Game Design Template(2)

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G.T.F.O
Wilyem L. Cain

Table of Contents (remember to right-click and UPDATE TABLE when finished editing)
Introduction ...............................................................................................................1
Design History............................................................................................................................................................1 Vision Statement .......................................................................................................................................................2 Logline............................................................................................................................................................................... 2 Synopsis ............................................................................................................................................................................ 2 Game Description .....................................................................................................................................................2

Formal Elements .........................................................................................................3
Objectives.....................................................................................................................................................................3 Gameplay Description.............................................................................................................................................5 Tutorial ............................................................................................................................................................................. 6 Character Selection ..................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Conflict/Argument ...................................................................................................................................................... 7 Challenge/Procedures ............................................................................................................................................... 7 Outcomes.......................................................................................................................................................................... 8

Dramatic Elements......................................................................................................8
Game World ................................................................................................................................................................8 Characters ....................................................................................................................................................................9 PCs ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 9 NPCs ................................................................................................................................................................................... 9 Story ............................................................................................................................................................................ 12

Implementation ............................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Reflection ................................................................................................................. 13
Dissoi Logoi .............................................................................................................................................................. 13 Composition ............................................................................................................................................................. 14

Introduction
Design History
The idea for this game came to me during my Advanced English class. I wanted to create a game that was similar to a Sim City. You would be in charge of building a neighborhood and making it prosperous. To make my game different from Sim City, I am adding the concept of Gentrification as the main concept and driving factor in the game. Gentrification is the process where older, run down, parts of the city are remodeled to look better and invite people to move in and pay taxes. I have never

played a Sim City game that actually showed how rebuilding neighborhoods affected the people inside them and I wanted this game to show that.

Vision Statement
Logline  G.T.F.O is a virtual city simulator where the player created to show the positive and negative effects of gentrification on everyday people lives by having them remodel and improve downtrodden parts of a city and deal with the people who live in said parts. Synopsis G.T.F.O is a virtual city simulator where the player is put in charge of remodeling downtrodden areas of the city into more appealing areas, enticing people to move in. The argument that I am trying to make in this game is to show player how people who can no longer afford to live in their homes due to high property taxes, are forced to move into poorer areas for higher prices, experiencing unfair stereotypes and racism due to their race or class. The main platform for this game is a personal computer and is made for everyone to play being a simple point and click virtual city simulator with upgrade options and different ways of playing.

Game Description
The basic mechanics of G.T.F.O are simple yet complex. The player will be a county manager tasked with improving desolate neighborhoods in the game. To do this, the player will be given options on how they want to change the neighborhood; do they want to add simple measures to improve the neighborhood, such as parks and community areas which are low income pieces that have a high community appeal. Or do they want to add big businesses, such as Starbucks and Books-A-Million; stores that have the potential for high profit, but can cause the neighborhood to become congested and property values to rise. Each choice will make the city money, allowing the player to renovate vacant buildings, turning them into new houses or clearing the land for business and parks. The player can also afford to create grants to fund the improvement of houses that have people living in them, increasing their outside appeal and drawing in more visitors who may become potential members of the neighborhood. The player also must deal with the people who live in the community, which can range from local gang members, Mexican,

Gays, African-Americans, etc. Each member has a potential positive or negative they can bring to the neighborhood. For example, the Mexicans can move into the neighborhood and began to remodel their home without you giving them a grant, or they can lie to you and move 20 of their family into the house, dramatically dropping the property value and eventually affecting the neighborhood. It is up to the player to carefully judge each new member of the neighborhood to see if they are a good ‘fit’. If they are, they have a chance to attract new members. If they aren’t they may cause their neighbors to move out, leaving behind an empty house that nobody wants to move in. After 10 years of game time, the player will report to their boss and receive their results. If they did well and brought in a lot of money, they’ll get a promotion. This will lead to new opportunities and business for the next neighborhood they rebuild. If they do badly, losing more money than they made, they are chewed out and told to return to the neighborhood to try again and make more money. The artistic style of the game will began as dark and dreary, playing upon the beginning state of the neighborhood. As the player renovates and improves it the neighborhood begins to lighten and more characters will began to walk around the neighborhood. The more the neighborhood improves; more people of different cultures will show up to move in, creating a rainbow of cultures. If the neighborhood improves too much, the property value skyrocketing, attracting rich people to move in, the neighborhood will become squeaky, clean, white folks with the poorer minorities being forced to move out. If the neighborhood becomes too poor and unsafe, the neighborhood will become very dark, with crime, pollution, and poor minorities walking down the street.

Formal Elements
Objectives
The games can be broken down into three paths Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory.

Heaven:  To get the Heaven community, the player must do the following:  Encourage high priced business to move into the community.  Encourage poor people to move out.  Force the poor people to move out.  Reject a specific number of minorities from moving in.  Create a gated community.      This will lead to the community becoming: Super rich Very clean Little to no minorities High price stores Gated community

To get Hell, the player must:  Allow the majority of business and homes in the community to get ransacked by gang members.  Decrease the amount of cops in the area.  Allow more negative minorities traits (overcrowded houses, drug dealers, etc) into the community.   This will lead to the community becoming: Crime ridden. Drug packed.

