Radical Games: City Watch

GameSceenShot2  Screenshot from Unity build

My game, City Watch, is about a girl named Lena who starts as part of the City Watch.  The City Watch is the faction of the city that houses the knights who protect and watch over the entire city.  Their job is to patrol and protect the city from crime.  Lena is part of the City Watch, but she has been tasked with finding and infiltrating the Thieves’ Guild.  Because of her job to infiltrate the Thieves, the game can take a split.  Lena can either decide to fully join the thieves and abandon the City Watch, or she can do as originally told and destroy the Thieves’ Guild.  The choice is up to the player.  There are steps to accomplishing either faction in the game.  For the thieves, it is really all about stealing.  The more that is stolen, the greater chance of being part of the guild, but also the worse that the relationship becomes with the City Watch.  For the City Watch, the goal is to do good.  It is to help people, and to find crime in the city.  There are some shady people in the world, so it is up to Lena to get rid of them.  Of course getting rid of the thieves is also the main goal to the City Watch as well.

There is a constant tug and pull in the game- the player can either do what is morally right, or they can bend the rules and go outside of the law in the game.  There is no real “right or wrong,” no way of the game is better than the other, both have their merits and rewards, so the game is really in the player’s hands on how they want to play it.  That is what is radical about my game; their is no truly right way to play it.  However the player wants to play the game is the “right” way to play it.

I came up with the idea for the game based on my history with playing many video games.  I play a lot of fantasy styled games like The Witcher series and the Elder Scrolls series.  In those games there are many morally grey characters, which makes the games interesting and fun to play.  And especially within the Elder Scrolls series, there are always thieves guilds or darker factions within the world.  The player can join the guild through quests, and their is some risk in being caught stealing.  However, there is no real risk in the game for joining the guild.  It is a side-quest so it has no real impact on the game.  That is where I wanted to differently with my game.  I like the idea of guilds within a fantasy type world, but I wanted there to be more decision and change to joining them.  The idea of consequence and story changing decisions was influenced by the Dragon Age games as well as The Witcher.  Those games are heavy in story driven choice.  I like games that give options to the player; there are multiple ways to play the game based off of what actions the player decides to take.

GameScreenshot  Another screenshot from the Unity Build- Shopkeep on the left and Lena to the right

The level that I am working on currently is for the city.  There are a few NPCs in the level.  There is the shady shopkeep, the suspicious teen, and there is the rat.  As I progress with the game I will probably add more characters to the level, but as of right now those are the characters that exist in the level so far.  By talking to the shopkeep, Lena learns rumor about the thieves.  The teen also gives different rumor, and I am working on creating interesting dialogue for both NPCs.  I want their rumors to be informative but not too telling, and I want more dichotomy in this level.  As of right now, the level leans more toward finding the thieves, but not much is talked about in terms of the City Watch.  There is also the rat in the level.  It leads Lena towards the thieves and toward stealing.  As Lena grows closer to the thieves, her bond also increases with the rat.  Eventually there will be a counter to the rat, there will be something that guides Lena more towards helping the City Watch.

For the level, I am using a rather dark color palette.  The colors are mostly shades of grey and red.  Towards the right side of the level, where Lena comes out of the City Watch, I made the building colors slightly more colorful.  The red is brighter and the colors in the windows are lighter and pinker.  As Lena travels left in the level, the colors of the buildings change.  The base color of the buildings becomes a darker and grayer red.  The colors in the windows are now dark grey and the lighter grey from the right side.  There is less vibrancy in level on the left side because Lena is moving towards the Thieves’ Guild.  I had originally made the level pretty light and “normal.”  The sky was blue and the buildings were brown and grey; but I didn’t like the way that felt for the level.  Making the level darker made the level feel better.  The city is not a cheery place and there is a lot of crime that goes on, so it only makes sense that the color in the level reflect that.

Lena Front Sprite

Sprite for Lena in the game.

IMG_1309 Original paper game sprite for Lena

IMG_1490 IMG_1489 PIMG_1488Paper game levels

Author: Meghan Sever