game design proposal

SCATBACK
GAME DESIGN PROPOSAL
MATTHEW MANOS & ALEX SCHLEIDER
STORY:
Our act of the play portrays the monkey as Scatback,
a space monkey that was lost at sea after landing on
December 20th, 1961. While the modern day media
and historical archives will tell you that this landing
lead to the demise of Scatback, it is now known that
this crash landing started the monkey’s life stranded
in another dimension. The ship’s ocean landing actually introduced Scatback to a whirlpool in the ocean,
leading him to another world completely unlike our
own. The only problem is that upon entering this new
dimension, Scatback’s aircraft was left above the surface, millions of feet away from our stranded monkey.
This world resembles that of a post-apocalyptic landscape in a vast, open space with very little except for
one abnormally large, psychedelic, tree that is so tall
that it peaks out of this new dimension. It is Scatback’s mission to climb to the top of the tree, avoiding
the schizophrenic nature of its branches, in order to
get back to his aircraft and move on to another world,
whatever that may be.
The main character, Scatback, is controlled
by the audience and is based off of the historic space
monkey complete with an awesome space helmet. The
on-stage character in the game is the tree that Scatback
has to climb to get through the level. This character
will consist of two separate on stage actors that are
performing actions that correlate with their on-screen
manifestation. One of these actors will be responsible
for the schizophrenic tree’s evil side, and the other
for the tree’s nice side. While one actor will be destroying the tree branches, the other will be mending
the tree branches, helping Scatback climb to the top
and retrieve his vehicle. Both of these trees will only
be given the ability to destroy / repair through various power-ups the participant from the audience will
collect throughout the climb to the top. If Scatback
lands on a red branch while climbing, a power-up will
be given to the tree’s evil side, allowing the actor to
destroy more branches and make the climb to the top
a living nightmare. If the participant collects a flying
banana-bird, the tree’s good side will be given powerups, allowing for the mending of more branches.
As the character climbs, he / she will reach certain
“safe-points,” which take the form of clouds, in case
of falling. As Scatback gets closer and closer to the
top, there will be fewer and fewer clouds to fall on for
safety, making the likeliness of getting back to the ship
harder and harder without as much support from the
tree’s good side as possible. If the audience participant
successfully makes it to the top of the tree, they will
be reunited with their vehicle and permitted to move
on to the next level.
CHARACTER /
COSTUME:
As described in the story, the character as played by
the on-stage actors is an obnoxiously high tree with
thousands of branches, and a schizophrenic personality. While one side of the tree’s personality aims to
help Scatback’s journey to the top of the tree, the other
side of the tree’s personality aims to make him fall to
the bottom. Each on-stage actor has control for one of
these traits of the tree. Good actor, bad actor, if you
will. The actor’s costumes will consist of a tree suit
that will have various buttons / controls semi-randomly generating an action to some of the branches. One
costume solely repairs branches, and one costume
solely breaks branches.
Ideal costume –
motor / flex sensor based
The ideal costume will be a flat board decorated with
wood grain and leaves to look like a tree body. This
will consist of four branches, which correspond to the
four corners of the screen. Each branch will be able
to be pushed down or lifted by the player (depending
if they are good or evil). Pushing/lifting will destroy/
mend a branch from the corresponding area on the
screen. The branches will have a “cool down” period
of 10 seconds, after which they will return to their
original location and be useable again.
The branch mechanism will consist of a motor, flex
sensor, and two custom plastic parts. One part will
be a wheel with a stick protruding every 90 degrees.
The other will be a flat stick that has a spring-loaded
bendable end. It will also have a flex sensor over the
two parts. The motor will be connected to the wheel
piece and the tree branch will be connected to the flat
piece. The bendable part of the flat piece will rest on
one of the protruding sticks of the wheel. Because
the piece is spring loaded the stick should hold up the
branch. When the player wants to use the branch they
will push it down. The force of their hand will overcome the force of the spring and cause the branch to
go down. The flex sensor will bend telling the Arduino
the branch has been pushed. After the cool down period the motor will spin 90 degrees and lift the branch
back up. A similar mechanism will be used for the
“good” tree, but in the opposite direction.
Button-based /
Back-up Costume:
The actor would wear a flat plank on their chest which
would have two rows of 3 buttons and one large button in the center. The actor would also wear a hat /
helmet full of leaves on their head. Each button would
correlate to the general vicinity of the branches on the
screen. For example, the button on the top right of the
costume would create a reaction with the branches
on the top right of the tree on the screen. When the
buttons are able to be used, they will glow with bright
LEDs, each taking 10 seconds of “re-load” time. The
large center button would be in relation to the big
power-ups the player would collect during the game. If
the costume belongs to the bad side, the buttons would
glow red and would destroy the branches. If the button
belongs to the good side, the buttons would glow blue
and would mend the branches.
POWER-UPS:
Power-ups (activated by actors):
Only one power up can be held in the possession of
the player or actor at a time.
Good power-ups:
-steel banana: all branches turning to steel, can not be
broken for 7 seconds
-flying banana: results in an abondance of clouds for 7
seconds
Bad power-ups:
-skeleton banana: destroy ¾ of the branches
-sticky banana: player gets stuck to branches can not
jump as high
Power-ups (activated by
player):
Good power-ups:
-rubber branch: springs user high above passing
branches
-net / jet back: only hold one at a time
Bad power-ups:
-slippery / ice branch: player slides off of branch - at
the top
-weak / cracked branch: more towards bottom
INTERACTIONS:
The actor would interact with their costume in order to
break or mend the branches in the game. This interaction will take the form of a series of buttons, or a
rotating motor that inspires the actor to slap down a
flex sensor.
EXTRAS:
Each power-up / reaction will be accompanied by
it’s own sound effects / forced feedback in the video
game. Game should run for 5 minutes max. The tree
itself should be about 2 minutes tall. Maybe a progression in the climb – the power-ups will change, the
background will change, etc.