 Prev |
Venice
1499: Game Design Overview (pg.2)
|
 Next |
Game Play:
| At
the bottom of the screen are various indicators about the player's
person. At left is a representation of the player and
what they are wearing. Next
to that is a picture of their face, showing the emotions they are
effecting in your meetings with other people.
These two indicators allow the player to present themselves
in different clothing and with variable mannerisms to other people,
so that they can bluff their way past guards by being confident and
wearing an officer's uniform, for example. This "emotional state" will dictate the nature
of the responses the player can make to the statements and inquiries
of characters they encounter, and the responses they in turn make
to the player. To change these
indicators, the player may simply click on the representations to
rotate through the responses and clothing selections available to
them. |
 Figure 1 |
The
player interacts with their environment by clicking on objects to pick
them up, dragging them in and out of the inventory, and double-clicking
to examine them. Venice is not
about combat, though the player may find weapons and attempt to use them. But it should be noted that the player's character
has never been trained to fight, so they should beware swinging their
sword at a trained member of the Arsenalotti!
Swinging a sword at a merchant, however, may in fact be a very
good way of intimidating him into giving the player a bottle of wine at
a special discount - though this act would also likely call the player
to the attention of authorities they might not care to speak to.
Examining
objects will display a larger picture of that particular object in the
main view. The text of a document
will become legible, a picture will be displayed, a piece of jewelry will
make itself plain, etc. In this
expanded view, it might be possible to manipulate a particular object
in ways that couldn't be noticed before.
In this way, the player could set the hands on a clock, or open
a puzzle box. Objects may be combined with one another by
simply dragging one onto another in the main view screen. The player could drag a key over a lock, and
the key would automatically be used on the lock, leaving the player with
a key and an open box in your inventory.
The
cursor takes the appropriate contextual form to indicate what the player's
current options are. When over
the main view area, the cursor takes the form of a hand, an arrow, or
an eye, that may change as they move it over different regions on the
screen. When in the form of a hand, this means the
cursor is over an object that the player may manipulate or examine. As an arrow, it indicates the directions the
player may move. Normally, the
player can turn in any direction or look up or down, but they may not
always be able to move directly forward.
Alternatively, the keyboard (number pad) may be used to independently
control the direction of movement relative to one's current facing, while
the mouse is used just to change facings.
When
the cursor is an eye, this means the player may examine an object. Examination could take many forms, depending
on the context. If the player
examines a door, the view will zoom in on the door, and they will hear
sounds or conversation from behind it as though they were listening at
it. If the player examines the lock on the door,
the view will zoom to show them the shape of the keyhole, and if they
further examine the keyhole, they will peer through it into the room beyond. In cases where the context may be confusing
(a statuette, for example), the cursor will default to the eye. If the player wishes to manipulate the object
instead of simply examining it, they may right click the mouse, or press
a key to switch cursor types.
The
cursor may also take the form of an object that the player is carrying
in hand rather than simply in inventory.
The inventory represents those items that are securely hidden or
otherwise placed on the player's body.
An object in hand may be used on the environment.
If the player is carrying a sword in hand, their cursor will appear
as that sword. The player may
then click this "sword cursor" to use it on people, or on a window to
use it as a crowbar, and so on. A
key could be used in this fashion on a locked door.
If the player is carrying an object and desires to switch back
to a normal cursor type, they need only right-click or press a key.
This will have the effect of returning the item from their active
hand to their inventory.
There
will often be objects which are too large to carry, but these are manipulated
in the same way as though they existed in inventory. For example, at one point in the game the player sneaks into a clock
tower, which contains two huge bronze figures that are poised to strike
heavy bells to sound the start of the trading day. The player would like this particular signal to occur an hour before
the normal time, so they must figure out how to ring the bells. They notice an intricate clockwork mechanism
that drives these figures and marks the passage of time. The player could double-click on the clockwork
to try to examine the machinery - perhaps they can figure out how to change
the time setting if they examined the equipment. Or, they notice a lever attached to the machinery.
