Jola Bolaji

About

EA Games came and did a short session on rapid prototyping.

Problem

We all rolled dice to obtain the three attributes (post-apocalyptic, action-adventure, one-button controller) of the game we were to plan and create.

Solution

We came up with a studio name, game name, target market, x statement, objective, gameplay, budget, team, and timeline. We then gave a minute pitch of our game.

Studio Name: Out of The Blue

Game Name: Goosebumps: The Movie: The Game.

Goosebumps was a classic children's series when users in their 20s and 30s were kids, but the movie also adds younger children and their parents.

Target Market: mobile users, specifically encompassing fans of both the books and movie.

X Statement: Action-packed post-apocalyptic choose-your-own-adventure mobile game.
Objective: Escape as a child in the city of Townsville and try to survive as long as possible
as you play through this fast-paced story and make split-second decisions.

Gameplay: The player is a child in a goosebumps story set in 3015. The player must outlast zombies, robots, other survivors and more. Every game is a new, randomized sequence of events. Every 30 seconds or so, the player reaches a decision point in the game--a fork in the road. They use one button to switch between the randomly highlighted decision on the screen, or the other option. They start with 5 seconds to decide. As they make worse decisions (that lead to shorter branches--which lead to death and the end of the game), decision time decreases closer to 1 second. As they make better decisions (that lead to longer branches), time increases closer to 5 seconds. Winning is reaching one of the classic Goosebumps story and/or movie happy endings. But all players receive a score that is how long they lasted in the game (weighted number -- poorer decisions that led down shorter branches are less points).

Budget: $1 Million (upped for $350K originally)

Team: 2 Developer ($50K each), 1 Artist ($50K), 1 Writer ($50K), 1 SFX Person, 2 Translators ($100K each). Increased from 2 Developers ($50K each), 1 Artist ($50K), and 1 Writer ($50K)

Timeline = 1 year to release. Increased from seven months (including a one month delay to coincide with student's finals week as a hot new way to procrastinate).

Feedback:

• Unclear if this game is for children.
  • We realized our market is really just mobile users in general. It's more defined by topical interest than age.
• If this is a kids game, it would need less words.
  • Not to copy a competitor but similar to Candy Crush. All the action would be portrayed by animated 2D storyboards with short speech bubble dialogs and sound effects.
• If this is for adults, would Goosebumps really work.
  • I gave the example of Toy Story 3 which is a children's film but drew huge numbers of young professionals who had seen the original movie when they were children.

Throwing a Wrench into The Mix:
Halfway through, we were told that our product was illegal in our biggest market. At that point we hadn't settled on a market, but realized we had automatically assumed the United States of America. Thus, we approached the challenge of releasing this game in foreign markets. One thing we would want to do would be to hire a contract social psychologist to run through the game before release (and continually once a month) to ensure cultural sensitivity. Depending on where outside of the USA our app was, not everyone would have a smartphone. We considered other options. A console game might not work because it would require a special controller or drastically differ use of current controllers. A low-fi version for basic phones since it's a one-button controller game anyway. A PC game - not requiring a smartphone - but would still require some form of technology. One idea I really liked was a Wii/Kinect/VR game that users 'played' thru and made their decision by running/moving to one side of the scene/screen or the other.

Other Ideas We Didn't Have Time To Get To:

• Personal, (Facebook) Friend, Regional, and Worldwide Leader Board

  • i.e. Player CuCuy lasted longest in  Canada at 2500 life-giving decisions.

• As an app, we can release updates to extend length and/or difficulty of game (changed and added decisions and branches)