GAMEPLAY DEVELOPMENT

Terrariums

The majority of the game will take place in the terrariums that the player builds, so I've had to take great care in how this part of the game will play. I've taken reference images from my moodboard for terrariums and sketched out a wide variety, including closed and open terrariums. I've also used my research to generate some mechanics for the terrariums, such as utilising different soils, creating self sufficient nutrient systems, and sterilising the terrariums from weeds and such.

Terraria Moodboard: (766) Pinterest

Climate

The climate system is an easy way to identify the players terrariums. The climate would be determined by various factors, such as the temperature, humidity and precipitation of the terrarium. Different creatures would be happier in different climates. An artificial light would also act as a "sun" for that specific terrarium. I have also made a menu for what would appear when the player clicks on a plant, detailing its Sun, Water and Food levels.

More Terrariums

I've thought more about how the terrariums might work, in particular regarding the building of terrariums. As I plan for an exploration mechanic for my game, players could collect materials whilst out in the field, and bring them back to create more terrariums. Different types of terrarium would require different amounts of material, and there could even be some room for customisation here. The player would also be able to choose the type of soil they want, which would subsequently affect the development of different flora. I've also given brief thought to the idea of decorations and features in the form of the waterfall as depicted in the image on the left.

Player Base

The player base is a spherical ship with a giant front window, and rings which go around the circumference of the ship. The ring activate and rotate around the ship when it is getting ready for dimensional travel. There is also a skylight at the top of the ship. It comes equipped with lights placed at the lower center of the front of the ship, as well as hatches which have mechanical arms just above the lights. These can be retracted and function like normal arms. There are also mechanical legs at the bottom of the ship designed in the same fashion as the arms, so the ship can balance when stationary. Boosters can also rotate around the ship for omnidirectional control during flight.

Player Base Interior Ideas (Cont.)

I've designed how the ship might look on the inside. The walls are lined with bookcases, with a small circular table in the middle with a couple of chairs. The skylight, as well as the front window, allows for light to flow inside. Terrariums can also be hung from the ceiling. As it is right now, the space is quite cramped. However, I don't think it will break any immersion if the space is expanded to be a bit more spacious, as the player character is able to travel through dimensions and could apply this technology to the inside of the ship.

Player Base Interior Ideas

I wanted to make the inside of the players base have a sort of "homely" feel. I looked up more reference images from my moodboards and created this first concept of what the player base could look like. However, it doesn't match the shape of what the ship looks like, and so I made a sketch of what this space would look like if it was in the ship.

Hub Moodboard: (766) Pinterest

Exploration

I've designed how exploration in the game might work. There will be a number of different dimensions the player can choose to travel to, and there will be a spawn point where they arrive at. Upon leaving the ship, they will be able to free roam wherever they want within the environment. In the image to the left, I've considered splitting the environment into different sectors. There could be a number of sectors in a dimensions, and three could be randomly picked at a time, to keep things fresh, and for there to be more secrets for the player to discover. Alternatively, there could be one area at the end of the area that changes every time the player visits, offering the chance to collect a rare creature or plant, or to see something exciting happen.

Discussion

I went to the games design subreddit to run my ideas for mechanics by people who will understand what might work for my game and what might not. There were a variety of ideas for how I could take my project, which I will be reviewing here.

I've outlined some key points for how my game might work here. My current thinking is having exploration progress by the discovery of new creatures in an area, similar to New Pokémon Snap, or have them produce some sort of item which can be used as fuel. I also brought up the idea of sharing terrariums with other players online, as well as the natural end point of the game.

The "sharing terrariums with others" feature seems to be met with contrasting views. On the one hand, people I have interviewed liked the suggestion of being able to show off their terrariums, and all of the members of the terrarium subreddit I interviewed agreed that they'd want to show off their terrariums. However, u/AccountantPlayful314 has brought up the fact that showing off can be highly competitive , which could make others stressed. I related to that, as I have experienced the same thing when seeing other players islands in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

I do like the idea of keeping a creature as a companion which the player can take around with them. That way the player could bond with their favourite creatures, and I agree this could amplify the relaxing nature of my game. As they mentioned at the end, it also opens up new ways for the creatures to interact. However, I have in mind the exploration being in first person, so that the player really has to look and search around for creatures and objects, so having a companion that you can barely see might worsen the performance of the game.

Something which has stumped me is how players will be able to capture these creatures. This user has suggested using different types of food in order to attract different creatures, and has also brought up using soil to grow different plants. These are good ideas, and as I mention above, the use of food to capture creatures would prevent it from becoming obsolete once a terrarium is self-sustaining.

It's been suggested that my idea may be too complicated, in that it's in essence, two games combined into one. Although it is a lot of work, I do believe that the two concepts can coexist and synergise with each other. However, I do agree that it would be a good idea to try and prototype one part of the game, and develop it, but I'm not sure if I would be able to complete prototyping before the hand in date, as I already have a full schedule of things I want to complete (see: Personal Development > Time Management). What I plan on now doing is to focus on one area of exploration, and develop it. I will need think of what the area will look like, how it will be laid out, what creatures and plants you can find there, and other factors.

