good work everyone

I think that the final prototype look great. just one thing, do we need both the drawings and the digitalization of the items and the sisters? Personally i think it is enough with the digitalization because "the company that is going to sponsor us with money" is just interested in the final project.

//Tessa

Sent

I sent out our compiled prototype to you guys, you can post your responses here. I will send it to Lissa sometime tomorrow.

//Eva

uhm.. :)

So I wrote a little bit more on my part because I thought that some things were still missing.. and I ended up with 715 words, haha. I hope Lissa doesn't mind that we write too much! And thank you for your text Christian, everything is almost done.. I will be sending out the document to all of you shortly.

Features Summary

"The Quest to Delphi" is a single player 2D environment game with 3D characters. This means that the game will provide the player with beautifully rendered graphics without increasing the computer requirements to play it smoothly. However, despite the low requirements and a lack of videos, we still wanted to give the player a clear sense of movement in the game world, so we decided to create 3D characters that would make the game more realistic and engaging. A dialogue box appears at the bottom of the screen where conversations would appear while they are taking place in-game. The characters would not have audio as it should be possible to play the game in a school environment without causing too much noise. Our only audio would consist of environment sounds that would change depending on the location of the player in the game. The player would also have a backpack which they would be able to access by right-clicking their mouse. F1 can be pressed to open up a panel of options, such as saving game, loading a new one, and an option for muting sound and changing the quality of the graphics. F2 can be pressed to load the character’s diary, an easy way of keeping track of what the player’s current task is. F3 can be pressed to show a map of Greece where the player could see what islands they must still visit and in which islands they have already completed their quests.

Our storyline is one of exploration and adventure. Our game player comes across many different characters along his path, friendly, hostile and ignorant. Sometimes the people that the player meets will give various assignments which have to be completed in order to advance the storyline. The assignments, aka mini-games, will consist of puzzles such as pairing together Zeus’s children with their right mother, making your way through a dark underground cave in Crete with the help of the knowledge you have gained, having a interesting discussion with Socrates himself, running the first marathon of the world and attempting to get to the mountain in Delphi on your winged horse. For completed quests, the player will receive specific tokens, such as Cassandra’s Mantle, a golden ball of yarn, a book from Socrates, etc. There is a certain amount of items the player has to collect on his journey across Ancient Greece in order to finish his mission and hand these items as gifts to the Oracle of Delphi. To answer the questions in puzzle-games, the player will either be able to select their choice from a number of alternatives or type in their answer in a box. When it comes to adventure games, the player controls his character by using the arrow keys on the keyboard and moving them to the desired position.

The player decides what route he takes through the game as he has the option of going to different places and choosing his own route through the world. However, certain areas will remain inaccessible to the player until they complete certain mini-games. Upon completion of certain areas, other areas will become available, but the order of what areas are visited first is always up to the player. Upon failure of a mini-game, the player runs the risk of taking an involuntary trip to the Underworld and having to find his way back to the surface. The Sisters of Fate (please read more about them below) control the fate of the player, and once they have made three mistakes, i.e., failed to complete three games, the player is sent to the Underworld. However, dying is impossible in our game. The player would be able to return to the surface and continue their mission through the completion of a mini-game, such as helping Hades, the ruler of the Underworld, find his wife Persephone. If the task is completed in a way that satisfies Hades, the player would be allowed to return to the surface and continue his quest. However, despite the choices of direction the player is allowed to take through the game, one has to remember that the mission of the Quest to Delphi always remains the same and no matter what path the player takes, he still has to arrive to the same destination in the end.

Gameplay Mechanics, finale :)

Good, I hoped you might include them. Otherwise I would have wasted my time ;)

Here is my final text, I believe it was said to be approx. 200 words, right?

Since this game is thought of as an adventure game with integrated learning aspects for in-class usage we argue that the game is most preferably to be developed for the computer platform. This statement is based on, an assumed, more frequent usage of computers than video games consoles in schools today. The game may be used for group assignments, or instead of reading long texts students may as well be assigned to play a number of hours or complete a certain amounts of missions before class.

