Homework 7 - Chapter 10

1. Is the space in your game discrete or continuous?
   
   Our game will contain several continuous but separate scenes. These scenes should include a couple of different types of locales and different stylistic choices.
   
2. How many dimensions does your space have?
   
   We plan for our game to be 3-dimensional, allowing the player to move in all directions as well as jump to higher areas or drop down to lower spaces.
   
3. What are the boundaries of your space?
   
   The boundaries of our space will be either the buildings within the scene, limiting players to the streets and alleys, or the rooms for scenes indoors, so that they move through hallways and along determined paths through a specific building.
   
4. How many verbs do your players (characters) have? What are they?
   
   We plan to provide players with around 7-10 main verbs. These include, but are not limited to walk, run, jump, climb, attack, crouch, hide, and choose.
   
5. How many objects can each verb act on? What are these objects?
   
   Primarily the verbs the player has access to will be working on objects in the environment, hiding behind obstacles, interacting with doors, objects in the environment, and attacking enemies if you sneak up on them.
    
6. How many ways can players achieve their goals
   
   Due to the limited scope of the game, our players will really only have one or two ways to achieve a goal, the second usually in a slightly different route.
   
7. How many subjects do the players control? What are these subjects?
   
   The player only controls one to two subjects, which are the character and the character's weapon. The weapon will require recharge between uses, so the player will need to manage that cooldown between uses as well as their movement of the character.
    
8. How do side effects change constraints.
   
   We plan to set up the enemies in a manner that requires strategy to dispatch with stealth and the side effect of defeating an enemy will change the route that you will take through the rest of the scene.
   
9. What are the operative actions in your game?
   
   The operant actions the player will have access to will primarily concern positioning and using cover to get to an advantageous position to attack their targeted enemy from.
   
10. What are the resultant actions in your game?
    
    The resultant actions will be the reaction of the enemies to your appearance if you are not in stealth, and the way that they will react to the defeat of one of their comrades.
    
11. What actions would you like your players to do that they cannot presently do? (based on your current knowledge of Blender)
    
    I would like to be able to find a way to have players stick to cover while hiding to make it easier to hide from enemies.
    
12. What is the ultimate goal of your game?
    
    The ultimate goal of the game is to resolve the conflict between a budding AI and a virus corrupting it. The player has the option to choose a side at at least one point during the game.
    
13. Are there short and long term goals? What are they?
    
    Short term goals are specific to the scene and relate to progression from one enemy to another or one encounter to another. Long term goals relate to the resolution of the conflict between the AI and the virus, as well as the rescuing of a character that has been taken hostage.
    
14. How do you plan to make the game goals known and understood by the player?
    
    The goals will be relayed through a combination of directed level design and the game's narrative. Updates to goals will be relayed via an AI interface that speaks to the player through their Head-mounted display.
    
15. What are the foundational rules of your game?
    
    The foundational rules would include the ways that the player can damage the enemies as well as how they can damage the player. Additionally, the foundational rules would discuss how the user's stealth is calculated and how the enemies will react if they do spot the player.
    
16. How are these rules enforced?
    
    These rules will be enforced by the computer itself, and will be constraints of the game. We will try to help the player understand the rules via a combination of in-game tutorial and informational displays on the character's heads-up display.
    
17. Does your game develop real skills? What are they?
    
    The game will help develop strategy and critical thinking in order to progress through the scenes, as strategy will be critical to defeating each enemy in a given encounter.
    
18. Does your game develop virtual skills? What are they?
    
    No skills will be developed as such in the game, but the player will have skill with programming and electronics that the player does not need to actually have.

In terms of what I have done for the game this week, I have been researching code examples for different actions in Blender game engine as well as experimenting with animation. I also have looked into types of Artificial Intelligence that can be used in Blender's game engine. I'm also working on organizing a regular meetup for the team to discuss where they are in their department and begin working towards an actual playable build of the game.