playcentric

This is a somewhat half-baked idea, I’m playing with the concept of a particular mechanic that I think could be interesting but don’t quite have the theme or story associated with it figured out.

This is a game about exploration.  The first level that you encounter is exceedingly simplistic – you are represented by a black square and maybe there are some trees that are represented by green squares and your goal is to find.. well for right now let’s just call it a crystal as I don’t actually have the story on this one figured out.  So on each level you’re looking for this crystal.  On this first level the crystal is also just a square, and the gameplay simply consists of figuring out how to move yourself and then just going over to the crystal.  Yay, first level completed!

Each level after that is made of the previous level but larger in size, with more detail.  An important concept here is that all of the graphics scale with the world except for the player.  However,  the graphics that made up the previous level only need to roughly correspond to what they represent in the next level.  So for example, a green block that represents a tree may in the next level be given more visual detail so it is now clear that it is in fact a tree next to a tree stump.  That tree stump in the level after that may be a shed.  Since the world keeps growing in size and the graphics keep scaling up, things can evolve every level while retaining a semblance of familiarity.  I probably haven’t explained this concept very clearly so maybe these images will help:

Notice how the two trees have been broken down into smaller details and revealed to be groupings of trees in the second level, how the world scales around the player, and how smaller details (like the road) can be revealed with each successive level.

What I really like about this idea is the way that it can play off of the concept of fractals – patterns within patterns within patterns.  This could come into play with both the graphics, plotline, and maybe some puzzle-solving.  Exploring these worlds would probably be one of the most important elements of gameplay, but how that intertwines itself into a storyline I don’t know.