Since "The Quest to Delphi" has learning as its main purpose there is less focus on extreme graphics or Full Motion Videos. As a result, hardware requirements, such as RAM, video card and disk space, are relatively low. The player may choose to fully install the game on a hard disk, or to install only the most necessary files and than play the game from a CD-ROM.

To play this game the only external equipment needed is a mouse and a keyboard. The player controls his/her three-dimensional avatar in a two-dimensional environment and moves by clicking where he wants the avatar to go to. The mouse is the primary tool, but the keyboard can be used to type answers or control the characters in certain mini-games.

Digitilized items & features summary

The tokens look really nice Chris, thank you for doing that! =) I will definitely include those in our art bible. I also look forward to getting your text. Here's the final version of mine:

Features Summary

"The Quest to Delphi" is a single player 2D environment game with 3D characters. This means that the game will provide the player with beautifully rendered graphics without increasing the computer requirements to play it smoothly. Also, as this is an educational game and would be used in schools, we had to make sure that it would run well on almost any computer, therefore we made it as light as possible. However, we still wanted to give the player a clear sense of movement in the game world, so we decided to create 3D characters that would make the game more realistic and engaging.

Our storyline is one of exploration and adventure, and thus our game player comes across many different characters along his path, friendly, hostile and ignorant. Sometimes the people that the player meets will give various assignments which have to be completed in order to advance the storyline. The assignments, aka mini-games, will consist of puzzles such as pairing together Zeus’s children with their right mother, making your way through a dark underground cave in Crete with the help of the knowledge you have gained, running the first marathon of the world and attempting to get to the mountain in Delphi on your winged horse. For completed quests, the player will receive specific tokens, such as Cassandra’s Mantle, a golden ball of yarn, a book from Socrates, etc. There is a certain amount of items the player has to collect on his journey across Ancient Greece in order to finish his mission and hand these items as gifts to the Oracle of Delphi.

The player decides what route he takes through the game as he has the option of going to different places and choosing his own route through the world. However, certain areas will remain inaccessible to the player until they complete certain mini-games. Upon completion of certain areas, other areas will become available, but the order of what areas are visited first is always up to the player. Upon failure of a mini-game, the player runs the risk of taking an involuntary trip to the Underworld and having to find his way back to the surface. This would happen through a completion of a mini-game, such as helping Hades, the ruler of the Underworld, find his wife Persephone, and if the game is completed in a way that satisfies Hades, the player would be allowed to return to the surface and continue his quest. However, despite the choices of direction the player is allowed to take through the game, one has to remember that the mission of the Quest to Delphi always remains the same and no matter what path the player takes, he still has to arrive to the same destination in the end.

Text and images again

Gifts, tokens, etc.

I tried to make the hand-drawn tokens a bit more digital.. Whether they look better or worse than before is up to you Eva. They may not look very similar to each other, since some of them are manipulated photographs, some are done from scratch. If you want to include your hand-drawn images in the final document, that's ok, but here are "digital" versions of them any way...

I'll post the text later today!

Request

Emme, can you please put some text on the screenshots Christian has posted?

Also Chris, please post your part of the text today, I'm putting everything together and want to send the document out to all you guys so you can look it over before I send it to Lissa tomorrow.

I hope Cicci has a nice time in England! =)

//Eva

Hey you all

Did you have a great Friday??? I hope soo.

No one has said anything about my text so I assume it is OK.
The Images are ok to and Tessa and Eva helped me with some of them so I thank you for that.

I leave for London in a while so I have no chance to change anything from now. But Eva has my text and Tessa all the images.

I will be on my mobil so just send me a text if there's a problem.

Oki, Have a great week and I'll see you on Monday the 5th.

Love Cj

Images.. baaaah!

