Video Game Presentation

My group presented a game idea to our class today, done in the style of a corporate pitch. Here is the powerpoint we used first of all.

The Curse Of The Golem

While I do believe in the game itself I feel the presentation missed a couple of key elements that would have made it's concept and appeal clearer.

A brief description of the game itself: It's an interactive environment game where the player is a monster from Jewish Legend set in the Warsaw Ghetto during the eve of World War II. The player can fight the Third Reich, other Monsters their diabolical sorcerer conjures up, and even take on the forces of Hell. However the player is free to make choices for himself and can be a simple monster running amok that will bring it into conflict the forces of good including Angels.

Where we went wrong I think was the presentation didn't make it clear how much of this is inspired by legend and urban myth. The Golem is a story from the Kabbalah, and there were supposedly eye-witnesses who claim to have seen the Nazis fighting a stone monster in Warsaw. The origin of this myth is difficult to track down, but is prevalent enough that it has been referenced in comics since the 1970's and was a partial inspiration for the Eli Roth character in Quinten Tarenantino's Inglorious Basterds.

In my mind taking that myth out of the context of World War II diminishes the appeal of the game. It can be set in any era, but the immediate connection to this legend is a definite selling point for fans of the Horror genre as well as military games.

Also we should have focused on the roots in Jewish legend to explain the presence of the Angels and Demons in the game. I believe a sandbox game needs an ultimate consequence, and for a monster just fighting soldiers wasn't enough. But the theological elements (albeit in a very secular concept) end themselves to this ultimate confrontation of the divine and the diabolical.

The game itself is a tricky sell because it gives the player so many goal options. He can fight the Germans. He can try to complete the missions, defeat the German Sorcerer, and lay his soul to rest. He can just go on a mindless rampage and fight whoever shows up to stop him. He can try to follow the clues to his backstory and connect with his humanity. He can even turn on his creator. That is the nature of the interactive environment game. And I believe it is the future not only of gaming but of interactive media. No longer can we dictate which morality a player should embrace as he engages our creations. Just as the writer must put him or herself in the mindset of the villain to bring life to the character, now the player can do that as well. We've come far enough for the rational among us to believe that playing a rampaging brute does not make one a brute.

The mechanics of the game are so complex because the environment is so complex. To be able to interact with everything you come into contact with requires thousands of assets to be built in, a memory system that recalls that once a building gets smashed it stays that way, and doesn't restore until the player resets the game to beginning. This requires hundreds of possible inputs from the game controller and thousands of visual and aural clues tell the player what he or she can do in any given interaction. Explaining it isn't important to sell the game as long as we understand it's there.

I put my heart and soul int this project. I wish I had put more emphasis on selling the history and appeal of the game itself, rather then plunge into the playing of it.