Design Objectives

• Small self-contained story with an introduction, midway twist, and variety of outcomes.

  • Tie into the rest of the world in a non-dependent way that makes everything feel bigger

• Multiple kinds of gameplay in one quest

• Multiple solutions to as many challenges as possible

The Game

This hypothetical game has several design constraints that have to be considered while designing content for it.

• Open World: The game is an open world game with a large map. After the intro sequence, the player could come to this mission at any time. Outside of the main quest, side quest missions can be completed in any order.

  • The player will often be able to enter the area of side quests from multiple avenues of approach. Quests cannot depend on the player coming only from one particular angle.

  • This also means that the player can ‘abandon’ a side quest at any time by walking away, at any time. They’ll fail the mission, but it still needs to be possible.

• First Person View: The game is mainly played in first person. The game can never seize control of the player’s camera. Encounters must be designed with the player’s limited peripheral vision in mind. Everything must be designed with the possibility that the player is turned in ‘the wrong direction’ at the time.

• Silent Protagonist: The player character doesn’t speak. While they can interact with other characters, listen to the radio and issue orders, nothing can depend on them ‘saying something’.

• Day/Night Cycle: The game has an active day/night cycle, and all missions must be able to work in both day and night. Visibility may change due to day/night or even due to weather.

The Quest

Discovery

While exploring the open world, the player should be able to spot the quest through a variety of ways. This draws the player in more organically than a simple nav marker. It also helps the world feel more alive.

• Transport Shot Down Animation:‍ ‍When the player gets within a certain distance of the quest the transport appears, flying far overhead. A bright red beam of laser light suddenly shoots up from the ground, destroying one of the transport’s engines, sending it spiraling to the ground out of the player’s direct line of sight.

  • The transport’s initial flight path will include a long banking turn in order to maximize visibility depending on where the player is looking.

    • Light from the transport’s engines and active running lights will help draw the eye, even at night.

  • The red laser will appear as a sudden pillar of light, far more visually noticeable than a cannon or missile.

  • Audio and screen shake will be helpful here, as appropriate.

• Smoke from the Crash Site: Black smoke will rise from the crash site, high into the sky visible above mountains and tree tops. It should be very easy for the player to spot and orient themselves by.

• Distress Radio Chatter: When the player gets within a certain distance of the side quest site, they’ll hear an intermittent distress call on their radio, requesting immediate help for a shot down press transport.

• Side Quest Nav Marker: Finally, as the player gets even closer to the side quest, a traditional side quest nav marker appears.

  • Playtesting may reveal that some players need the nav marker to further out, but we should err on the side of less reliance on nav markers when possible. When all else fails, use the standards set out by the other side quests.

Part 1 - Arrival

• Arrive, being attacked by wolves, fuck fuck fuck!

• Takes only a few kills for the wolves to run.

• They must have been drawn by the scent of bodies.

Part 2 - Medical Help

• Intro to all the characters, what the hell, those bastards shot down a press transport?!?!

• Medical Assistance to the wounded.

• Several of the people are very dead.

• We must have gotten a visual on something they didn’t want us to see… or want anyone else to see.

Part 3 - Evacuation

• Calling in a ground transport to take them away, but it can’t reach them here. Get to get everyone evacuated.

• Oh no, bad guys coming to finish the job!

• Stealth or outright violence.

• If stealth, blowing them up at the end with rigging the transport to blow. Fuck these guys!

Part 4 - Twist and Choice

• Some kind of revelation that reframes how you see the situation in front of you.

  • Something wasn’t how it seems.

Resolution

• This opens up a different quest elsewhere on the map with the reporter where you can see what her crew got shot down looking at.

Art Assets

A list of some of the custom art assets this quest will require.

• Press Transport (Flying): A civilian flying transport craft. It’s painted in light blue with the words ‘PRESS’ stenciled visibly on the outside in white letters. It has no weapons. It’s engines give off a visible glow and it has running lights due to be a non-combat craft.

  • If we can’t get a new model it could be a reskin of an existing enemy or player transport painted in more innocuous colors with all of the weapons removed.

• Press Transport (Wreckage): A wrecked version of the press transport in multiple pieces so they can be spread around the mission area.