Author: Kelli Clark

model update ^

Changes:

• No Separate Islands / Lands. The game will take place in one town to cut down on modelling, but the town will have 4 areas or boroughs to indicate different sub-cultural spheres.
• No Opposing Cultures. The game will focus more on intra-cultural divisions instead of intercultural. Race will still be a factor in how the npc’s interact with you.
• No Differing Storyline. Each avatar will have the same storyline/goal. Your gameplay experience changes only in the way you are able to achieve this goal, and the npc’s who will help you.
• No Fighting. The game is a socialization game, meaning your only way to accomplish your goal is to ask people around you.
• Less Modelling/Variety in Assets. The environment is constructed to the favela town vibe, so I would be constructing probably about 4-5 buildings total for each of the 3 boroughs, in addition to 1-2 buildings/homes you can actually enter. I plan to have buildings modelled as soon as possible (within a week) so I can focus on storyline, character modelling, and dialogue. Faceless characters would allow for quick stylized modelling of people.

New Proposal

First Person game. On foot.

The game will take in your race (via picture or some device) as well as your name, and then will choose one of 4 avatars matching closest to your complexion. You will not have a choice in which avatar is chosen.

You will start in one of the 4 “sides of town”. Each avatar has a corresponding side of town. The areas are not completely distinguished but serve as more of a spectrum between very high-end to  very impoverished and run down.

There is a dance competition that evening and your friend is injured. You must have a team of 3 others to compete. Your goal is to find the 3 of best dancers in the town by 6 pm and recruit them for the competition that afternoon. You must find them through talking and asking others, some will be more willing to help you than others.

Your avatar will impact the responses you get from people and which non-player characters will help you find who you’re looking for. For example, as Avatar1, the homeless NPC might yell at you to go away. But as Avatar2, he might tell you where the person is. As Avatar3, he may lie and lead you in the wrong direction.

Dialogue boxes 

 

Proof of Concept

1. “La Favela” (working title)

Description – Third-person quest game set in a favela. The player would both be able to explore the environment on a scooter bike and explore different areas, as well as interact with non-player characters and complete tasks / find items in exchange for coins or other precious items. Items and coins can be used as currency in stores in order to acquire upgrades and improve aspects of the community. There is no fighting/violence the character takes part in.

Inspiration

• Jet Set Radio Future (in player-controller mechanic)
• Michiko E Hatchin (in narrative)
• Paintings by Miltão dos Santos & Carybé (in color palette/style)

Statement of Purpose – I’ve been fascinated with Rio and Brazil in general as of recently, due to the Olympics (the Ryan Lochte situation) and various movies and documentaries I’ve seen. It’s kind of a motif to paint most South American / Latin American countries as poor and crime-ridden in gaming and media (City of God, Gangstarr Rio: City of Saints, Fast and Furious, etc). I wanted to create a game that would highlight the rich art and culture of favelas in Brazil while still illustrating the issues that reside.

2. “Otherness” (lol another working title)

Description – Third-person low-poly combat game. You begin by picking the avatar of either an islander or an aristocrat. This begins you on either the island or in the city (respectively). The avatar you choose will impact the goal of your gameplay and the way non-player characters interact with you. For example, if you are islander, your goal is to infiltrate and sabotage the townspeople’s weapons. The town people will interact with you differently if you are an islander versus if you are an aristocrat. Your enemies will be the warriors/militia of the opposing group of people.

Inspiration

• Runescape/most MMORPGS (in unique interactions with each player)
• Avatar: The Last Airbender (in themes and narrative)

Statement of Purpose-I want a basis for a game that eventually takes in your physical appearance, records your race, gender, and age, then creates an avatar with a unique experience in the game in their goals, and interactions with everyone around them. This is just the starting point. Wish to expand on this to create more than 2 worlds for the avatars to start in

3. “Escape”

Description– a first-person VR exploration game with a very loose narrative. The only real aim is to explore the environment and gather the collectibles scattered throughout.

Inspiration

• Jet Set Radio Future (in cel-shading render style)
• ABZU (in mood, player-controller mechanic, flow, and simplicity of narrative) as well as Flow and Journey
• Ukiyo-e Woodblock prints (in color palette/style).

Statement of Purpose– I really enjoy “pointless” games or games that are very therapeutic with little to no narrative. This project will be very heavily modelling/animation intensive with some focus on the way the camera moves throughout the environment. I also want to experiment with the different rendering styles and shaders and what mood that can achieve.

Happytown is a virtual city in which you can experience mass disaster with the touch of a button. Press <space> to watch the city around you crumble to pieces 🙂

(Headset required, there is sound)

Windows Version

Mac Version

im sorry for the watermark :'( :'( :'(

 

Mario Von Rickenbach is a Swiss designer and creative technologist. He works within the intersection of design, art, and technology through his works produced through game design, programming, and animation; his games explore a wide variety of styles and are often very minimalist in their design. Rickenbach attended Zurich University of the Arts for architecture– where he realized game design was a subject more suited for him.

What interested him most about architecture was the process of designing and constructing these buildings and landscapes, a process he soon discovered that, as an architect, he would not be able to be apart of. Gaming and game design became the missing link for his passion– a passion and interest that comes out in his most notable game Drei.

Drei

Drei can be a single- or multiplayer-game with the goal of stacking the given blocks in such a way that they are able to touch the hovering light in mid-air. The game is not only heavily influenced by Rickenbach’s attachment to the subject of architecture, its appearance and interface also embody his priorities and values as a designer. “Style is completely unimportant,” he says in an interview with KillScreen. “Style is a result– and not a goal– of design choices.” What makes Rickenbach so unique in the gaming industry is his rejection of stylized games whose style has no link or function to the game play itself. He also goes on in the interview to speak on touch screens and how it is a more direct physical interaction with the game itself, but often lacks the physical response a game could give such as a jolt in the game controller or resistance in the joystick.

Plug and Play

Plug & Play is a surreal mobile game developed by Rickenbach and fellow artist Michael Frei in Unity. The two developed the game out of a short film involving intimate relations between plugs and sockets, inspired by the binary nature of how computers operate.

Mirage

Mirage is another collaborative surreal project that ended up as a finalist in a 2012 Independent Game Festival. The idea came about through experimentation with collage– the strange creature controlled by the player attaches to itself additional body parts as the game is played. The game like many of his others is very heavily considered in its design aspect, but no part of its style takes away from the gameplay itself. Every aspect of the game, in fact, is heavily considered: its lack of enemies, the low poly geometry.

 

Rickenbach brings an interesting new take to the gaming community. With a variety of styles all derived from the varied themes in his projects, his unique background in architecture and often surreal products challenge the conventions people have about what makes a game playable.

More Games

https://mariov.ch/project/krautscape

https://mariov.ch/project/other_game

I attempted to test the patience of my virtual customers in the popular game “Diner Dash” by taking my sweet time getting their orders, serving their food, and seating customers. My goal was to have every customer in the restaurant angry with my service, however, the task ended up being a challenging one, testing my ability to correctly time my seating of each customer and begin their tortuous wait for my service at the right moment. Customers only remain angry for a certain period of time in the game before vanishing, and I ended up unable to complete the task of pissing EVERYONE in the vicinity off.