  

Very violent. Terrified homeowners Empty houses.

To get Purgatory:  Encourage a healthy balance of new business as well as community recreational facilities.  Allow a mix of minorities to reside in the community.  Keep the property tax from becoming too high.  Encourage the revitalization of old property instead of tearing it down.  Encourage the police to patrol the area, but do not make it a gated community. This result in:  A rainbow community.  Happy people of different classes.  Safer neighborhoods without closing the neighborhood.  Moderate property tax.  Healthy flow of people wanting to visit of move into the neighborhood.

Gameplay Description
This game will be played on a computer, using a mouse for all of the actions in the game. The game starts with the mayor designating you as city manager. You are given $10,000 dollars to improve a community, with extra money coming in from taxes, in five years. You are then able to go through the tutorial with M.F, your guide for the neighborhood, who explains how to buy land and build stores for companies to move in. The first set of stores will cost $1,000 and go up as time goes by and the store improves. You have the option to invest more money in stores to upgrade them, and you can buy land to clear for houses or business.

The second part revolves around the people. Everybody has a negative or positive to bring into the community, but the player must interview them and find tell-tell sign of they will do. If done right, the people will bring value to the community by improving their homes. If not, the home value will drop. This leads to the third part of the game, the neighborhood expansion. Now that the player knows how to play and people are trying to move in, they now must make sure the neighborhood can expand. This means that the character must make sure the community is protected, having policemen regularly patrol the neighborhood and making sure there is enough land to expand on. If done right, the neighborhood will grow and the people can win the game after ten years has passed and the neighborhood is successful.

Tutorial The tutorial of the game will consist of an npc that will look like Morgan Freeman in a white suit, and he will guide the player through the basic tips and facts of

remodeling the city and how each action will affect the community. As the community begin to lighten or darker, he will guide the player on what they could do next or how their actions may turn out. Conflict/Argument

Inside the game, the player is in conflict with certain npcs and resources. They must take into account the money they bring in, because if they fail to make enough money to justify their choices they will not be promoted by the mayor. They also must be careful of the people in their neighborhood and the people coming in. There will be people who will resist the improvement of their neighborhoods, vandalizing new business and threatening the player. The npc who also move into to the neighborhood must also be watched. For example, if a gay man moves into the neighborhood, he may cause no problems by himself, but some of the more intolerant people may attack him and his property. If the player does not stop this, he will move and spread the news of his attacks to the gay community, limiting the amount of gays and gay supporters who may move into the neighborhood. This will be brought to the mayor and reflect badly on the player chances for promotion. The external argument I want to bring into the game is morals beliefs vs. economical beliefs. I want the players to watch how their decisions affect not only the structure of the neighborhood as well as the people that live inside of them. I want the player to choose between adding a Starbucks, which can net the city an extra $60,000 for starting new business and supporting city based programs. This will also increase the property tax by 8%, forcing the nice old lady who had done nothing wrong out of her ancestral home. On the other hand, the player can take some land and making it into a park for the people in the community, giving the people of the community a nice positive place to hang, but will not make as much money as the Starbucks, meaning the player will have to budget their money better. Challenge/Procedures

The challenge of the game is similar to most city simulators. In ten years, the player must improve their community to get a promotion and rebuild their next community. They have a set amount of funds, which their funds being refilled by taxes from the community. There is also the fact of the community people and how to protect them. If the people feel threaten they may respond with violence or leave, decreasing the value of your community. The game is active all the time, meaning that new problems will persist at different times meaning the player must designate money to fund services such as the police and the firefighters. By doing well, the people of the community will be more interested in improving their town and if not they will move. Outcomes The outcomes come in three parts. There is the heaven community, which lack minorities but is bright, clean, and a heavy income source for the city. There is the hell community which is basically all minorities filled with drugs, crime, and violence. This area is basically forgotten by the city or the player can try and improve it. Then there is purgatory, a middle ground between the two communities. While this may be the most morally appealing choice, it is also the hardest one to get to. There is also the promotion, if the player does well, the mayor will give them access to new land or items to rebuild the community. Or they can fail to get a promotion due to the complete failure of their community or that it took too much money and you have to try again from the beginning of the game.

Dramatic Elements
Game World
My game is based on the actual process of gentrification. In real life, counties in America invest money into downtrodden areas of the city to improve them. They add new stores, renovate vacant lots, and sell houses to people they believe will

improve them, like artist, gays, etc. While this can dramatically improve the value of the neighborhood, it can also raise the price of living in these areas dramatically, meaning that the poorer people who live in these areas are forced to move out. They are then forced to move out and into poorer areas for higher prices. This leads to the creation of new ghettos with high crime rates. My game follows the same story about gentrification. The player will actively create worlds where people can live happily or live in fear. They can create ghettos (hell) or they can create gated communities (heaven) or they can find the middle ground (purgatory). The player will also be able to manage multiple communities as they progress, allowing them to see the comparison between communities and also watch how the characters are forced into worse society by the player choices if that was the case.

