This week we had a long discussion to decide our final pitch and make our storyline draft. We discussed the ideal interest curve for our players, brainstormed multiple storylines, and voted for a final version.

Here’s the final storyline and the mechanisms needed for it. We might still change some details about the story base on playtest results on our core mechanics.

Background

Our players will become members of the marine expedition team to explore the seabed. They will be traveling in a submarine. Since our experience is not narrative-heavy, we will provide them with limited information, and unveil more on the way.

Mechanisms

• Shooting
• Gathering
• Spotlight

Scene 1

The story begins with a light-hearted and enjoyable start, and players can follow our camera to explore the underwater world. They can use their controllers to interact with creatures within the scene and enjoy the underwater environment.

Scene 2

With a strong camera shake and light flicker, an alert will play to indicate that some kind of danger is approaching. All the fish will start escaping and players will need to adapt to the darkness and protect the submarine!

Scene 3

The player’s controller will be given flashlight functions. They will need to use the controller to spot enemies and shoot them before they damage the submarine!

Problems

Based on this storyline, we will continue to modify and develop our interactions and mechanisms, yet there are some problems we need to solve:

• Because we have at least 3 players, 3 flashlights lighting simultaneously may cause performance issues that need to be addressed. For now, we will just use 1 spotlight and perform a playtest to see how it works.
• Shooting Issue, the aim of the shooting mechanic is off. We will need to evaluate whether it is a solvable problem. If yes we will solve it, otherwise we will try to find an alternative method of control.
• The story still has many details to be perfected and will be slowly added during the development process. Although we are not a narrative-heavy experience, we will hope our players understand what they are doing and experiencing.