9 - 27.04.09 - Level Three

A week later and the game has two individual levels and I have decided to create a third. This will make the game three times longer than I originally intended and should really enhance the experience.
The third and final level of this demo is perhaps the most conceptual. ‘Hectic Narcoleptic’ sees the player assume the role of a motorist, racing as they forgot to set the VRC to record their favourite show, who intermittently falls asleep at the wheel. The player begins with zero ‘dammige’ and 100 ‘peace of mind’. By colliding with randomly generating trees on the verge at the top of the screen, the ‘dammige’ will increase until it reaches 100 at which the player will lose the game. Other objects on the road marked ‘innocent’ will increase ‘dammige’ and decrease ‘peace of mind’ the latter of which will also fail the game, if it reaches zero. Experience from fights can be spent on repairing the vehicle and replacing the characters peace of mind in the inventory. To vary the visual quality again, I have gone for a very psychological theme inspired by idea of ‘text-adventure’ games. Here, the assets are all basic shapes with a simple shadow and repetitive colours. What sets them apart from one another is that they each bear a label, explaining what they are. The main player-character for example, is a grey rectangle with the text; ‘and ordinary-looking car’. Other elements such as ‘freshly mown grass’ on the verge or obstacles on the road being ‘innocent’ or ‘danger’ continue the theme, which challenges the player in a very new and rarer way for a game, by engaging their imagination. While some imagination may be required to aid the suspension of disbelief in a game, to accept the less than photorealistic graphics as reality for example, here the illusion is purposely obliterated thus asking the player to invent the visuals subconsciously. The title ‘freshly mown grass’ for example may invoke varied memories and even nostalgic feelings, covering several senses. Even if the user cannot see past the simplistically styled graphics, they have a unique aesthetic with flashes of colours for objects of interest. The opponents continue this theme, being entitled ‘a terrifying monster’, ‘a cute but surprisingly violent creature’ and possibly the most thought provoking; ‘an invisible monster’. The battle screen background is entirely white, save for the simple line of text ‘the most beautiful landscape you have ever seen’ with ‘a terrifying boss’ being the enemy. As this is a later level, the screen is more cluttered and the enemies move at a greater pace, to be more challenging. The narcolepsy mechanic makes navigation hazardous, resulting in the car swerving off into innocents, enemies or damage causing objects. The direction is randomly generated from several options and so should never feel repetitive and a display is visible on the HUD to tell the player when the character is awake or asleep and the direction of the car when swerving uncontrollably.