CIS 300: Introduction to Computer Game Design

Assignment 5
Constrained Game 

The Assignment:

First, divide up into groups (different than your project groups). Each group will, through dice rolls, choose 1 constraint from each category. Then, as a group, you must come up with a game idea that meets all the requirements. The only criterion for if a requirement is met is whether or not you can justify that it has been met.

At the end of class, each group will have produced a very short written description of their idea, describing the following:

  1. How your idea meets each of the requirements.
  2. What the basic gameplay, challenges, and goals of the game are.
  3. The design goals for the game.

 Each group will give a short (3 minute) presentation of their idea using this description at the end of class.

 Submit, at the end of class, the written document you produced to CMS.

The Constraints:

Setting/Theme

  1. Setting: alternate history/pirate. Theme: switching-of-roles/redemption story
  2. Setting: cyberpunk/horror. Theme: serious discovery story
  3. Setting: cyberpunk/contemporary. Theme: redemption/adventure story
  4. Setting: dystopia science-fiction. Theme: puzzle-solving challenge story
  5. Setting: high fantasy/horror. Theme: mythological power fantasy story
  6. Setting: post-apocalypse. Theme: film noir search-for-identity story
  7. Setting: science-fiction high fantasy. Theme: quest story
  8. Setting: science-fiction/cyberpunk. Theme: race-to-the-finish/epic story
  9. Setting: dystopia/contemporary. Theme: comedy-of-manners/transformation story
  10. Setting: horror/high fantasy. Theme: things man-was-not-meant-to-know story
  11. Setting: western/horror. Theme: quest/search-for-identity story
  12. Setting: alternate history/science-fiction. Theme: serial killer story/occult story
  13. Setting: cyberpunk utopia. Theme: drama story
  14. Setting: pirate/science-fiction. Theme: search-for-identity/pursuit story
  15. Setting: science-fiction. Theme: action-adventure friendship story
  16. Setting: horror. Theme: rivalry/romance story
  17. Setting: horror/pirate. Theme: downfall/natural disaster story
  18. Setting: sword-and-sorcery. Theme: parody natural disaster story
  19. Setting: utopia/western. Theme: man-against-the-world/adventure story
  20. Setting: western/high fantasy. Theme: serious character study story

Genre

  1. Action
  2. Strategy
  3. Construction/Management
  4. Role-Playing
  5. Adventure
  6. Vehicle Simulation
  7. Sports
  8. Puzzle
  9. Roll twice above
  10. Group Choice

Perspective

  1. 2D – Side View
  2. 2D – Top-Down/Isometric
  3. 3D – First Person
  4. 3D – Third Person

Mode

  1. Single Player
  2. Multiplayer – Same Screen
  3. Single Player
  4. Multiplayer – Networked/Online
  5. Single Player
  6. Massively Multiplayer

Era

  1. The Age of Diabloic Banes
  2. The Blackening Century
  3. The Century of Blemished Treks
  4. The Century of the Poor
  5. The Clear Epoch
  6. The Conflicting Century of the Galaxy
  7. The Conflicting Epoch of Magery
  8. The Cycle of Deseased Spells
  9. The Cycle of the Decadent Want
  10. The Cycle of the Educated
  11. The Destitute Age of the Saviors
  12. The Flawless Era
  13. The Heloicentric Aeon of Plenty
  14. The Infected Time
  15. The Mechanical Cycle of the Shades
  16. The Scholarly Era of the Blood
  17. The Starving Era
  18. The Successful Epoch of Wands
  19. The Time of Final Sins
  20. The Time of the True Saved

Platform

  1. PC
  2. Console
  3. Portable
  4. Arcade
  5. Mobile Phone
  6. Web

Featured Character

(not necessarily the main character, just an important one).

 

  1. The dexterous hero.
  2. The crippled, hateful, lonely actor.
  3. The poised, promiscuous, humble inventor from nowhere.
  4. The acrobatic, anxious, moralistic bodyguard.
  5. The unhealthy, mysterious, self-righteous thief who is considered the worst in his/her profession.
  6. The unpopular prospector from a good family.
  7. The young, alienated beggar.
  8. The sickly, corrupt heroine.
  9. The dexterous, laid-back, moralizing musician.
  10. The ignorant, opinionated bartender who can't resist helping people.
  11. The kind, fearsome murderer searching for employment.
  12. The righteous wanderer.
  13. The aloof, obedient marine.
  14. The aged, intelligent, heroic merchant who is considered the worst in his/her profession.
  15. The healthy, awkward bodyguard with repressed memories.
  16. The healthy, righteous poet who hates children.
  17. The sadistic adventurer from a small family.
  18. The enduring, humble, amiable smuggler with repressed memories.
  19. The un-athletic, eccentric peddler.
  20. The generous merchant searching for employment.