I started with planning and limiting my time to spend on these ideas.
At the beginning of this activity, I had 168 pomodoros. It provided me a perspective if I’m spending too much or too little time on any action or how much time I’ll have to spend without sleeping. (I am not planning, don’t sleep).
In the beginning, I destined two pomodoros for planning, when I reviewed my calendar and activities and got riddle of the waste time to focus on the execution. I have a feeling that is a good idea.
For the creativity session, I reserved another two pomodoros for producing some sketch and a mind map with my selected idea. I’m continually generating another’s ideas, and I found this would be a good time box to don’t get lost here.
Theme definition
The proposition was to select random articles from Wikipedia, and my chosen articles were:
- A person: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaqu%C3%ADn_Hern%C3%A1ndez_Hern%C3%A1ndez.
- A location: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/52_Hydrae.
- Some forme of event: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Launceston_to_Hobart_Yacht_Race
The person was a problem hard to find something, and after some time, I let my son help me with this selection. He also participated in the choice of the location and the event I selected after the webinar.
I first thought it would be easy peasy, but I took some time to star and played with some legos to visualize some interactions. I took some pictures of my sketches and legos.
The concept
After some ideas and a mindmap to put everything in perspective:
In the end, I choose the following concept:
Joaquin H.H. is a young pilot from a galaxy far away. He is a newcomer to the Launceston to Horbat Yacht Races, a popular Solar Sail spaceship racing competition at 52 Hydrae. It is a special place for this kind of space race because it is a triple star system and that kind of spaceship went to crazy speeds and routes through those stars.
The game will be a space racing game with a 3d track system.
I found my last illustration kind of pedagogic besides my skills.
And the name of the game is at this moment: Gran Star Sailing Race.
Structure
It will be a 3D game with a space theme. It will not have any age restriction, and the main focus is to provide a simple racing game without violence.
It will have a simple menu to control the game’s initialization and a simple build for PC Systems.
Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics
Following the MDA Framework as a reference, the basic mechanics are focused on the challenge to finish the circuits as fastest as possible. The spaceships’ speed will vary according to the stars’ proximity on the path, and the player will only control the directions.
The open space is intended to give a broader perspective, and if the player scapes the circuit, it will be lost on the space infinitude (need a clear vision about how the player will be taken back to the course).
In the end, and if possible, the addition of a skybox with space clouds will complement the feeling of sailing.
Technological setup
I’m using Unity3d and already created a public repository on Github for it:
https://github.com/lucasosuza/gran-start-sailing-race/tree/master
References
Hunicke, Robin; LeBlanc, Marc; Zubek, Robert, MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.79.4561
Medium. 2020. Using The MDA Framework As An Approach To Game Design. [online] Available at: <https://medium.com/@jenny_carroll/using-the-mda-framework-as-an-approach-to-game-design-9568569cb7d> [Accessed 8 November 2020].
Lucas Souza 