We were recently given an assignment to create a video-game prototype, with the same teams we had for our paper prototype. This assignment is pretty open ended. Our game can be of any genre, for any platform and made using whatever software we like. We have been studying Unity and its visual scripting system, so that seems to be the obvious choice. The only stipulations are that it must be completed by the 30th of November and it must be related to the theme of personal hygiene. Having a theme does limit our choices a little, but it also gives us some direction, and forces us to be creative in order to make something engaging that still fits the slightly mundane sounding brief.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic being still fresh in the minds of many, my first thought upon hearing the brief was "Rona Simulator", with Rona of course being a tongue-in-cheek colloquialism for Coronavirus. I envisioned a 2D platformer in which a player must navigate the level whilst maintaining a safe distance from NPCs in order to avoid catching the dreaded Rona. Being within a certain range of NPCs would add to your "Exposure Gauge". Filling this gauge would infect the player character, ending the game. I thought of adding face masks as pick-ups to reduce how quickly the exposure gauge fills and I also had the idea some sort of "Vaccine Gun" to shoot NPCs, immunising them from the virus, and therefore removing them as a threat.
I spoke to my team not long after this and they had similar ideas. As such, we quickly settled on using Unity to make an action-platformer in which you must avoid an infection. There was some deliberation as to whether we should make a more platforming focused 2D game or a more shooting focused 3D version, but we decided to go for the 2D option as it requires less animation work, something quite important considering the short time frame. We were also unsure whether we should have human characters avoiding Coronavirus or if we should go for something a little different. Eventually we decided that, although the pandemic was a clear inspiration for the game, making it explicitly about COVID-19 was too on the nose. Also, that would require us to either use humanoid sprites/models, meaning more animation work, or settle for placeholder assets, making the visuals very underwhelming. Instead, we opted to have the game take place within the body. Now you play as a white blood cell, the enemies are pathogens, and your projectiles are antibodies. This new setting allows us to be more creative with our game mechanics, more abstract with our art-style and lets us minimise time spent on animation so that we can focus on designing and programming a compelling game.
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