Two-Player Redesign and other Developments

The current round of design and prototyping is about the shift to a two-player version: one player plays as Media Mogul and the other plays as the Citizens. This solves the problems of creating believable movement patterns in the Citizen characters, which in itself was a source of few other problems: bottlenecking(see above image), player-as-Media Mogul was unsure how to anticipate the goals of the NPCs, and the physical prototype required to much facilitation from me, rather than playtime from the player.

Courtney Burstion, a former co-worker, educator at the Bronx River Arts Center, and avid gamer, has signed on to help: we will develop another round of concept art as well as playtest and refine a two-player physical prototype.

The physical protoype will drive the development of a Flash demo. The Games for Change Festival in the spring is the deadline for a polished Flash demo. This version will be used to seek a publisher for a iPhone, PC, Nintendo DS, XBox Live, or PSN. Well, let's go!

I will be back to post weekly updates, so add me to the game design section of your rss!

Design Influences Pt 1

PixelJunk Monsters and Geometry Wars are two recent games that have a really nice palette and the character design, animation, and movement patterns all work together. Media Mogul's design could be in the middle of these two games: shiny and geometric but ominously cute.
Lemmings is one of the first games about indirectly controlling non-player characters, which is the key mechanic of Media Mogul. This is a early version on Amiga, but it has a had version on many platforms. Adapting Media Mogul to various complexities and scale is a key consideration.
Pixel Junk Monsters

Geometry Wars


Lemmings


Another cool upcoming game, Multiwinia.

Media Mogul Play-Thru Part 1

Changes made to paper prototype after preliminary playtests:

1. Start with 1000 Ratings Credits instead of 500 Ratings Points.
2. Citizens stop in a matching Television Viewing Area at any point in that turn's move.
3. Citizens stop in a non-matching Television Viewing Area only if it is the last point on that turn's move.
4. Citizens move around obstacles in the directions of the next Middle or End Point.
5. Citizens have no specific End or Middle Point, they all seek the closest and unoccupied.
6. When Citizens reach a Middle Point, they don't move for one turn.

Setup

1. Map is made of 209 hexagons (hex[0-208]), vertically arranged 11 x 19.
   

1. Place Blue Citizens Start Points:
   

BC[0] on hex[0]

BC[1] on hex[2]

BC[3] on hex[23]

BC[4] on hex[25]

1. Place Yellow Citizen Start Points:
2. 

YC[0] on hex[8]

YC[1] on hex[19]

YC[2] on hex[20]

YC[3] on hex[30]

YC[4] on hex[31]

1. Place Blue Citizen Middle Points:
   

BCMP[0] on hex[87]

BCMP[1] on hex[99]

BCMP[3] on hex[131]

BCMP[4] on hex[153]

1. Place Yellow Citizen Middle Points:
   

YCMP[0] on hex[88]

YCMP[1] on hex[99]

YCMP[2] on hex[100]

YCMP[3] on hex[110]

YCMP[4] on hex[111]

1. Place Blue Citizen End Points:

BCEP[0] on hex[177]


BCEP[1] on hex[187]


BCEP[2] on hex[190]


BCEP[3] on hex[199]





2. Place Yellow Citizen End Points:
   

YCEP[0] on hex[196]

YCEP[1] on hex[197]

YCEP[2] on hex[206]

YCEP[3] on hex[207]

YCEP[4] on hex[208]

Gameplay

1. Start with 1000 Ratings Credits.
   
2. Build Blue Satellite on hex[115] with Broadcasting Area on hex[81, 82, 91, 92, 93, 103, 104, 115]
3. Build Blue Television on hex[81] with Viewable area on hex[69,70]
   
4. Build Yellow Satellite on hex[96] with Broadcasting Area on hex[62, 63, 72, 73, 74, 84, 85]
   
5. Build Yellow Television on hex[62] with Viewable area on hex[50,51]
   
   
6. 275 Ratings Credits total.
   
7. Move Citizens:
   
8. BC[0] from hex[0] to hex[23]
   
9. BC[1] from hex[2] to hex[35]
   
10. BC[2] from hex[23] to hex[69]
    
11. BC[3] from hex[25] to hex[60]
    
12. YC[0] from hex[8] to hex[40]
    
13. YC[1] from hex[19] to hex[50] - add 100 Ratings Points
    
14. YC[2] from hex[20] to hex[51] - add 100 Ratings Points
    
15. YC[3] from hex[30] to hex[61]
    
16. YC[4] from hex[31] to hex[62]
    
    
17. 475 Ratings Credits total.
18. End first round.

To do list:
1. Develop a spreadsheet or html table to handle the data that is being generated and begin to
2. Develop naming conventions and pseudo-code to make a flash version.

Future Features for Paper Prototype

1. An objective-based level requiring the player make a certain number of Citizens watch a specific sequence of programs before the level ends.
2. Multiplayer (co-op or competitive) for objective-based and high-score playing.
3. Create more complex routes using numbered Middle Points.
4. Increase Citizen classes, distinguished by movement patterns, behavior, and point values.

Paper Prototype Rules and Pictures

Setup

1. Five yellow Citizens, 4 Blue Citizens.

2. Middle and End Points.

3. Player starts with 1000 Ratings Points to build with.

Equipment Costs

1. Yellow Satellites cost 175 Ratings Points.

2. Blue Satellites cost 250 Ratings Points.

3. All Televisions cost 150 Ratings Points.

4. Rotating a Satellite degrees cost 50 Ratings Points.

Every television in range cost 10 Ratings Points to move along in the same relative position.

5. Rotating or moving a Television within Broadcasting Range cost 20 points.

6. Moving a Satellite 1 place in any direction cost 75 Ratings Points.

Scoring

1. Blue Citizen viewing Blue Television Programming are worth 150 Ratings Points.

2. Blue Citizens viewing Yellow Television Programming are worth 50 Ratings Points.

3. Yellow Citizens viewing Yellow Programming are worth 100 Ratings Points.

4. Yellow Citizens viewing Blue Programming are worth 25 Ratings Points.

Citizen Behavior

1. Citizens move in a straight line over 3 adjacent spaces toward either Middle Points or End Points each round.

2. Yellow Citizens move closer together (at least one adjacent edge.) Yellow Citizens will move one or two extra spaces to stay adjacent.

3. Blue Citizens move spaced out (no adjacent edges.) Blue Citizens will stop short one or two spaces to maintain distance.

End Condition and Final Score

1. Game ends and Ratings Points are added up when all Citizens reach End Points. Equipment still on the board is worth half of what is cost to put it down.

Character Designs

Designs for a matching set of Citizens, Televisions, and Satellites.

Media Mogul 1.0 Protoype

The player's goal as a Media Mogul is to gain Ratings Points. Ratings Points are granted by Citizens viewing television programming provided by the players. Citizens move between home, work, shopping, and the voting booth while Media Moguls setup mobile Televisions and Satellites hoping to influence buying and political decisions. This gameplay is intended for a paper prototype and then a Flash demo.


1. Setup City, Citizens, and set Citizen Path Markers (Start, Middle, and, End).

2. Players point and click to place one Satellite of any color and one Television of a matching color within Broadcasting Range anywhere on the board except end and middle markers.

3. Players try to position the Television Viewing Range where NPC citizens will pass.

4. A successful view will add Ratings Points to the Player’s score.



5. Ratings Points can be used to buy or move Satellites or Televisions.

6. The game ends when all the Citizens have reached their end markers.


7. At the end of the game, Satellites and Televisions remaining on the board are worth half the Ratings Points they cost to purchase.


Click to enlarge the flowchart.