Eva

NB! This post is still under construction. Please come again later ~

Game mechanics

We've tried to keep the game mechanics fairly simple throughout the project. But the main idea from the beginning has been to use the smartphone's camera function, either to complete photo challenges or to "hunt" each other in an elaborate game of tag.

Our pervasive game primarily has two layers: First, the players walk around Mathallen searching for the image clues, and take a picture of the clue once discovered.

It's been challenging to playtest since we're unable to make a real working app to make the gameplay flow more easily, and had to rely on messaging apps like Messenger.

This is in attempt to shift the focus a little bit away from the PVP aspect, and onto the more mundane aspect of collecting images, which the majority of life in the film is about: Working. This shift will also hopefully help with the general issue with assassination games like Killer, which is that the best strategy to win the game is to simply hide. The collecting task also encourages players to not hide, which will increase player interactions and duels.

We've also decided that the gameplay should focus around taking selfies, in order to make sniping more challenging. Furthermore we're a bit on the fence about zooming, though we think that a little zooming is allowed.

When it comes to PVP faceoffs, any selfie with the target counts, as long as the target is recognizable in the image.

The score is settled once the game ends, when all the players gather to judge which images count as a point. Each image task should count as 1 point, while each snipe should count as -1 point to the target.

Because we wanted to host the game in a crowded space, we wanted to use something less tangible than a toy weapon which is common in campus' assassin's guilds, and we settled on the smartphone camera. We wanted to do this, in order to not disturb strangers who are not aware of the game taking place, which could in the worst case lead to the players accidentally damaging property or being thrown out of the building. The idea of the camera as a weapon was inspired by the video game Fatal Frame.

Theme

We decided on the name "Dès Vu" for the game, as borrowed from French. It's related to dejavu, but means "The Awareness That This Will Become A Memory" according to the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.

As group 4, we've had to work with the assigned theme of "time travel," thus we thought this title was fitting. In John Koenig's words:

"One day you’ll remember this moment, and it’ll mean something very different. (…) So you try to sense it ahead of time, looking for clues, as if you're walking through the memory while it's still happening, feeling for all the world like a time traveler.

The thought behind this title is that throughout the game, you accumulate an amount of selfies. Once the game has ended, the feed you and your friends have collectively created will serve as a time capsule of that place and event in that moment in time, which you can look back upon. As Koenig says, you become "two people, still seperated by an ocean of time. Part of you bursting to talk about what you saw, part of you longing to tell you what it all means."

Narrative

In Dès vu you play as time thieves, who wander the halls earning or borrowing time from the different stalls around you, while trying to steal time from other players to live a little bit longer. This narrative is something we've borrowed from the 2011 sci-fi action film In Time:

We begin the game by explaining the rules to the players, before letting them loose for up to 15 minutes, collecting and assassinating each other.

Visual identity

As for our visual identity, we've decided to go for a warm hand-made accent in line with Koenig: "Some details are charming and dated," which underlies the mundane point of the game and shift the focus a bit away from the assassination mechanic a bit.

Spatial design

In terms of spatial design, we always knew we wanted to host the game in a crowded environment. A crowd will allow the players to blend in with the environments easier, and move around incognito. This mechanic is inspired by the Ubisoft video game Assassin's Creed (AC2), which in turn may be inspired by real psychology or illusions where pickpockets and magician's tricks use sleight-of-hand to steal an item without the target noticing through the art of misdirection, or what spies do when tailing or being tailed by somebody by using disguises.

We also considered staging our predefined game in Karl Johan, because this street is infamously crowded most of the time, but had to abandon the idea because the site was a little further than a 10 min walk away from the university building. We settled for the next best spot, Mathallen, which is probably the most crowded spot within a 10 min radius of AHO. Ideally, we would host the game at IKEA however, where players can hide in the different furniture exhibitions and blend in with the crowd. What these different sites have in common is their floor plan's maze like layout or structure, with plenty of distractions at every corner whether that'd be signs or mundane activities, with small pockets of space to hide in, whether that'd be shops or exhibitions.

From the beginning we also decided that the playground should not be too big, so that the players simply hide throughout the entire game, but not so small that the players cannot slip away without being noticed all the time.

Sound design

Because this is an assassination-style game, we've wanted to keep the sounds coming from the app to a minimum, to allow the player to blend into their surroundings more naturally and allow them to avoid detection. Instead the focus of the sounds comes from the actual real life environments, such as the bustling of the crowd, clinging and clanging of cooking utensils, and strangers dining and wandering.

If we could make an actual app, we considered adding an alarm sound warning the player that he is leaving the defined playground.

Adaptability

For this prototype, the image targets are pre-defined by us (the game designers), but an idea has also been to allow the players to collectively decide the size of the playground and image targets themselves. For instance, before the game begins, the players could each be tasked to photograph around 3-5 images, which will be sent to the other players. They would also be able to define the size of the playground by discussing amongst themselves, in the same manner that kids design their own child-initiated "games" in the playground or when they play around in general.

Individual player's journey

I'm a little bit concerned about whether or not the player will experience a cognitive dissonance between the mechanics and narrative, i.e. between what they do and the motivation they're given, but I hope they have fun regardless.

Multiplayer interactions

A sense of fiction

Linear progression

Affiliates

Paweetida @paweetida

Eva @evahoybakk