Fairness
We want to give the game a difficulty curve without it being
cheap. In the earlier levels, the caretaker barely pays attention to you and her
suspicion level rises slowly. But as the levels progress, she will start out at
higher levels of suspicion and will become more suspicious faster. Other
children in the orphanage in later levels will fight back against you as well.
Challenge vs. Success
The main obstacle in this game is the caretaker. There isn’t
really a reward for escaping from her. But, if the player can escape from the
caretaker, they will gain the skill to escape her easier in later levels.
Meaningful Choices
There is a lot of risk and reward used in the game. The
player will need to ask themselves, “should I take a slightly longer time to
kill this person and not get caught?” or “should I just attack this person
directly and take less time, but possibly be caught?” We want to avoid a
dominant strategy situation at every opportunity.
Skill vs. Chance
The game as a whole relies more on the player’s skill as
opposed to chance. While there is always a chance that you get caught, that
chance is much lower when the player uses the skills they’ve applied.
Head vs. Hands
If played in a way that minimizes the risk of being caught,
the game requires more puzzle solving than physical action. For example, the
player may have the option of outright attacking a character or putting some
poison into their lunch. The poison route would require the player to think of
how to get close enough without being noticed.
Competition vs. Cooperation
This doesn’t really apply since our game is single-player.
Short vs. Long
I’m not sure how long our game will be right now. But, its
length can be affected by the low or high-risk routes when killing targets.
Low-risk, environment kills take longer, and high risk kills are shorter,
provided the player can avoid being caught.
Rewards
There are few rewards in this game. The player doesn’t get
rewarded with new items or achievements. I guess the closest thing would be
praise from the Venus Weed for each completed level.
Punishments
Getting caught attacking a kid, but not killing them will
result in you being kicked out of the orphanage. This reduces the amount of
time you have in order to complete the level. Getting caught with a dead body
or will result in an immediate game over.
Freedom vs. Controlled Experience
The player controls the main character and the camera, but that’s
about it. The weapons, other characters and places the player is limited to
will be controlled by us.
Simple vs. Complex
The game is simple in concept, but there are a couple of
complex mechanics, such as the caretaker being able to see bloody weapons lying
around and increasing her suspicion. The AI needs to be able to react to the
player and what they’re holding or doing. On the development side, it will be a
bit complex to implement.
