Game Systems: Course Mini Showcase
Project 1: Genetemu
Dates: April 2020
Genetemu is a project created with the intention of immersing players in a new reality through experimentation with a simplistic crafting system, inspired my real world genetics.
Solo
Unity 3D
Genetemu Core interactions:
Hunting:
The player goal in Genetemu is to win a race against wild emus, in order to compete with the speed of a wild emu, the player must breed a tame emu to jockey. Tame emus are acquired through the games genetics inspired crafting system. Players must hunt wild emus using their emu radar map, which reveals the location of nearby emus. Upon discovering a wild emu, players can shoot them with the sampling rifle to collect their DNA, to be used in crafting.
Crafting:
Upon collecting the DNA of up to two wild emus, players can deposit samples into the SPLICER machine to spawn a tame emu with a semi randomized blend of its "parents" DNA.
Racing:
After crafting a tame emu, players can approach and ride them, and after spawning and riding emus of different colors, players will discover that the color of the emu impacts various elements of that emus performance as a racer. Some colors impact the emus speed, some impact the likelihood for the emu to buck and eject the player from their back. This variance creates the need for players to experiment to discover the optimal emu to race with.
Post Mortem:
Overall I would rate this experience as a moderate success. I met my intended player experience of engagement through a fun and interesting crafting system. Unfortunately, I am convinced this is due primarily to my willingness to abandon my research for a system I knew would be intuitive and easy to understand. Something that initially did not work as intended was the pacing of play. I created a fairly large map for this project and during testing it quickly became clear that not allowing the player to store samples in an inventory of some kind killed the pace of play, as they would have to hike into the desert twice just to craft a single emu. This was remedied by the addition of a two sample inventory, allowing players to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. The addition of the radar map was also very helpful for testers, as it drastically reduced the time the spent hunting. I was pleased to see the amount of engagement and enjoyment players got out of the simplistic crafting system. I assume this is in part due to the inclusion of a timer so players have some way measure themselves against and work on.