Snapback Mechanic Design

The design process for making Snapback was an odd one. As a student team we were given some parameters and limitations to develop a game for our capstone project, some of these being; don't start development until the first day of class, there will be a theme you have to adhere to, all work has to be made by students (with some caveats like sfx). With these in mind as the teams game designer, I set to work on creating an idea that would adhere to these themes. 

My main challenge, theme adherence. The theme we have to stick to is "Breaking the Rules", as the designer I asked myself several things as I approached this.

• How do I break the rules?
• Can I turn breaking the rules into a mechanic?
• How complicated of a design can I make and feasibly execute within 8 weeks?
• What kind of feel do I want this game to have?

These questions weren't the only ones I had to take into consideration, but they were some of the most pressing. The first two questions are tied together to some degree which made it both easier and harder to come up with a solution. I came up with the idea of the "Snapback" mechanic by taking the core concept of a teleport and breaking it. 

I started by defining how teleportation works in most games and breaking it. To do this I asked myself some questions and came up with solutions.

• What would happen if you could only teleport to where you could see?
• What would happen if after teleporting you were teleported back to where you initially teleported from after a period of time? 
• What would happen if instead of teleporting, you physically moved through space back to where you teleported from?

The answers to these questions led to the birth of the key mechanics of Snapback. 

Teleport - Teleport functions as you imagine, only to where the player can see (this does allow the player to teleport through objects like windows).

Snapback - A recall that, after a period of time, moves the player through space back to where they teleported from. 

These two mechanics alone introduced a lot of interesting interactions, and it created the possibility of the player colliding with every object along the way. Whether this be enemies, walls, windows, etc. 

Some of the other key features I wanted to add was the option for replay-ability, as this game is going to be a vertical slice I wanted to showcase what the game could be; this included a tier ranking system that would allow the player to get a high score that challenged them to replay levels and get more points to get a new tier. This tier system uses a simple formula to create a score.

 Score = 2000/log(time)+(additive points)-(Subtractive points)

The additive points are things like breakable objects, achievements, and hidden pickups. The subtractive points can be damage taken, amount of attempts on the current level, deaths on the current attempt, and bad Snapbacks where the player collides with things on their way back.

One of the secondary features I designed to function around the Snapback and Tier system is a Time Extension Charge, this pickup would allow the player to break the charge for points or pick it up to extend the current Snapback timer. This would allow the player to have unique playstyles and try to complete levels in different ways per attempt.

Once I had core mechanics in mind, I decided to add theme adherence that would also come from worldbuilding and environmental storytelling. The idea being, if we don't have time to tell the player a story or let them experience an entire game, then I can let the level and the world tell the story for us. Thus spawned the concept of GovCorp, a dystopian human authoritarian regime that controls all companies and monitors all its citizens, to go against GovCorp is to go against everything. You as the player are a Robotic Citizen that is given the opportunity to resist and rise up against your human overlords, one mission at a time. The story would involve the player breaking the rules in each level as they steal, destroy, and defy the laws of GovCorp.

GCRL Code 1.7.503.11 Good Citizens are loyal to GovCorp.

GCRL Code 4.9.622.82 All property is GovCorp property.

GCRL Code 1.3.686.19 Freedom is Anarchy, Restrictions are Right.

GCRL Code 6.4.878.50 Rights are earned by good citizens.

GCRL Code 3.5.732.00 Theft of property is theft against GovCorp, punishable by termination.

GCRL Code 9.1.104.10 The only good Government is GovCorp.