Optometry

Created with Joshua Rosen

CURRENT PROTOTYPE: You may have heard the term “Seeing the world through the eyes of someone else”. What if we could portray this in the form of a game? In Optometry, explore an evolving overworld that changes depending on what kind of glasses you are wearing. Furthermore, encounter emotional enemies that require different lenses and perspectives to take down in an RPG-style battle system. Whether you “kill them with kindness” or beat them up in a fit of rage, learning some new perspectives may help you utilize new abilities in your toolkit moving forward.

Game Loops:

• Explore an overworld brimming with mysteries unseen by the naked eye and use different glasses to adapt and solve puzzles throughout
• Encounter enemies that you can defeat with either sheer force or emotional wit, whichever one prefers!
• Overcome adaptive bite-sized minigame challenges to sway your foes, rather than just beating them senseless

Created in cooperation with Adrian Kum, who implemented combat design and the UI built around it.

ORIGINAL PITCH: Inspired by the unique fighting mechanics of Undertale and the fun world of Earthbound, take hold of a milquetoast protagonist who sees the world as any other would, until they find a pair of glasses on the side of the road that give them a glimpse into the demise of the world. Approaching many enemies, taking form as monsters, people, or invisible aliens will require more than brute force to conquer your foe. Maybe taking on a different perspective will help you progress?

Gameplay Loops: - Explore an overworld filled with random enemy encounters and puzzles to solve, while discovering new glasses to utilize in your journey.

- Engaging in battle with enemies can be approached from many ways, but the most effective is to exploit the weakness of your foe and neutralize them rather than kill them. Victory awards items, glasses, or helps satisfy an invisible ending condition.

- Switch between different glasses to change the perspective of the world, or to transform battle constraints to give an edge on the competition.

Reflection: 

Is it representative of the core loop you wanted?: I think that we were able to represent the core loop/loops that we initially set out to represent. 

Did it give you an answer to the question you posed, and if so, what is the answer?: I also think that we were able to answer both of the questions that we posed, regarding both of the sections of the game. The integration between the overworld and combat was interesting/engaging. However, as the demo is now, the "appease" section of combat feels more engaging than the typical combat, which was not the goal. 

How would you change it, if at all?: Balancing the interest between the two would likely be the most important change. If there were some different return/reward for killing enemies rather than appeasing, it could make it slightly more appealing to some players, however given the fact that the game naturally has two different routes/playstyles, it might be fine to have the two be completely separate. 

Where would you take the idea next?: I think that it could be interesting to expand the game more, particularly with the glasses. Finding a way to work more into the game, and to also further integrate the glasses/make them more interesting to play with in some way could be a good avenue (for example, giving some drawback to constant switching, or making the "emotion" aspect have a bit more context/"realism" within the game).