Initial Mechanic
The initial mechanic we came up with the first game idea from was the Antelope mechanic. In the Antelope mechanic, you had to jump on top of another antelope in order to overcome an obstacle (e.g. jump across a cliff), but then, when trying to find a reason and a purpose for the antelope you jump on, we didn't have much luck. Then, we thought maybe we could make it a multiplayer game, and have the players compete against each other, but I don't believe this would be a good approach to migration, competing against each other and aggressiveness in the essential experience is not what we want. Then, when thinking about migrations, and why animals might migrate, we came up with this:
GAME IDEA NO. 1
[Version 1.0] Saturday, November 8th
The game would start off with an animal in its natural environment, who then starts playing/running, and the player has to control the character. Then, it encounters different obstacles, less and less usual for its environment, to the point where the environment changes and the animal is confused and disoriented, being unable to adapt (e.g.: a fish has to climb a tree to survive). Meanwhile, in the background, you can see the effects of human activity (e.g.: deforestation, trees falling). In the middleground, you can see other player's characters running and trying to survive. This would offer a sense of belonging, showing the player they are not the only ones going through a hard time. When you eventually fail to keep the animal alive, since the environment won't allow you to, you get a new character and have to go forward with it and keep it alive, until the environment changes again. This change of scenery will help the player learn about migration - how universal it is, but also about how affected animals can be by our pollution and ignorance.
​
The game would be a parallax 2D side-scroll, the animals having to constantly move, just like in real life. To make the game more engaging, we thought about how animals communicate, on different frequencies and rhythms. Therefore, the character would have to rhythmically avoid obstacles or jump over cliffs, being in sync with the background music. This would offer a new level of connection between the game and the player who controls the characters. Every time the scenery and the animal changes, there would also be a different mini game the players have to figure out, linking the game more to the process of migration.
​
As the game progresses, from the beautiful and nature filled starting point, the players will find themselves in an environment controlled by people, a city - where the colour scheme is sad, and animals find a dead end to their habitat. At the end, there's going to be an innocent child, who doesn't know what happened, but the last animal looks at him with anger, and walks away - sad ending. Hopefully, this way, we can not only educate players on the big issue that is pollution, deforestation, but also open their eyes on the forced migration issue - no animal leaves their habitat for the sake of it, in the same way humans wouldn't leave their countries if they had good life conditions there, and it's never easy for them to adapt to new homes and cultures.
[Version 1.1] Thursday, November 21st
From the research we all gathered last week (see Wildlife Threats Research), today we met and decided how we want the game to go, what animals we want, the environments and the challenges that they will have to face. We decided that we should select three completely different environments (as levels), to showcase how urgent the situation is, and to put the animals in ridiculous situations, which will drive the player to the realisation that what is happening in not okay.
The three levels we were thinking about are Forest, Ocean and Desert, in this order. The reason for this is that we want to start with a clean, fresh game. A beautiful forest scenery, and then, gradually add pollution, marine pollution, etc. In the end, the players will find themselves in a very urbanised city.
​
Initially, we wanted to have Forest, Ocean and Desert, but then we all agreed we want the Mountain Goat mechanic in the game, because it's a very interesting ability and it would be fun for the player to have and use. Plus, it would allow some interesting pollution opportunities. So, we switched from Desert to Cliff.
​
What we have now is:
Forest -> Ocean -> Cliff
Minigame I - Forest
​
For the first mini game, we have selected the toucan as 'protagonist'. We found that the Toucan's body temperature must be kept at a certain level during flight, so we could use this together with natural threats, such as tigers, and unnatural, pollution to make the player feel challenged and pressured. There's not much you can do about natural predators, you can only fly higher, so you make sure they won't reach you. But if we add pollution and global warming, your body temperature might raise too much if flying too high, above the protection of the trees and in reach of the sun rays, and that will kill you.
​
Hence, the player has to constantly find a balance between the two, making for a fun fast-paced but meaningful mini game. In the background, the player will be able to see deforestation, and will encounter less and less trees as it advances, making it more difficult to maintain a low body temperature. The music will also correlate to the rhythm of the mini game, warning the player of the potential threats ahead.
Minigame II - Ocean
​
The second mini game happens in the ocean, and for that we selected a mechanic that we thought was interesting: fish banks are hiding behind bigger fish to avoid predators. This is due to the fact that predators would rather attack a bigger fish then go after small fishes to eat. This means that the small fishes need protection. This resulted in an interesting stealth mechanic: the player has to guide the small fishes and make sure they don't lose any, or as few as possible. If they lose all fishes, then they failed. It is recommended they don't lose any, however. We will need to find a way to reward the player for keeping all his fish together and safe, because if they can go on with the game with just one or two, then they won't be motivated to save all of them.
​
In the background, the player will be able to see marine pollution, such as plastic bottles, fish nets, etc. These might sometimes even interact with the game play (e.g. fish nets catching small fishes?).
Minigame III - Cliff
​
This mini game was inspired by mountain goats, who have a very special and unique ability of climbing up the cliffs during migration. They can climb cliffs close to 90°. In this game mechanic, the player will have to help the goat climb, by following the rhythm of the background music. By keeping the goat in sync with the music, the animal will manage to successfully climb to the top and will reach the next part of the game.
In the background, they will see falling goats, who have failed to migrate. In addition, closer to the top, they will be able to see people having fun or
Minigame IV - City
​
The last phase of the game is not necessarily a mini game, but rather an experience. The protagonist here is a human child. The child will be looking towards wild animals, and with its curiosity, it will try to go towards them, and explore, but the animals are afraid of humans, so they will take a step back with every step forward from the child. This will show the player how much we, as humans, have affected the wildlife, and will help them realise how bad the current situation is. The game will end when the child reaches the other end of the screen. The animals will have disappeared by then, with all their migration efforts being in vain, because we caused them a great deal of trouble and killed their habitats.
​
The atmosphere here will be very sad. Ending on such a depressing note will hopefully stay with the player, and they will be able to take this in the real world, having learnt a lesson from our game.
The way the game follows is this: the toucan tries to survive, mini game I, then the environment changes and it will be too hot to survive, having no trees to cool him down. This will eventually kill him and the protagonist changes to the bank of fishes. They as well will try to survive, until they find themselves on a beach, stranded. The animal then changes to a goat, who will have to climb the cliff. When it gets to the top, it will see the city and will be lost, not knowing what to do. Then, the protagonist is the child, who will try to get to know the animals, but will fail as these are afraid of him. Confusion and sadness will be the last feelings portrayed by the game.
​
This delay in environment and animal change will better show the player what we mean by migration, bot animal and human: having to adapt to (sometimes ridiculous) situations that you were not prepared for. This touches perfectly on the theme of human migration, as it is what very many migrants go through, but, being trapped in our own minds, we don't realise this. Using animals will make the impact more.. acceptable than using human characters but will hopefully send the same message.
