see later on this piggy has to be selective in it's eating habits...
The other animals like birds and animals are not actually meant to be a hindrance, they are suppose to represent bystanders, just staying in one place, going about their business. They can easily be avoided but they can also be affected by tik (and then really go for you), you can sometimes bump into them and nothing happens, you avoid them and attack the tik. I am actually trying to show gang/drug violence and the people involved, as even as you throw bombs you may take them out instead of the tik or dealers/users. I will take a look at the collision detection, but removing it all together makes the level too easy since there might be no hindrence?
The first iteration I had, I had you actually you collecting "tik" to remove from each location, but as allot of people pointed out this re-enforces it being something good. I have to re-enforce it being negative collection/consumption. So I turned the tik into ticks :) Now they attack and you are actively destroying them. Also if you destroy a tick it changes to a dead one and a drops a crystal, or becomes crystal tik/m. I don't have the code in yet but once you collect that, the pig image flips or hinder you and this song plays
The potions/collectibles are not all helpful, this is suppose to point out that if you take something you are not aware of, it can have bad consequences (like medicine good or bad). In most games, most collectibles are good with a few being bad. In mine most are bad with a few being good; or only the later ones which are vegetables and harder to unlock. Thus easy items or the easy way out may not be good :)
At the end of boss the stats level shows how many tik were killed in each city town. These must be actual drug case figures for each city but I have not been able to get accurate figures (I really need help with this). You can then also see the items you can unlock; also all tiks are shown as dead. The descriptions are vague for the reason I describe above.
The second interaction had no unlockable items, and thus no driving factor and was really boring because of this, why would I continue? This is actually been the hardest to make work. I think with more boss level and item inclusion/cycling it can help; which is the third iteration. I find with Rouge-like games, I tend to get bored playing it because it's just Items and level cycling.
Humans are also missing, I need to add the valkyrie wich are in this case the police (as per story), I can also have them throw med packs instead of bombs making them medics... not so sure about bumbs or the homeless, and how to represent them without the normal negative context, will think on it thanks.
I was thinking of giving you more ammo for the boss, based on the about of ticks you get in the level (driving factor). But then designing the level will require more effort, since having more shots may make it too easy... but since its one of the things you mentioned I will go ahead with that idea.
Again thanks allot, its good to have someone to bounce ideas off. :) Hope the above makes more sense, but if you still feel that it's not clear please mention it.
Make the player begin as a beautiful bird, give him/her a few lives, every time he picks up a tik he mutates a bit, middle ground being a pig, end scale, some mutated monster. I would also include education in there, something as simple as a book that you pick up, if you have the time, this bonus resource can identify the good from the bad actors.
Good luck.
Thank you, those are very good suggestions.
I'd like there to be more effects of the drugs on display, at the moment (unless I'm misunderstanding) it's sort of a game about not touching bad people... Which isn't exactly a game about tik, but one about living in a dangerous place with murderous creatures.
Although, I do appreciate where there is a bit of drug reference, I like that tik turns the pretty creatures in the scene into monsters and keeps spreading... I feel like tik would be better represented by crystals or by smoke or something (spiders seem like they are just infectious spiders).
I suppose it's a bit of a challenge, but perhaps doing this more like one of those endless runners where you are running away from certain doom (like an avalanche) might be better for showing the wave of addiction spreading across the land?
If I make it so that the nice creatures don't stop you (you can pass through without harm) unless they change "bad". Add lives as suggested, and the metamorphosis to an evil creature(of the player), when touching the crystal. Also the creates can spawn crystals instead of spiders/ticks... and the spiders/ticks then just become and evil creature(maybe using the crystal as a thrown weapon).
Also adding a puff of white smoke when collecting the crystal, is a strong indication of consumption in this case. :) thanks.
Then the avalanche and spread idea can work as well, thus instead of the monsters being created right and then disappearing left they can follow right and you can try and bomb them. creating the fear of impending doom from things that were harmless and the land safe to you running away as the drugs spread and the land becoming that of fear? While trying to head to the tik boss or drug to take him out. I actually thought this would be less empowering (you can't stop the spread of drugs), because you are running away; but thinking on it now this does showcase what will happen if you don't put a stop to it.
The collectibles will then change to be only food/positive (veg, pizza tea etc), thus gaining life, and reverting back in metamorphosis by correct consumption, vs negative consumption of the crystals and taking damage.
Great ideas :) Will let you guys know as I change the content.
Using game rules to express ideas I think is one of the more fascinating/challenging aspects of game design (and a ton of game designers get fail at this an end up expressing ideas contrary to their intent, or fail to express any ideas at all).
Again, thank you guys.