I've taken to the shrink gun idea suggested here. Players could aim at creatures and shrink and collect them, and could possibly feature upgrades so that they could carry more whenever they go on an expedition. There's also been the suggestion of making terrariums have an impact on the creatures. This is kind of like my idea of decorations, which can alter the terrarium and the creatures behaviour.

Climate (Cont.)

Following my research into different climates, I've converted them into different classes for the terrariums in my game, using three different stats: Temperature, Humidity, Precipitation. As a player's terrarium is altered by the plants and creatures living there, these stats will change, and cross into different thresholds. If all three stats meet their respective thresholds, the terrarium will become a certain climate. This will make some creatures and plants unhappy, but others may thrive in the new climate, potentially unlocking different behaviours. I've only included single values for each stat in the image (left), but I will create different ranges for each of these stats in the future. However, an issue has arisen from this. My original thinking was that the game would calculate an average to create each stat. But what if a plant makes a terrarium, say, 50 Celsius, and another is added which adds no temperature value. The average temperature of that terrarium would then become 25 Celsius, which isn't very accurate. I suppose I could only account for those that make any changes, but that might not make a very accurate value either. I will need to discuss this with others to get some feedback.

Biomes

There will be various biomes for the player to explore, and to create too. Like the climate, the biome that has been created may have an influence on a creature's behaviour too. Linking with the adaption mechanic, they may even adapt into a different form. I've made a list here of possible biomes, though they could even be expanded to more fantastical biomes, but to keep the project's scope reasonable, I've limited it to Earth's biomes for easier comprehension and design.

Shrink Ray

In order to collect creatures, based off of discussion with others, I've created a shrink ray. However, I'm not sure how many times the player will be able to use it. I'm thinking of a 5 - 10 shot limit per excursion to other dimensions, just as a starting value, but this will need to be play tested in development. I didn't make it look too high tech or futuristic, as this isn't the type of environment the player is playing in. It's quite a squat and clunky design, similar to the design of the ship.

Soil

I've listed the most common soil type in each biome. This will be the type of soil able to be found in each area the player can explore. Certain plants will find certain soil types more tolerable than others, and will be less likely to die because of this. However, some plants may need specific soil types to grow because of their nature.

Climate Animatic

I made an animatic showing how I expect terrarium in the gameplay to work, at a pretty basic level. It mostly details how I expect the climate mechanic to work right now, but also features other basics like creature stats, and placing objects. The terrarium starts with a climate of Temperate, and the habitat is a Forest. As the player places multiple Fireblooms, the temperature of the terrarium increases. It leaves the Temperate threshold, and eventually enter the Dry threshold, making the terrarium a Dry Forest. This causes the trees' leaves to fall off, leaving them barren. The Kumofumofu's happiness decreases, and subsequently their health, causing them to become grey and crackle with electricity, until they start to create lightning. This animatic will hopefully show the level of dynamism I'm aiming to create in the terrarium portion of the game.

Exploration Animatic

I made another animatic showing how I think exploration might work in my game. The player wields their shrink gun and aims towards a cloud sheep. The cloud sheep is roaming around the meadow so the player must keep moving the camera in order to aim. I show the reticle moving around in this animatic, but in the actual game, it would be fixed in the center of the screen, and the player would move the camera in order to aim. I created the animatic this way to save myself some time to create other works. I also included the control map to show what actions are mapped to each button.

Terrariums (Cont.)

Options hanging at the top left (from left to right):

Back (Not pictured here, but will be in final design (leads back to the Hub with the rest of the players terrariums))
Plants (any of the players collected plants)
Creatures (any of the players collected creatures)
Decorations (any of the decorations the player has crafted)
Delete (allows the player to trash any plants, creatures or decorations they have)
Checklist (list of mini objectives the player can complete if they wish)
Travel (lets the player travel to different dimensions to go exploring)

When the player selects the plant or creature tab, a submenu will appear showing the different plants or creatures that they have available. By selecting the icon and dragging into the terrarium, the player will place the corresponding plant or creature into the terrarium. Clicking on the plant or creature will bring up its own submenu, detailing what the plant or creature is, its health and its happiness.

I've brought back the TP (terrarium point) system that I had created in an earlier iteration. The current TP that the player has will be displayed in the top left hand corner of the screen, only with the TP earned per minute beneath it, for the current terrarium the player is in. This was a crudely designed system that basically used the system for earning points from Equilinox, but after playing Slime Rancher, it's given me some last minute thoughts for how gameplay could work. I considered my game to be purely a nature simulator, however it's obvious that my game is a hybrid with management style games. Using this system, I can allow the player to earn points based on how synergised their terrariums are, and how well they are taking care of their creatures, and use this as incentive for them to make trips to more and more exotic locales. As there is no breeding, similar to Slime Rancher, there will need to be a way for players to rebuild their terrariums if they run out of creatures. I plan by having the first area, the Meadow, be free to travel to in the extreme case that a player loses all of their plants and creatures.

I also created buttons for the player to access the adaption mechanic. One is for food, and the other is for decorations. This will make it easier for the player to specify which creatures they want to modify. It will only feed that specific creature, or, in the case of a decoration, places it right next to the creature, if possible. This will need some form of collision detection to see if there is any space.