Conceptual Drawings - Items and Characters

Moooore images

Game Genre and Environment

Game Genre

The purpose of the game is to educate school children about Greek mythology; we are targeting children between 12-15 years. Therefore our game genre is “Education” but also “Adventure game”, because we want to make the game fun and exciting. Bates describes “Adventure game” as a “story-based game that usually relies on puzzle solving to move the action along” (Bates 8). Our puzzle is going to be based on “People puzzle”, and according to Bob Bates it is the satisfying type of puzzle. The player has to interact and understand the other characters in the game in order to solve his mission. The other game characters is blocking the players, they are holding information or supplies that the player needs in order to complete the game. In our game the player has to answer questions or carry out specific tasks, and if the player gets it right the game can move forward. For example, in Ithaca the player will meet up with Zeus, and in order to get a token the player has to figure out how many children Zeus have and find them. We have also taken Bates advice on “educational games” and avoided violence in this particular game.

Game Environment

You are in Troy, in ancient Greece. The year is 1183 BC and the Trojan War has ended. This game will take you through many different places - if you are unlucky you might even visit Hades and his dark Underworld - it is a dark place where no light can reach. However, there are also places like Athens, full of life, where you can see the temples of the Greek gods and the Olympic arena during a time when gods still walk the earth. But the fun doesn’t stop there - you can also participate in the first marathon by running through a valley or try to find the way out a maze with help of a golden twine. If you are successful in the game you will finally find your way through the Forest and towards the Oracle’s Mountain in Delphi. But it is not easy to go through a deep forest in the ancient Greece, unexpected things can happen. Finally you will find yourself standing at the bottom of the Oracle’s Mountain, but it is not easy to climb a steep mountain. There are a lot of different places to see and people to meet and one thing is for sure - this game will definitely enrich your knowledge about Ancient Greece and its mysterious, often unpredictable gods.

//tessa

sisters

//tessa

Improved Male Character

I did my best to improve on him from Tessa's version and I think he looks more 'sharp' now.. but if you put him in a screenshot, I suggest putting him into a marketplace of some sort (we need a screenshot with him in or next to a temple, a market, something very Greek-looking, someplace like Athens maybe) and making him quite small.

//Eva

Characters text done...

Hey.

Here is the text I have written. It landed on around 1000 words that are spread out among the character description.

Feel free to add if you want to. Eva has got a copy of the final text from me.

/Cicci

Game Characters

The clothing and the way our characters look is symbolic for the period of ancient Greece. This makes the game coherent with the specific time period.

Player:

The game players can choose from being a male or female warrior. The character of choice will be the one that they will use throughout the game. The male character will be a warrior of ancient Greece. He will have dark hair and dark skin with a slim body. He is wearing a grayish dress consisting of a male skirt and a sweater. The clothes will be embroidered with blue pattern around the neck and the shirtsleeves on the shirt and on the bottom of the skirt. He will have simple sandals made from leather on his feet. To be able to complete the tasks in hand our male player will be provided with a leather bag to collect tokens in, a small knife hanging on the side of his waist. On his arms he will have an arm/hand protection that helps him to protect his hands in fights.

The female warrior is from the same time period. She also has dark skin and dark hair, but hers is long and made up in a braid with leather ropes around it. She is dressed in a semi long skirt with a top in white. Her clothes are embroidered with red patterns around the lining of the top and she also has a red band around her waist. She will also have sandals made in leather on her feet. In difference from the male player the female will have a walking stick, helping her in possible battles. She, like the male, also has a leather bag at her waist for the tokens she will collect during her adventure in Greece.

The background of the player is that he/she has lost someone they love in the war of Tory and then seeks Athena’s help to bring this loved one back to them. The player strikes a deal with Athena in the beginning of the game. Athena gives the player a mission to complete a number of tasks, and there from receive tokens which will be handed over to the Oracle in the end of the game.

