In order to get some early feedback on the project, we delivered a preliminary presentation in which we explained the premise and key features of our game. This came in handy as the positive feedback we received ensured us that we are on the right track. I created the slide-show and spoke on behalf of the team during the presentation. Our other designer added some artwork and tweaks to the colouration on the slides to reinforce our casual vibe. Learning from our peers, we made sure that our programmers also took a moment at the end of the presentation to describe what we are aiming to produce as our minimum viable product.
Here are the slides from our presentation:
We received no negative feedback but we were given a suggestion. Since the premise of Knock Off is that it is a game-show, it was suggested that we should introduce a host character. This is an idea we had discussed briefly before but had put aside in favour of the core mechanics for now. Having an announcer provide commentary over each match could be a great addition though. They could add witty remarks, reinforcing the game's theme and tone, and could communicate useful information to the players such as the score or objectives. This feature is not as easy to implement as it might seem though. First of all, the character would have to have dialogue written for them, which is not a simple task. As if the dialogue is poorly written, the character may actually end up detrimental to the game. Then we would have to record voice lines for the character, meaning we would either have to find a volunteer voice actor or one of us would have to do it. I do have a background in acting, but that was a very long time ago so portraying a character after such a long hiatus is a daunting prospect. We could simply have the character's dialogue appear as on-screen text, but forcing players to read during fast-paced gameplay seems sub-optimal. Even in that case, our programmers would need to develop a system to trigger dialogue at certain times, reducing the amount of time they would have to work on our core gameplay systems.
When discussing the announcer idea, the notion of having them also act as a player-controlled game-master was mentioned. The player who is controlling the announcer could view the arena from the air and fly around placing obstacles and generally sabotaging players. This is certainly a cool idea and would allow odd-numbered groups of players to be in the same game without unbalancing the team sizes. As such, it is likely something that we designers will produce some documentation for. In terms of implementation though, I doubt we will find the time to do it. This game-master player is effectively playing a whole different game to the other players and so would require a completely different set of controls and mechanics in order to even make it usable. Even if we were able to make it functional in the time frame, we have to consider whether it would be an enjoyable role from a player-motivation standpoint. What is the announcer's objective? Why are they sabotaging players? In the battle and race modes we have designed, there is no reason for a third party to want to influence the result, other than just the sadistic fun of knocking players off of stuff. This is fine for a short while, but lacks longevity. To really make the announcer/game-master role work, we would have to design another game mode which incorporates it from the start.
Overall, its a fun idea which we will certainly design and maybe implement to some degree if we find the time. But since we are still early in development, we currently still need to get the core systems and mechanics up to a high standard before we start looking into peripheral features like this.
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