Degree Project: Initial Cultural Inspirations - Games


Discussion of the games will be found in more detail in the formative document and eventually prospectus. This post is here to provide a genreal idea as to the direction of my game.

 Portal (2007, Valve) https://store.steampowered.com/app/400/Portal/


Portal (2007) is probably the main inspiration I had for "Hemisphere" as it is a first-person puzzle platformer with a unique, Physics-defying mechanic, the Portal Gun, which is used to navigate these slower paced levels which are almost meant to be "solved" rather than played. The minimalist almost liminal space created by the clinical sci-fi aesthetic, in the abandoned Aperture labs which is now controlled by an evil AI, is something I'd want to use too.

Mirror’s Edge (2008, EA, DICE) https://store.steampowered.com/app/17410/Mirrors_Edge/


Mirror's Edge in broader strokes is similar to Portal too in the sense it's a First-person puzzle platformer with minimal use of colour in its aesthetic design in a dystopic setting. Its whole concept is much more grounded however and how it cretaes a platforming/ cognitive challenge is much different to Portal with the challenge being jumping and using other parkour moves in combionation such as wall sliding/ rolling and vaulting to proceed to the next section, ususally while escaping a group of enemies chasing the player through the dystopic city setting. 

Superhot https://store.steampowered.com/app/322500/SUPERHOT/ (2016, Superhot Team) Web-Browser Demo (2013)



Now in terms of gameplay Superhot (2016) is the most different as it is a First-Person Shooter where the objective of every level is to defeat all the enemies under the stipulation that time only moves when the player does. Even though it is much more action orientated than the other two inspirations, at its core it is still a game about methodically figuring out the order of actions the player must take in order to solve a level much like my other two game inspirations.

With all that said the story beats, to do with the player being in a simulation (Though this one is far more nefarious than in my game) and visuals of these quite clinical and liminal envionments are another aspect I would like to try and apply to my game too as previously stated.

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