StoryBoarding

After some initial disagreements about what the central mechanics should be in the game, (some members thought there should be a combat system), we ended up going in the direction of text-based decision making and resource management .

The main premise of the game was to be that the player has woken up stranded on a deserted beach during a storm in the middle of the night. The player must seek refuge from the storm and, in doing so, will meet the first NPC, Grandma Julie. Grandma Julie will kindly offer the player shelter from the storm and lodging during their time in Distant Shores, however, in return, she will ask the player to find some fish for her starving cat, Fluffles. The player then has 3 days (shown in-game by a clock on the UI) to find a piece of fish for the cat before it starves. However, the player will have to interact with many characters and embark on several quests before this can be achieved.

Map Design

Although I did not produce the art and the sprites for the map, I did design the layout and where different NPCs / items would be found. This map design was actually integral to the gameplay because it was constructed in such a way that the player would have to walk past almost all other characters before they reached the location where they could purchase the fish for Grandma Julie. My logic behind this was to give players the opportunity to interact with other NPCs in the game and to understand the layout of the map whilst on their way to complete the main quest.

Hence why in the image above, the player begins in Grandma Julie's cottage in the top left of the map, but must walk all the way to the Fishmonger's in the bottom right corner of the map before they can get the fish.