Dev.log Gold

Dev.log Gold

Option 2A

   For my last Dev.log I wanted to do something I've been excited for. I played The Falconeer , an arcade/ flying game by Tomas Sala, a one man studio. It is an open world game where players fly a giant falcon over a flooded world, navigating hostile factions and genetically modified mega fauna. I was interested in the game from it's reveal at the game shows, because I've always been a huge fan of the ignored Crimson Skies series and the gameplay is quite similar. The games story left me in tears, far surpassing any expectations. This does contain spoilers.

  The Mechanics of The Falconeer allow the player to ascend and descend in flight, flying about in full 360. They can perform rolls to dodge attacks. Players can also fire their weapons. They can order their falcon to dive into water and pick things up as well. Finally they can land on friendly territories and aisles and buy things from shops. Lastly, the player can accelerate. 

   The Falconeer's Dynamics come into paly when wandering the open world. The player can take missions for their faction to advance the plot, making money and gaining new permits to operate on other isles/ territories. The player must master flight in order to dogfight with factions of sky pirates flying airships, dragons and other falcons. The player can buy different weapons and mounts from shops using their "splinters" or money. The dive mechanic can be used to pick up fish out of the water that can be eaten. It can also be used to pick up sunken treasure, returned to towns for a reward. players can also pick up mines and drop them on structures/ ships in the sea or air. They explode and bounce, and knocking a friendly out of the air is an instant failure, causing the player to become a pirate, hunted by all other factions. In flight players can dive into whirlwinds to attain heights rapidly, or flying into jet stream and shoot themselves across the map. Flying into thunderstorms will recharge the players ammunition, but too much which overload and cause an explosion. Accelerating or ascending consumes blue energy, which is needed for momentum to perform dodges and avoid attack's. Descending or entering wind formations replenishes it. It would be bad to run out of it in the middle of a dogfight near sea level.
   Aesthetic: The Falconeer has a swashbuckling tone that fails to mask the somber, spiritual and humanistic atmosphere that blows any other flying game I've played out of the water. The dynamic music featuring throat singing and Polynesian instruments, I believe, and opera singing give the game a sense of wonder and freedom, as the player sails above clouds, bells drown all out. While entering different parts of the world changes the lighting, time of day and the dynamic music. Each time the player dies, they, from a disembodied perspective are lectured by a Sea Enchantress, witches who manipulate the ancient technology of the settlers who attempted to colonize the planet ages ago. They take the games currency, Splinters, and place them inside of newborn falcons and Falconeers. The splinters contain the souls of fallen humans and their memories. They do this in hopes that one day the people of the Ursee might remember they are not from this planet and stop slaughtering one another, as they were exiled here from the now planet faring human race for their warlike and jealous ways. 
   The terrible truth, that brothers and sisters turned on one another ages ago, as they have done many times throughout history, and were imprisoned on the water bound planet for it, gives the game it's somber, tragic tone. It reflects the cyclical nature of mankind, that they can never be free as long as they are divided, and that destruction must precede creation. The games campaign reflects this. At the end of each chapter you will die, your soul joining the others in the sunken depths or stored away inside another, and take the role of another character of a different faction. As the game goes on the player discovers ancient sunken relics that relate the creation myth of the people of Ursee, as a blend of sci-fi and religious themes. But each faction interprets it differently, defining their place in the universe as flawed, imprisonment, punishment for the sins of their ancestors, leading to conflict and bloodshed. The only freedom the people of this world have, are the time they spend above the clouds, on the back of a genetically altered falcon, but like humanity, they must always descend to the storm, below the clouds, again and again, life, after lifetime. Rise, before the Fall. 
Despite all of this the game keeps a faint hope in the hearts of players. The witches say that cruelty lives within all of us, like an original sin, but this cycle is not pointless. We get better each time, much like players do when they are shot down and ascend to the skies to try again. All in all I'm really hooked on this game, and I now must force my friends to play it.

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Option 1
While reading the section on the design documents, I realized where why first attempt a creating a high level design document last semester failed. It was too disorganized on paper. While I feel a wiki is more disorganized that a digital document, the text says to make dozens of passes of the design document. My failing was that I ran out of paper, and my handwriting is atrocious. This made it ineffective for visualizing and communicating.
   The section about Design visualizations came in handy, since I was about clueless on where to with the physical board for my final group project. I just need to start simple. Currently I think design macros are still beyond me. I can see why Naughty uses it, having played Uncharted 1 & 2 before. I can see exactly who this cross section of gameplay and story action evolves into their cinematic 'railroad' gameplay. For example in Uncharted 2 the opening segment where the protagonist regains consciousness on a frozen, derailed train high in the mountains and must climb his way out translate directly onto figure 14.7 in our texts. It becomes; Location: Mountain Crevasse, Mechanic: Climbing, Enemy models: None. I can see it!
   I found a lot of Anna Anthropy's interview very interesting as it mirrors my own. She didn't understand how to enter a career as someone who makes games, and I never imagined such a future for myself as a kid in a New York public school. I find it funny she refers to the game industry as a sinking ship, but I'm surprised to know that she started with Twine like I did. It did give the ability to see myself as someone capable of coding or telling a story long after I had given up writing from middle school. I get the feeling she also used her game making skills for things we can't mention in a professional setting, like me. The interview with Rob Daviau mirrors what she says, about games hiding behind smoke and mirrors to sell bad products. I've seen it myself a dozen times since I began following the industry, and the examples litter the ground; Destiny, Anthem, Fallout 76, Crackdown 3 and numerous battle royale titles. times are changing, but his point about being the only one standing, pushing back against familiarity and stifling creative bankruptcy.