Homework 11

1) Describe the user interface in your game. 

 The user interface in the game would be slick and would help the players to navigate and access various parts of the game (sound, controls, new game, resume, quit and view history of "Hashima Island"). There will be a health bar and along with it. There might be a countdown timer for dawn. Moreover, there will be list of collected items (hints) in the menu. The player and the boat would be controlled using "W/S/A/D" keys and few other dedicated keys would be there to perform actions.

2) What role will the interface play in your game.

The interface will primarily be there to assist the player and help him advance throughout the game. There will be Menu, Health Bar, Countdown for dawn. The Menu bar will have New Game, Sound, Controls, History of Hashima Island, Quit Game and Hints section which will display the hints collected by the player.

3) Intuitive interfaces give a feeling of control. How easy (or hard) is your interface to master?
Since the interface would be simplistic and minimalistic, the player can figure out within minutes of playing the game how to use it. For controlling the player and the actions that he can perform would be very basic so there won't be any complicated set of button combinations to perform them.

4) Will your players have a strong influence over the outcome of the game? Please describe? If not, how can you change this?

Yes, since the player needs to find his lost father on an island, he is solely responsible for the outcome of the game. There will be a time limit within which he needs to find his father before his father dies. Moreover, after finding his father, he needs to escape the island along with his father.

5) Players like to feel powerful. Do the players of your game feel powerful? How could this be improved?

Yes with the help of weapons the player would be able to fight against his enemies and give an advantage over the others and make him feel more powerful. By using the vehicles, he can damage the doors of select buildings so that he can break into without struggling for long.

6) What does the player pick up and touch?

 Player can pick up weapons, health packs, eatables, mining hats and the hints dropped by his father like jacket, locket, watch, family photo, shoes, etc. The player can touch these items along with the boat, vehicles, animals, break into doors/windows with his hands.

7) Does the interface map to actions in the world? How?

Yes, when the player gets attacked by the animals or if he jumps of from a height, it will reflect in the health bar. Also, when the player collects the health packs or eatables, it will be shown on the screen how much has he collected and the interface will also show how many points the player has gathered. When the player collect the hints dropped by his father it will show in the inventory.

8) How does your interface let the player see, hear and touch the world of the game? Could this be improved in order to make the game world more real to the player's imagination?

The player would be able to see the island, hear the sounds of the animals, ocean, footsteps, boat and car sounds, chirping sound of the birds, opening of the doors and windows etc and would be able to collect health packs, eatables, collect hints and points, etc. We have been working on this part very closely so as to make the game feel more realistic in the terms of hearing, touching and the visuals which the player would see around him.

9) The idea interface is invisible to the player. Does your interface cater to the players desires? What are these desires?

The most important thing from a perspective of a player is the moment he/ she picks up the game controller, they experiment with the controls so that they can take control of the character and make him do what they feel like doing. Another most important thing is that the input should reflect immediately when the player presses a key or a mouse button. These are a few things that we are working upon so that the whole experience is fluid and interactive. 

10) Can your interface be used without the players thinking? Is it natural? 

Yes, since the interface is simplistic and easy to use, it would feel natural since it would be similar to the popular third person action adventure game. Even if there are players who haven't played any games before, we are keeping the controls minimalistic so that they can get a hang of it after playing it for a while. Most of the times the essential keys or buttons would be provided as hint on the screen so that the player doesn't need to figure out what to press which would be less obtrusive and keep the player within the game.

  
11) Assuming you can do what you want, how would you make your interface more natural?

Since the game that we are developing  reflects the real world therefore the actions performed by the player would come naturally to the player once he gets acquainted to the controls of the game. We would basically use the same style of control system as it is in the majority of the third person games action adventure game, it won't take up much of a time for the player to get accustomed to the controls.

12) What kind of feedback does your interface present to the player? What do the players want to 

know? How does the interface relate to the player's goal? Will it help achieve that goal? 

Collection of the items dropped by his father would give hints which will bring the player one step closer to find his lost father as it will be displayed in the inventory. The player tries to figure out where his father is located so the interface presents him with the list of the items dropped by his father so that he gets a hint in which direction his father has gone. There will be subtle hints during the game play which will make the player more aware of his father's whereabouts. Yes, with the help of the hints, he will be able to accomplish the major part of the game.

13) Is the interface feedback continuous? Why or why not?

Speaking about the controls, the interface is continuous whereas if we talk about the collection of the hints and the health bar, it depends on the player how he takes the route to find his lost father and it will reflect in the interface accordingly.

14) Please describe the concept of interface modes? Does your game have multiple modes? Please explain (Lens #60).

Interface modes helps the player to determine what different sets of abilities he can / restrict the player to perform. There are three modes in the game. One is "Combat mode" where the player will have fighting capabilities and able to dodge the opponents, the other one is the "Driving mode" which will restrict him from doing anything except steering the vehicle and the third one is "Explore mode" which will give the player the opportunity to break into doors, enter inside the buildings, running, walking, jumping etc.

Last week - 

Discussed about the things left for the completion of the game. I have added more objects in the island which includes the dock. I have also worked upon the AI of animals and gathered ideas for the concept of the poster.