Mumbler

On Tuesday we heard the top 11 pitches in class. Out of the presentations given, my favorites were:

• Evolve and Escape - A 2D puzzle/platformer with short sections that require experimentation, restarting and evolving to complete. It’s Super Meatboy meets Pokemon meets Groundhog Day. In particular I liked the idea that controller inputs would be decided by the player, based on what they pressed to perform actions.

• Melter Man - A 2D Platformer in which the main character has a device that can melt the environment, suck up the remnants and build new terrain or objects from it.  In order to overcome hazards, the player must creatively alter the environment to make new pathways, or create objects from melted terrain in order to battle enemies.

• Switch - A first person shooter where you, the player, control a gun with the ability to switch places with another person, or movable object. This one seemed similar to portal in a way, but I love the mechanic idea.

My other favorite pitch was Mumble, which is the team I was assigned to. In the game, a boy (the player) seeks to remedy a village of sadness and mumbling. By helping people (retrieving objects, answering questions, etc), the village becomes brighter, sounds are more cheerful, and everyone around the player gains their sanity.

The team consists of:

• One producer - Chad Burgoyne
• I had never met him before, but he has an awesome goatee.
• One designer - Mitchell
• He pitched the game and I've talked to him a few times.
• Three artists - Alexa Ulmer, Kevin Anderson, and Cory Stivers
• I've talked to Alexa before, but had never met the other two.
• Two programmers - Mike Willson and me
• Mike is a friend of mine. We worked together in a serious game development class and machinima. He's a devoted, talented programmer. I'm happy to work with him for a third time.

An image from Mitchell's pitch document:

The game is strongly story-based right now, but I like the direction we could take with the art style and feeling of the game. We are working on exploring ways to make it fun. We talked about having a healing power that the player could use. I'm sure more will be decided by next week's post. Until then, happy gaming!