# Week 1 (09/16/2020)

The team generated multiple (8) game ideas of different genres and aesthetics. The idea of handling the player character death in an interesting way seemed to be common among all of them.

I had the idea of having the player either start off in a game state where mistakes have been made and the gameplay centers around having to fix them, or to force the player into such a state so that they have to play past/around their previous mistakes. I became interested in this idea after watching this video by Game Makers Toolkit on YouTube (opens new window).

I proposed the idea of a game wherein every unsuccessful playthrough makes the subsequent ones more likely to be successful. This way, we can provide a new perspective on what it means to die in a game, and how that can be turned into not only a positive thing, but a central part of the game mechanics. Because we were dealing with changing the player's fundamental understanding of what a game is supposed to be, we looked at games that are more artful than arcadey, such as Flower by thatgamecompany (opens new window).

After seeing that, and hearing discussions about a game about moths, I put forward the idea of a game that plays similar to Flower (i.e. 3rd person view, flying, and in constant motion). I did a quick sketch of how this game could look.

Before showing this sketch, I had issues communicating my idea to the team, which I suppose is just a new hurdle of online collaboration. But after showing it, the ball got rolling, and the game started to materialize. We researched precedents on how to record player input to show all the moths that we'd need to show, as well as how to program compelling flying controls on Unity. Moving forward, I think it's important to communicate in a more visual way, no matter how low fidelity, so that the vision for Light After Death is clear, consistent, and well-communicated.