americanmcgee
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Select Your Difficulty - Asylum UI/UX + Livestream!
🕑 Added 2022-03-07 22:54:06 +0000 UTCDear Insane Children,
Woo it's busy around here. In the last week, I've been to the hospital for migraines and the dentist for a painful tooth; Yan's been to the hospital for pregnancy checkups; and Yan's mom is off to see her brother in the hospital - meaning increased Lucky duty for myself and Yan and Lulu. I've had a bunch of meetings related to Alice (TV series); Akaneiro (more on that later); and Oz: Adventures. There just aren't enough hours in the day or days in the week!
But fear not! TONS of progress still happening even if I can't find the time to share it here on Patreon.
For example - check out the main image above!
Alex is working on design and UI/UX for Asylum. That includes defining things like Difficulty Selection, Gameplay Balance, and Combat Loops.
He's sent me a bunch of documents to review...
And while I've not had time to fully review and comment on these ideas... I thought we could open this up to Crowd Design!
So I've ATTACHED the ZIP File Alex sent me to this post. You can download it and examine all the design materials contained within. Then send your feedback to Alex via the Comments below!
Of this material, Alex says:
1. A Full First Pass on Resource, Economy and Weapon Attack Data
This contains a few PDF Spreadsheets containing;
1. Full Ammo, XP, Health, Pickups and Resource Economy for Alice: Asylum.
2. Full Outline for all primary and secondary firing modes for all weapons in Alice: Asylum.
This information is presented as data at this stage, but will be typeset and placed in the "Pause Screen/Inventory" pages between the Narrative along with visuals.
I've included an early pass on the Vorpal Blade using this information and structure.
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2. Conceptual Layouts for Selecting "Hysteria/Inferno" Special States
I've made some Conceptual Layouts and some Animated UI mockups that explore;
1. Using Alice's Necklaces for Different Abilities we've outlined in the Narrative. (Rage/Inferno & Hysteria).
2. A new concept that I wanted to explore that uses; The Alchemy Symbols/Runes on Alice's Dress Pockets, as Gameplay Modifiers that can be equipped by the player to adjust playstyle.
This allows for 2x different Equippable Alchemy Symbols for a player to mix n' match secondary abilities. These abilities could enhance, or lean into their preferred attacks, weapons or abilities.
Struggling in combat? Buff Alice's Combat with a Rune.
Want to focus on Ranged Weapons and Sniping? There's a rune for that too.
The idea is to build on Alice's ToolBox, and offer these runes in the Gameplay areas as items that can be found in secret areas or unlockable via challenge spaces in one of each of the 12 worlds.
They're not game-breakers, and the idea is a very skilled player could finish Alice without ever equipping one, but these offer some fresh versatility and open up the experience largely with the different combinations available.
It also adds practical meaning and gameplay purpose to something that has been a staple of Alice's look since 2000. These symbols I've chosen and abilities could all be edited, and changed to suit their true "Alchemical Meaning" but I've had a solid crack at finding that balance in the first pass.
The Content I've attached, will all link up and reference one another when looked at in detail.
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3. Difficulty Settings and Intended Gameplay Experience
See page layout and content attached that explains these in the DB.
Any edits required, let me know.
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4. Game Design Ethos / Soft Gates and Hard Gates
Another DB layout that explains a scenario and how a player might tackle a situation in game. Flexibility and encouragement to get creative with Alice's abilities in Soft Gated areas.
Focus and objective-based achievement to progress in Hard Gated areas. (ie: Kill a boss, defeat all enemies, solve puzzle etc to proceed.)
Any edits required, let me know.
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Gameplan moving forward is to wind most of this supplementary Game Design content in the earlier chapters and the content for the "Pause Screens" near finalized by end of March. I'll continue typesetting the Narrative and pages as I go.
The next DB update I expect will be a PDF snapshot of all of this coming together in the DB layouts alongside Narrative Content and Script. So a WIP sample of the real deal.
Thanks, Alex!
There's a lot to consume and comment on... and that should keep you busy until the Live Stream later this week.
That's right! We're back with another Live Stream this week. Usual time and place.
And we'll have plenty of time to discuss Alex's design proposals (and your comments during the stream.
You can find links to Twitch and YouTube via: https://linktr.ee/americanmcgee
See you soon!
From Shanghai with Medium Difficulty,
-American
Comments
NecromancerforLife
nice. Even ultra nightmare. Played both games on nightmare. The first one was quite the challenge. The second not really, or i did not feel much difference between nightmare and easy. Ultra nightmare seems to be a must have today. for those who like suffering. The pictures are also quite fitting the difficulties. The red and black is also appealing to me.
KittyFaerie
Also, no save points seems like a bit of an issue, unless I am misunderstanding the intent - what if someone does not have an opportunity to play through the entire game in one sitting? If not already the plan, I would suggest having it still auto-save the game at checkpoints or when closing the game, and then a perma-death deletes the save file; basically like the ironman modes you see in a lot of strategy games.
Angel Wings
In the case of ultra nightmare, I hope that deaths due to failing a jump (something that was not only likely, but near-inevitable in AMR, especially as we neared endgame) would not result in the permadeath penalty. Dying in combat is one thing, dying bcs you missed a jump is another. Perhaps have Alice lose some health each time it happens. That way, there's no reason to be careless, but you're also not going to lose an entire save to one fuckup
sumblinker
Ultra Nightmare difficulty must be insane :D
So much cool stuff! I can really see the games interface taking shape! I really liked the idea Alex proposed of ability buffs based on her alchemical symbols and her necklaces really well done! Makes alot of room for customization. I'm so excited to see more of this on stream!
SycrosD4
Oh, this looks exciting...
Wendy Jaa
Question: Is Alice: Asylum a working title or is it the final title of the game?
Greyson Kehm
Love the look of the UI/UX, the setup of the Ethos, and the idea of using Alice's Alchemical symbols to introduce modifiers! Looking forward to the livestream this Wednesday; it's my day off and I'll be celebrating my birthday!
Alex Crowley
Hi everyone, just a quick update regarding this post. Firstly, if you trawl through the data in the spreadsheets within the Zip file, this is all a mountain of information to digest in this format. Not easy nor quick to process. The idea of sharing here is to give a foundational perspective on the gameplay and some core mechanics, that we can then showcase alongside key visuals within the DB. That's taking place atm, so I am sure we'll have more to share when that's ready. Secondly, I'll remind everyone to take the information supplied here with a grain of salt, especially the numerical data and quantities. While the concepts and ideas formed here I feel are cohesive, and serve as good starting points conceptually, if ever the game is green-lit, the core of the balancing, tweaking and mechanics application will take place during development. This is only a conceptual starting point for that direction to be undertaken. But for now, happy reading! I'll be keeping an eye on the feedback here. From what I can tell, American is happy with the concepts outlined so far, but if there's anything that stands out as "broken" or problematic, fire away and I'll do my best to catch and action quality feedback moving forward. Cheers! - Alex
Destiny Jenson
I'm definitely grateful for the difficulty options. I was unable to beat the Jabberwocky in the first game and had to watch the ending on YouTube. MR I beat... many many times, so if I can pass Asylum on Easy I'll most likely play on Normal on future playthroughs. π€
What if I stead of calling it ultra nightmare mode we could name it asylum's nightmare or something. That might be corny but I just like naming things and thought you guys might like the idea. Anyway. I love what's being put out. I'll definitely stick to my usual start off in normal mode lol
Nicholas Navea
Wicked design for the difficulty levels
Lucas Severin
I love the difficulty levels a good call back to wolfenstien and doom