Athena:

Athena is the Greek warrior goddess that appears in the beginning of the game to help the player to bring back the one he/she loves from the Kingdome of the Dead, which Hades is guarding. Athena was the goddess of wisdom, war, the arts, industry, justice and skill and therefore besets the power to bring back the dead. What characterize Athena were her armor, and especially her helmet. It was said that Athena was born from Zeus head fully grown and in full armor.

Athena is a young woman dressed in a white dress that is embroidered with gold patterns on her shoulders and on the bottom of the skirt part of the dress. In her waist she has a leather band with a golden buckle on. She has long dark hair in a ponytail hanging down her back. Athena has a white owl sitting on her shoulder. She has a golden helmet on her head, a shield at her arm and a spear in her other hand. On her feet she has the typical leather sandals for this time.

Hades:

Hades was the king of the underworld and ruler of the dead. Hades will appear every time the player has made three mistakes in a row, and will then bring the player to the underworld where he makes the player work his way out of there.

Hades is evil and is said to be without mercy. However, he is a beautiful man. He skin is pail due to living in the underworld but his body is very muscles. He has dark hair on his head with a crown in it. He is dressed in a white cover around his waist. He has a golden rope at his waist that is hanging down his side. He has a short dark beard and a mustache. Hades always has a spear in his hand to protect the underworld.

The Oracle:

The Oracle is found in the end of the game as a last task to complete. The player needs to provide the Oracle with at least eight tokens that have been collected throughout the game. Then he/she needs to answer the Oracles question in order to complete the deal they have made with Athena.

The Oracle is found in a temple in Delphi. He is a middle aged man who has gone blind. He has a brown cotton patch over his eyes due to the blindness. He has grayish long hair down his back and a long beard. He is dressed in a long dress in green with red covers. On the bottom of his dress there are golden embroiders. Due to his age he is provided with a walking stick in his hands.

The Sisters of Fate:

The Sisters of Fate is the sisters of life. These sisters have the power to decide how long a person’s life should be. We have Clotho, Atropos and Lachesis. Clotho makes a thread of life, Atropos measures it and decides how long it should be and Lachesis cuts it. These sisters will show up one after one as the players answer a question wrong. As soon as Lachesis cuts the life thread the player will be sent to Hades.

Clotho is the sister that makes the thread. She is dressed in a yellow long dress with a blue cover. She has brown hair.

Atropos is the one who measures the thread of life. She is wearing a green dress with a purple cover around her shoulder and waist. She has blond hair.

Lachesis is the sister that finally cuts the life thread. She has a red dress on her and shawl in blue. She has light brown hair.

male player

//tessa

inner Bevel

I thought that it was to obvious that we have places the Characters in the images, I played a little with Bevel and Emboss, and it makes a difference.

Male Player

The man need to be a bit more in focus/clear if we are to be able to use him, as it is now it looks like he is shaking
//Emme

Godesses of faith

So godesses of faith looks good but they are not exactly doing what they are suppose to, the first one is to weave a thread, the seconded is to measure that thread and the third one is to cut that same thread. And they might be doing that on the image but is not very clear. //Emme

last characters

Hey all.

Here are the sisters and male player.

the text will come tomorrow.

sleep well

text + images jippi

So here is our screen shots with text.

Image Text

I can add some text to my images. I just need Emme to tell me what font, size, etc. she used in the forrest image from the presentation. :)

Weeei!

Wow!

I really like what you've done guys, keep them coming! :) That looks really nice! Maybe Emelie can add some text at the bottom? That would make them perfect.

Great work! And I might do some more drawing tomorrow :) Finished text is coming up, too.

//Eva

More images

Here are two possible in-game images of the female player. I think we need some images including the hopefully-soon-to-be-created male character :)

troy with players

Caption: Troy, female player meets Athena.

Images played a bit

So I have placed our characters in images and just see what you think. I am still working on my texts. Tess if you want to play a bit with the images, do that. An image that would be really good to have is a starting image from Troy with a player and Athena // Emme