Bioshock
- The essential experience of the game is to have the player the edge of their seats and to educe fear and horror "Scare the hell out of people." yet it also pushes the idea of self preservation heavily that the player will feel like they craft their tools and weapons to survive, instead of finding what the game designers have provided.
- Personally I feel like this document doesn't present the overall level design of the game which would have been a key feature considering the document goes deep into several level changing abilities the player will have e.g. "flood a room - can drown some enemies, it would have been great to know how this feature would truly work. The document also heavily lacks in any visual elements such environment shots and character concepts which is just as important as selling a product just as the written information.
- Although I do feel like what is well presented in the GDD is what the overall feel and tone of the game as described with a descriptive opening paragraph going through the events of the game. This could have been presented in a much better way with the use of illustrations and concept art but what is there is done well.
- The Idea in the GDD is realistic in the gameplay and design options it presents with only a few features seeming outlandish for 2002 with the environment changing abilities seeming slightly unrealistic with the hardware at the time. Yet I feel the most unrealistic idea presented can be seen in two quotes. The first being "Establish a new franchise that has strong potential as a film and television property", this quote is a bold one to say about a game idea that has a very small amount of visual representation and market research to back this quote. One thing heavily backing up this unrealistic statement is that the Bioshock franchise never had a tv show or film spinoff. The second quote is "the most visually stunning Unreal game ever created" which feels like an empty statement as obviously you would want your game to be the most beautiful game ever.
- There is easily a good amount of written information here they could have gone more in-depth into other areas such as how the environment changing mechanics would be applied to the overall level design and scale of how much these abilities would change the level. Yet once again the biggest area this GDD is lacking in is the visual side with one image of an enemy from the game. They could have easily made a vastly more compelling GDD if they had images representing gameplay mechanics, character concepts of the main protagonist (Carlos Cuello) described, Images of the unique weapon system that is present and environment art.
Damnation
- The essential experience of the game is of an intense combat based with a use of allowing the player to utilise several movement mechanics letting them flow between combat scenarios. The game seems to want players to experience quick fast place combat giving them a quick exhilarating gameplay.
- The document shows several settings and environments with well designed concept environment pieces, it also shows how the player will move through the game but it would have been nice to see a combination of these two. A couple of simple images showing environments in the game and a silhouette of the main character and how he would traverse through that area.
- The document does represent a well fleshed out section of the story of the game and some of the characters along with a nice section giving some detail of environments along with some concept art. It would have also been good to have a more in-depth section about the main character and show some more in-depth art of the character as well.
- The design intention of the document do seem realistic and seems like a project that could easily be made. Yet it shows no risks or any game defining feature. What GDD is presenting seems quite generic and in my opinion has no defining gameplay ideas in unlike in the Bioshock one which has an interesting mechanic in the idea of having abilities that could change the environment.
- I feel like this document shows just enough to get an overall idea of the game, it could have definitely have gone more in-depth into areas but what is there gives a good idea of the game.
