What are the basic game concepts of our game “Purpose and Despair”

General

• 1st person
• Puzzle Game
• No dialogs
• No encounters with NPCs
• Intro = drop on the planet with no explanation of who you really are
• Target = build a rocket to get to an other planet because there is no butter to push (and that is his purpose)

Player

Rick and Morty’s robot passing over the butter –> The player doesn’t know that.

Setting

People are highly developed and have learned how space travel is possible.

Story

A small robot is thrown away by its owners and comes via “garbage collection” to a planet which is used as a garbage dump site where only garbage/scrap is lying around. The initial goal of the robot is to leave the planet to show the owners that it is not so useless. He has to build a rocket. At the beginning he can only push and pull things. He now walks through the levels and encounters currently unsolvable problems which he can only solve by learning other things. The learning consists of two parts, on the one hand the robot has to find himself through the world battles and new parts for himself, these parts he can build on himself. In order to be able to use the parts however its AI must be extended, this happens with the help of “manuals” which must be found in the game world. Once a manual has been found, a puzzle can be started which, if successfully completed, will unlock the upgrade for the robot and learn a new skill. He must now venture through the tricky levels to find parts for himself and the rocket to build them. In the end he flies away from the planet and the end.

Puzzle

Card puzzle

On the map you can find robots, rocket parts and manuals. These are hidden by puzzles that have to be solved. These puzzles can be for example:

• A way has to be found to get to a place with parts, to do this objects have to be moved which operate switches and buttons.
• Large things have to be moved with the help of a lever, for example.
• open doors

User manuals

The manuals contain riddles that are 2D puzzles printed on the manual. When the robot has solved the puzzle his AI develops further and he has understood how it solves a piece. The puzzles have the following structure:

• Everything is in a grid
• You have to close a circuit and supply all objects with power.
• There is one power source and several objects per level.
• Between these objects are fields with wires that you can rotate.
• By turning the wires you have to close the power grid.

Progress

Find new parts and learn the appropriate skill to build a rocket.

Basic skills

• pushing
• pull

learnable skills

• lifting
• Place and activate the lever
• be able to climb small steps
• Use ladders from e.g. old construction machines
• maybe use switch on power and supply “circuit diagrams” with power
• …

Map

A central place where he can upgrade the robot and build the rocket. It is a large map where there are certain areas and different parts to find. In the background you can see mostly scrap and garbage, but there are also Eastereggs in the background that reveal the original owner. (e.g. Hint: “You pass butter” on sign in the background or mirror where he actually sees his look)

Time invested

Hermann 2h Tim 2h