The cursor turns to a hand as they move it over the lever - perhaps
by clicking on the lever and dragging it, that is what will start the
figures into motion. But wait! In their inventory,
the player remembers that they have a hammer. The player clicks on the hammer, which places
it in hand, and changes their active cursor to look just like the hammer. Now, in the main view the player takes this
hammer and clicks it on the bell, rewarding them with the ringing summons. The player switches the cursor back to a normal
type, which returns the hammer to their inventory, and then they look
about, preparing to hide lest someone come to investigate the unusual
ringing.
The
player health indicators on the bottom of the screen display the state
of their character's current health, hunger, and fatigue. As these indicators drop lower and lower their color changes to
indicate the level of danger. When
full, they are green bars, as their values plummet (indicating that the
player is injured, hungry, or tired) they turn yellow, then finally red. If the player's health indicator ever goes
to nothing, they have died. This
indicator will fall as the player is injured, if for example, they are
attacked by someone and manage to get away, they might be hurt. If they run and fall off the top of a three
story building to the pavement below, they might be seriously injured. If they are underwater for too long, they will
take damage. If the player dies,
they will be treated to a closing animation displaying what happened during
the remainder of the story, and then they will be allowed to restart or
reload a saved game. This indicator
will slowly rise every day as the player naturally heals, or they may
visit surgeons and take other medications that may help (or harm) their
health.
The
fatigue indicator slowly drops as time goes by, it drops more rapidly
the more the character runs or climbs or swims.
Apart from any external events this indicator will drop from full
to nothing in about forty-eight game hours, normal walking around will
make it run out after about thirty-six, and so forth.
If the player sleeps, they may restore some of this fatigue, or
all of it if they sleep for about eight hours.
If they do not sleep, the player will notice that the controls
begin to get sluggish as their fatigue indicator drops into the yellow. By the time the indicator hits the red, the
movement controls will become noticeably less precise. Should the indicator drop to nothing, the screen
will go black as the character collapses into a heap wherever they are.
Depending on circumstance, they might wake normally eight hours
later, awake in jail, or not awake at all.
The
hunger indicator tells the player when to eat.
It is on a tighter cycle, as it will drop (depending on activity)
from full to nothing in about twelve game hours.
Different amounts of food will raise the indicator back to greater
values, demonstrating that the player is less hungry than before. If the player's hunger indicator falls to nothing,
there is no immediate detrimental effect, but the fatigue indicator will
not rise above the yellow zone, showing the player that they are tired
and need to be fed to be well rested.
Every day the player's hunger indicator remains at zero, the fatigue
indicator will be reduced to a new low maximum value.
As they game continues, the player could well become to tired to
effectively play if they fail to eat!
During
the game, the player has an immersive point-of-view display of their surroundings.
They can move around the streets of Venice, into and out of buildings,
take gondolas down canals, or swim in the water.
They can run across rooftops and climb walls, though both of these
actions could prove hazardous to life and limb.
Play occurs in sections of the city that are fully rendered.
Between these sections stretch numerous canals and streets that
the player traverses in a line-rendered environment. In these zones there is no character interaction, and the player
may not enter into buildings or otherwise interact with the environment
except to provide direction to their movement.
Making this distinction facilitates two factors: First, the player's
efforts are concentrated in several highly detailed sections of the city,
providing direction to their inquiries and helping them not to feel completely
overwhelmed by having to explore and survive every building they see. Second, this will allow the concentration of
development resources so those sections of Venice which are detailed are
robust and rich. The alternative
would require spending the effort on providing a cursory treatment of
large portions of the city that are irrelevant to forwarding game play,
which would in turn making the game experience less enjoyable.
As
the player traverses and speaks with characters time passes, as indicated
by the hunger and fatigue indicators.
