Mechanics design
The subject of the game is the rising of sea level, so the main mechanic of the game had to be it. It is far more efficient to communicate the subject of a game through mechanics (the main interaction of the player with the game) than through any other supporting aspect of the game.
The game was made to be set on an island for several reasons:
- Real world sea level rising logic, the first places to get submerged are islands.
- Creating a defined finite space in which the player can interact.
- Having the water coming from all directions, making the game more dynamic and challenging.
We decided to make the game a grid based game, allowing a more controlled environment and allowing players from all the gaming mechanics expertise spectrum to have the same starting point for the game. The success in the game relies on the tactics and strategy of the player, without punishing him for lack of dexterity or speed.
To support that idea we decided the game shouldn’t be played real time but will be a version of turn based. This way the time is counted only with the player’s action, putting him in a clear and defined time construct.
Now we needed to adapt the water rising mechanic to all this base of our game logic.
To stay in the game logic the water will advance by grid cubes and its advance will be counted in the steps time grid. That’s how we came up with the walking cycle, every number of steps the player makes (translates to time advancing) the water rises 1 level, 1 pixel worth of grid real estate. The water of the sea, much like in the real world, has an incomparable power, hence being the strongest entity in the game, destroying whatever it touches, and constantly changing the level’s topography.
And as well as in the real world we can’t stop the rising of sea level completely, we can only slow it down, but that progress is inevitable. So we decided the game will project this idea by making the submerging an inevitable end of the game. Since you can not stop the water from submerging the island there is no win state, and if a player doesn’t play to win he needs to have another goal.
That worked out perfectly for us, because when you don’t play to win, you usually play for score, to beat the highscore. Adding a scoring system as the main goal of the game refers directly to the world we live in, and gives our game that cynical twist, while enduring devastating effects of climate change your main goal is to earn points, capital, and get a high score.
Now we need to give the player some agency, he has to have some meaningful choices to make. That’s why we added the collectable trinkets, spawnables that will make the player decide where to go, what to collect, and make his pathfinding more intentional and tactical. There are 3 kinds of trinkets:
- Coins: the actual thing we are here to achieve, money, points.
- 2 mechanical trinkets: trinkets that interact directly with the main mechanic of the game, the water cycle but not worth any points.
- Bucket: sending the water one step backward. An instant short term solution.
- Shoes: gives the player more steps per cycle, meaning he gets to walk more each water cycle. Permanently slows the pace of the rising of water, more of a long term solution.
These trinkets are putting the player in the position to choose, does he opt for longer survival, or a blitz of coins as fast as possible.
The scoring system had to compensate for survival as well to balance out with the coins, and give some worth to longer play rounds. So the player gets points each step, but he gets much more points collecting coins. Giving the player the power to choose a strategy with more than one way to “tackle” the game.