Gears/Cogs

Another idea for the game! this time inspired by iPhone game Geared.

Instead of placing cogs and gears on screen as a puzzle game, could the player be inside the gears

running around and traversing between them?

Some quick sketches showing how the player may have to navigate between gears.

The world or stages could be made up of many connecting gears or various sizes. Progression would involve jumping between the gears to move along the level.

Different sized cogs or those with different gear ratio's would rotate at different speed, creating a varied challenge.

Cogs may also feature holes from which the player passes from one cog to another, should the player miss the jump or simply fall through the hole its game over.

Sections where stationary gears have to be activated/turned on to allow progress could also be used to add puzzle elements to game play.

Sketch showing how the rotating cog/gear would effect objects within them.

This world of cogs and gears would seem pretty out of place in a Sci-Fi setting and I feel it falls more into a steampunk style aesthetic, tying into a recent post by Gina.

Now imagine running around this!

Ideas

Year 2 of the Diploma if Games Development is now underway and the whole group will be working together to produce a single game by the end of the year.

So far the initial game concept revolves around a couple of main mechanics within a Sci-Fi setting. A constantly moving level/world where the player can fall off or down the level as it rotates/moves, as well as some form of grappling hook for navigating the

game.

Playing with simple slide puzzle gave me some inspiration!

A world make up of adjacent rooms all linked

together, with each room acting as a sort of level within game. Then with the entire world rotating around a central point. Rooms could also move around within the grid much like in the slide puzzle, perhaps even effected by gravity and sliding about with the cubes rotation.

The whole grid/cube idea reminded me of a film I saw a while back called Cube, set in a giant futuristic cube full of cube rooms each with access hatches to the adjacent cubes. Apparently some form of futuristic prison or death trap from which a group of people trapped inside try to survive and escape. Each room was a potential death trap and the group had to make like or death choices on which route to take and how to avoid death by the numerous traps. Mathematics played a part in how the group could find the correct route as each room had a number which helped the group decide if it would be safe to cross.

Some concept sketches and ideas on how the cube structure could be used, with each of the rooms acting as individual puzzles, or parts of a greater puzzle. Some initial thoughts on a character too, or at least what he may be carrying - Rope/Harness to tie in with the grapple mechanic.