In our first two sessions together we got to know each other and started debating ideas pretty quickly.

During brainstorming the idea of a wacky game was something everyone agreed on.

We continued building upon this idea and came up with:

Trash Travellers!

It’s a race game that involves sabotaging your fellow players.

The playable characters are pieces of garbage you can find at the bottom of your bag.

To bring them alive we want to use squiggly lines and googly eyes.

Something people tend to put on things when they’re bored.

Except our characters actually come to life and are ready to race!

We had many idea’s for mechanics we wanted to put in the game, but ended up having to downscale our game.

One of our first idea’s involved hordes of enemies to be part of our game, but that became too complicated for a race game. We asked ourselves what would make our game fun?

We knew we wanted an obstacle course to make it challenging and to emphasise the clumsy and silliness of our theme. Something that would make it a little easier to move forward is different paths to follow. Other mechanics that we currently want to include are deterioration of the characters as they progress through the level and a player that has control over the level (‘god player’).

The value of our mechanics will need further testing to see if they match and create a more fun experience.

We asked ourselves what camera angle would provide the best overview of the level without giving too much away. A side view angle with the ability to move in depth was our first idea, however this create frustration in a fast-paced game. So currently we are experimenting with a more isometric camera angle to see if the controls work better.

The amount of players we have right now is between 2-5 players. This will depend on how we will implement the ‘god player’ or if we decide not to implement it. How this player will work is still something we’re debating. As of now, he has the ability to activate the obstacles of the level.

What is the endgame? How will players die? Right now, the goal of the game is to get to the end of the level to win. Because we’re making a racing game, deciding what to do if a player gets off-screen is important. This could also be a way to get ahead in the race and win points. This will depend on the structure of our level and is up for testing.

The ‘god player’ mechanic is proving to be a struggle and is something to figure out as quickly as possible. Other mechanics and ideas will be tested in the prototype to see how they might function.

The coming week we will continue working on our ‘art bible’ to fully establish the theme of our game. We will continue prototyping and do research on how we can implement our mechanics in unreal.