The player will also notice time passing because the environment
will change. The Sun rises and falls, clouds drift across
the sky, the weather changes, fog forms and disappears, twilight falls
and lamps are lit, then the moon rises to follow the Sun from one horizon
to the other. Tides in the canals
rise and fall, which could well be important as many of the canals in
Venice become dry at low tide. Church
bells ring the hours or the primary partitions of the day and night, the
markets open and close, and the characters within the game follow their
own schedules and hungers. The
player will have to make use of these various environmental circumstances
to maneuver through the city, and to accomplish their goals.
| Conversations
with the characters in the game can occur anywhere that normal play
is happening. This may be
in a crowded square, or alone in a study.
The people who throng the city are busy going about their business,
but every so often there will be those characters who may speak with
the player. People that the player cannot speak with wear
dull garments, and ignore the player's overtures, while those that
they can speak with are brightly clothed, as appropriate to their
status and intent. To speak
with a game character the player need only move close and then click
on them with the examine cursor, alternatively, game characters may
hunt the player down and approach them. If the player doesn't get away in time, the
character will begin conversation with the player. |
 Figure 2 |
The Story (That Which Has Gone Before):
In
1487, you, the player, were only six years of age when you were "liberated"
from a village near Senoa by the Venetian navy. You caught the eye of a passing officer and were spared, returned
to the city to be raised as his slave.
The young officer gave you as a gift to a mentor of his, Tomaso
Foscari, a shipwright of merit and high standing, when Foscari's wife
and only daughter fell ill and died in the plague that swept the city
that year. Foscari turned his affections towards you,
raising you as his own child, though you were still a slave. Caught in the awkward position of being despised
by the other slaves and servants as a foreigner who did not deserve the
special favor of their master, while being disregarded by Freemen as beneath
consideration, you were often the outsider - but so long as Foscari remained
your master, life was bearable, and even enjoyable at times.
It
is now the early summer of 1499, a time when the warm winds first turn
away the lingering fog and the rich begin their annual plans for vacation
retreats to the mainland. You
groggily awake with the dawn to the first of your duties - the preparation
of Foscari's toilette. At his
bedroom door you knock quietly but persistently, remembering the previous
evening with a faint smile. Foscari
had conversed well into the night with a pale vistor you had never before
seen, but who Foscari had embraced with the kisses due a long-lost brother. As you poured one sweet libation after another into their bottomless
glasses, you caught snatches of a conversation that ranged from common
topics such as the coming elections to more fanciful speculations about
the nature of the peoples of other lands, the teachings of Pliny, of dragons
and mermaids, and much later after the wine had sufficiently loosened
wits as well as tongues they even spoke of a scroll that could supposedly
grant eternal life! It was amusing
to hear two such men of learning speak earnestly on such foolishness,
and you were glad when the stranger finally departed so that you might
in turn find your way to a few hours of peaceful slumber.
After
several minutes of knocking upon his bedroom door, it becomes obvious
that Foscari had too much of the Sicilian wine, so you quietly enter to
awaken him. The scene that greets
you has no relation to the normal tranquillity of your master's chamber.
Crimson lines across your master's sheets draw your eye, trails of blood
embracing his body like the tangled strings of a marionette discarded
after a poor puppeteer's show. Your
mind catches elusive fragments of chaos - the sparkling glass shards of
a shattered goblet, papers scattered across the floor, paintings slashed,
down falling from pillows, drawers gaping from cabinets like mute screams,
the window panes open and lazily drifting in the alleyway breeze.
This cannot be, this cannot be!
How? Why? How is it that you heard nothing? Who could have.but then the quick fall of footsteps
issues from behind you. You turn
to see Alfonso, master of Foscari's servants stopped in the doorway behind
you. His eyes widen, rapidly taking
in the scene. He stutters then
gestures at you, face gone wild, and runs down the stairs screaming, "Murder!
Murder!" There is no time to waste. Soon the Arsenalotti will be at hand to investigate,
and what alibi can you give, good stranger in a strange land?
So
the game begins.
|
Prev |
Next |
Design Index
Daggert Home