Game Design
Project developed during the Game Design course at the Volta Institute
Seed tells, through its strategic/management game structure, the vain and desperate attempt of a farmer to block the growth of his only lily.
The purity of the lily is constantly threatened by the incursions of bats, ferrets and doves, who want to take possession of its lifeblood.
The game develops like a tower defense in waves: in the center of a floor in an isometric view there is a large lily in a flowerbed, which the farmer must defend, with placeable objects and power-ups, during the waves from enemies arriving from all directions. Between one wave and another the farmer can buy some of these objects in a shop.
Brainstorming
The idea behind the game came from watching the controversial 1970 film Valerie and Her Wonder Week.
The film, in its peculiar gothic and psychological style, reflects on childhood, sexuality and death.
Far from my classic dark and dramatic style, Seed would have brought to life a colorful and bright world, a dream of a simple and rural life.
Perhaps the result of the difficult period I was experiencing, I would have liked to immerse myself in a calm and silent dimension, which could free me from my inner torment.
Even on the gameplay side I feel the need to change:
I would have liked something new to experience, a genre that would allow me to focus more on the gameplay, the overall experience rather than just the plot: Strategy.
Blocking
The first step in making a game is to think about that game, create a scene inside your mind, and transpose it into reality.
The first (and largest) of many natural selections that happen in the game development process, here you are already making decisions about what can be in the game and what can’t, although not always definitively.
The blocking process went something like this: “I want an isometric world with a large lily in the center in a flowerbed and a farm”.
Needless to say, this reference was light years away from the final look of the product, but it turned out to be very useful for getting a solid idea on how to organize things, what to model first, what to focus on, etc.