Characters
PCs The PC will be a silent type, who will sit back and listen to the advice and complaints of his community and use their advice to act. NPCs The NPC’s will share characteristics of people from America ranging from high-class individuals to low-class individuals. As the community changes, the communities will follow. The poorer the community the less diversity you will see, focusing on mainly blacks and Latinos. The richer the community, the more rich, white, people you will see. Some of the notable characters are:

M.F: The guide for the game and undesignated advisor for the player. As the game progress, the guide for the game, M.F, will inform the player of the condition of the community. While he will make general observations about the outside state of the neighborhood, he will always bring the player a NPC that will state how they feel about the neighborhood. This won’t always be a simply “I like this or that” but more of, “I like this but I am concerned about how things are going.” I want the player to actually see how their choices affect the people in their neighborhood; there will come times when an elderly couple may ask the player to move the coffee shop farther from their house because they are nervous about driving in the traffic it brings. There will be characters who will oppose certain members moving into their neighborhood because they believe they will bring trouble.

The Mayor: The boss of the player, he is the one to give the player their promotion. He also pushes the player to bring in the most money from the neighborhood as he can. He can be persuaded to try to keep the original neighborhood in tack though if the player shows they can raise money without having to force poorer people out. Minor characters are the people that can move into the neighborhoods. They will be a mix of stereotypes and actually people. Mexicans

Gays

Rich People

White People

Black People

Story
The story will not be a huge factor in the game. The main driving force in the game will be the moral or economical choice the character makes. There will be characters that guide you throughout the game, The Mayor and M.F, who will advise

the player actions and brings NPC’s to the player to explain problems or ideas to the player.

Reflection
Dissoi Logoi
When I was young, I remember my father trying to buy a house for his family. There was a house about ten minutes from my home that he wanted to buy. He had the money, good credit, and good references, but the people refused to sell him the house. After a while, I realized why they would not sell my father the house. They wouldn’t sell my father the house because he was a black man, and they did not want a black man moving into their home. I still remember this because this problem has never died; people just stopped paying attention to it. This was one of the reasons I wanted to create a game like this, I wanted to bring awareness to a problem that people know about but stopped caring about. The second reason for creating this game was to demonstrate the conflict moral beliefs and economical belief. The player will choose between the two in their actions and how they want the community to change. Do you want to create an economically surplus in the game or do you want to create a better and safer neighborhood that is not a great money earner. This is something that people face on a daily basis, do I want to make a lot of money or do I want to follow my belief and keep my neighborhood as a safe, positive, place? Now, I don’t want my game to say that you can’t have both, that is why there is the option of Purgatory, but people do believe that money is important and that life is nothing without it. There is also the fact that people moral belief can cause them to reject outside change that could prove beneficial to a community. For example, a few years ago in Sumter County, there was news that a Dollar General wanted to open up a store in a back water area, meaning that people could buy items they needed without driving an hour into town. Now, some member of the community did not want the Dollar General because they believed it would change their community too much. In the end, the Dollar General decided not to move into the area, keeping the community intact, but losing a valuable resource. This is something I want players that play my game to experience, to work out their beliefs and try to find a middle ground with it. There is also the factor of how stereotypes affect how people are able to or unable to move into homes. There is the stereotype that black people will destroy their homes, Latinos will have twenty people living in one house, etc. I want this game to highlight how some people are given houses and the absurdity of these stereotypes and how difficult it is for some people to find homes in certain neighborhoods. That is not to say that some people do not live up to these stereotypes, but they make it difficult for people because they would not receive a fair interview to get a house. When it comes to gentrification, my game will invoke two different reactions in people. There are those who believe that gentrification will improve neighborhoods

making them a better place to live and removing those who cause problems. There is also the fact that the people who move are not necessarily bad people, they just have limited resources and can’t afford to stay in their homes. I personally believe that you should not force someone out of their home for monetary purposes, and that is what gentrification does. It kicks people out because they can’t afford to stay in their homes that they lived in for year. Yet, do you really want people living in unsuitable areas. For example, there was a town in South Carolina that was a horrible place to live. It was heavily underfunded, so much that it did not have an actual sewer system. The county asked the government to provide them with money to improve that town. That is a strong positive of gentrification, it provides towns, neighborhoods, and communities with the funds needed to improve them. My game will allow the player to choose how to do this, do they want to create a heaven society, which is nice and clean, by forcing the poor out into the ghettos aka hell? Each choice is theirs and even at the end of the day, what they believe is right or wrong won’t matter. I want the player to see if their choices will align with the right or wrongs of the people they are affecting or the person who can promote the character.

Composition
The game design differs from other compositions because there is an actual person making choices that is affecting a world. To me, it is far more interesting and encourages people to see how they would act in certain situations. There is also the fact that with games such as this, you can actually see the severity of these situations in a constrained area. Do you sell the land for the park to a company that will place a high price bookstore there or do you decline a company who wants to open a pharmacy store on an area that people relax and exercise in? These choices will help people understand how choices made by people in power affect those who live beneath them.

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