“Bloodshot eyes”
The last week has been absolutely grueling on my psyche. Not enough sleep and not enough PERCEIVED productivity. But, we’re back working together in larger groups, and that suits me just fine!
We’ve been tasked to do a game from a stack of game design documents that were created by the class this autumn (OUR PROJECT, “WITH LOVE” WAS IN THE TOP THREE!). There were thirteen options, some of them a lot more feasible then others. We chose a project called “Escape”, which is a top-down stealth/action type of game.
“With Love smells like lemons” – Marcus 2014
“Artistic Liberties”
The team got our hands on the design document and got to work. My first question to our teacher was – “How far away from the original design are we allowed to go?”.
First off, there’s about 3-4 other groups working from the same design document. What’s the point in creating a system and game that several others are already creating? What’s the joy in re-creating and not creating something that you can call your own?
So, we cut several features and pin-pointed what was essentially the core mechanics; Sneaking, Moving and Shooting.
The point of doing that is that more features =/= a better gameplay experience. From my understanding, and from my own experience, the best way of creating good and solid gameplay is to make sure that the most basic and core mechanics are tightened and make sure that they’re as tight and as enjoyable as possible. As mentioned during our lectures, the original Mario game was about jumping, jumping and jumping. There’s nothing else to it, but the jumping feels extremely satisfying and the controls are top-notch. That’s going to be one of my main design goals during this project, less is more.
“Design Goals”
Sneaking vs. Running – What’s the difference?
First off, there’s got to be a major difference in the two different modes of moving. Why should running be shunned and discouraged during a stealth game? Maybe it shouldn’t?
The point is, that running in a stealth game can’t be favored nor discouraged at all times. So, I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s got to be both actual gameplay perks to running and proper discouragements. The perks being that there’s sections that you have to move through fast and coordinated, think of the field of view of two cameras crossing; there’s a small time gap that you have to make sure you get through. And for the discouragements, there’s got to be some kind of “noise” system in work. Running to close to a guard should obviously alert the guard to the players location.
Running is therefor a conscious choice of the player, something the player always has to take into account. Subtle, but it’ll give movement value, rather then just being a mode of transportation from A to B.
Shooting should follow the same pattern of “less is more”. According to me, there’s two three things that makes shooting interesting, and it’s not having a hundred choices of weapons, or incredibly rendered weaponry.
It’s the sound, the recoil (or the general randomness of not being a hundred percent accurate) and the impact the projectils coming out of your weapons. You’ll be listening to your weapon firing quite often, so the sound has to feel powerful, it has to feel as if there’s some weight to your weapon. The recoil, especially in our game, as you’re not playing as an experienced marksman elite soldier veteran ultra warrior, has to feel as if she’s (I forgot to mention the main character is a woman) never had any weapon training. There should be a spread of bullets, which makes shooting less valuable, and more of a last ditch attempt of solving a solution, hence furthering the goal of having at least two solutions to a problem, but one being favored over the other. The projectiles has to feel as if they’re extremely volatile and deadly; no one likes bullet spongy guards. One to two on target should take down any guard, regardless of armor (although, hitting someone in the head in a topdown game is hard to simulate).
Showcasing our mechanics in three rooms. One for each core mechanic.
So, as i said, less is more. Instead of adding several new mechanics, it’s better to make sure that the core mechanics that defines the game is better, tighter and more interesting before thinking about adding a night vision scope, or perhaps a strangling mechanism.
That’s it for now.
Perkulatorn's Game Design Blog 
The solution you’ve made up is quite interesting, to think outside the box. To be able to do what you want with feature like running in a stealth game makes the player free to choose other ways to complete the stage! If i got this right i think you should go for it! its an interesting alternative!