Game Project Part 1 (16/1/2013)

For this project we are to create either a board game or a demo using UDK based on a fictional game idea of our own. This sounds like a fun, but challenging task as it will require me to either create a fully functioning board game with my own assets, or a demo on UDK that would require programming and limits me to UDK's resources.

My first idea was a Steampunk board game that I had been working on during my train journeys for quite a while now. I started to create a map/board for it and worked on this for an hour before my lecturer (Graeme) then asked me if Steampunk had already been seen in the industry far too much? This threw me off as I didn’t have an answer for him as I had jumped straight into the development cycle. Since I was focusing on the game play rather than the story at the time I also felt embarrassed and ashamed of myself as I have always focused on the story and originality of my games first, as I would think of appropriate game play to fit the context of the story.

My lecturer however told me to not be discouraged and to look at this as the start of a bigger idea. Therefore I decided to make a list of the fors and againsts using UDK compared to a board game and will try and create a story that I feel is original and suits the gameplay for one of these play types.  

You can see the start of my thought process below:

Whilst on the train I also made a list of the things I would want to include in either of my game types. These include the following:

• Narrative driven game play.
• Originality.
• Multiple paths that the player can go down (either travel based or moral based).
• Visually pleasing.
• Fun game play that is neither too long or too short.