Goals:

We are passionate about the player feedback we got on our tutorial we are striving to make a new concept with 2 major ideas in mind:

1) Compassion and not exploration/sandbox must take center stage

2) We need to communicate our game's mechanics and limits to increase accessibility/usability.

Starting Sequence:

At the start of the game, the player will "fall" down in a lander probe onto the first island. To get a better sense of what this will be like, refer to our storyboard concept:

1. The lander is seen going through the atmosphere in a cutscene through day 3 hour 0.
2. The lander hits a new fantastical starting island hard and breaks off blocks which fall taking out about 1/5 of the island (lots of blocks fall).
3. The island crystal called "Island Heart" or "IH" sends out a beam of light which slows the fall of the blocks and then holds them in stasis.

Starting Islands Concept Art

Please note: these images have none of the fantastical shapes of the islands. You should make the islands look fantastical. Also, the number of blocks falling should be 1/5 of the island.

The top of the island should be mostly flat to keep it easy to understand.

Intro to the new Jellies:

The Jellies are going to be rounded rectangles as per user feedback. They will start as an egg and become a full "jelly" only later.

At the start of their life, jellies will be tiny, helpless, useless, cute, and demanding like a baby. Jellies will progress to become as big as our original concepts, helpful, and totally independent.

Happy Jellies produce a little Jelly Dew Crystal when you fill their pressing needs, but they will produce a lot more passively if their happiness is high. When a jelly is ready to level up, it must be placed inside the Island Heart of its respective type (grass) to do so.

After-start:

1) The moment the lander hits the island, 2 bits of the lander should fly out and one should break an egg in front of the lander and the other should land on island 2 and be on fire.

2) Out from the egg should fall a tiny helpless Jelly (cutscene) and...

3) The blue/white drone should pop out of your lander and RUSH to the baby jelly making all sorts of concerned noises.

4) A blue-ish scanning beam should come out from the drone and highlight the creature.

5) Above the creature should appear the food request but show an image of the bush and not the berries.

6) The drone should then highlight JUST the berries (end cutscene here) on the berry bush and stay there until you harvest them.

7) Once you harvest them the drone should make a very happy sound, rush to the Jelly in a fun/comical way, and go back and highlight the jelly.

8) When you feed the Jelly it should produce 1x green glowing crystal-like Jelly Dew. It should look really special and have a particle effect so you really notice it.

9) The drone should highlight the Jelly Dew Crystal.

10) If you pick up the Jelly Dew Crystal then it should highlight the IslandHeart

11) If you feed the Island Heart it should drop a dirt block with a grass top.

12) The block should not be pickable but only this once. Rather the drone should steal it right away and bring it over to the 1-block gap between islands 1-2 and fill that gap. This shows you how to do it. From then on it should produce 1 grass block per Jelly Dew Crystal.

Introduction to the IslandHeart

You land at a very special time when light is blocked by an eclipse as seen by the Google Doc on the planet rotation. This eclipse is very short and we use it to make sure you see the highlights and fire in this tutorial.

The doc tells us that there are:

1 hour of darkness

8 hours of “ice” light (planet Saris). This is as bright as our day but more blue.

9 hours of sun -- brighter than our day.

These hours are very short with a whole day lasting 30 min. However, in our tutorial time passes based on events and not time passing.

During "ice" light there is a thick fog that hovers around each island which is physically pushed back and illuminated by the island heart. Pulses of light come out of the Island Heart, pushing back the fog. In the morning the fog mostly lifts but the build-range remains the same. There should be a little fog to indicate where you can and can't build.

Each island hovers due to the power of its Island Heart. When you give an Island Heart Jelly Dew Crystals they grow in power and are able to hold up more blocks. In practice, this means you can build further away from the IH without having the blocks fall. The goal of the fog is to show you how far you can build. There is flexibility in this concept if you have an idea of how to make this block placement limit really understandable.

Island 2

The moment the creature is fed, it needs warmth.

• The Jelly shows you a picture of ice/cold in its popup.
• The drone shows you a picture of a campfire and make's an "I have an idea!" noise.
• The drone goes to Island 2 and highlights the sticks on the new stick bush.
• The stick bush is like the berry bush and has a "sticks available" and "sticks removed" state.
• When you take the sticks from the bush the drone should make a happy sound and it should highlight the burning bit of your ship on Island 2.
• When you click on the fire with the stick in your hand it sets on fire.
• Don't allow people to change items in their hands yet. Hide that feature so they don't mess this up.
• Once done the jelly makes a happy sound and makes what looks to be a hologram of a campfire next to the jelly.
• Go up to the hologram and click to make a campfire.
• The jelly is now warm and produces some more Jelly Dew.
• The fire goes out right away.
• The drone shows you how to place blocks between islands 2-3
• The drone highlights stick bushes on...

Island 3

• Once you take 2-3 sticks it leads you back to the Jelly to make a bigger campfire. This campfire will last a few min. Once you make it the eclipse starts to end and the 2 moons begin to show themselves in the sky along with the bright sun.

Future:

With those basics set, I want you guys to use your creativity and freedom to work with some next steps. PLEASE make the game super understandable and accessible for people 3-70.

• The Jelly will become sleepy and indicate this via the same dialog system.
• The drone will teach you that Island 3's Island Heart gives your wood and not just dirt, the look of the IH will reflect this.

• Give it HoneyDue to get back minimal wood.

• The drone leads you back to island 1 to build a basic tool bench where you and instructed to make a hammer (making the hammer should take a 2 min wait in which you can do other things, the ideal is that working with the creature will speed this up later).
• Then drone will ask you to make a furniture bench using the hammer and wood and then craft a bed using the furniture bench for the Jelly.

How big do island hearts get?

You land at a very special time when light is blocked by an eclipse as seen by the Google Doc on the planet rotation. This eclipse is very short and we use it to make sure you see the highlights and fire in this tutorial.

The doc tells us that there are:

1 hour of darkness

8 hours of “ice” light (planet Saris). This is as bright as our day but more blue.

9 hours of sun -- brighter than our day.

These hours are very short with a whole day lasting 30 min. However, in our tutorial time passes based on events and not time passing.

During "ice" light there is a thick fog that hovers around each island which is physically pushed back and illuminated by the island heart. Pulses of light come out of the Island Heart pushing back the fog. In the morning the fog mostly lifts but the build-range remains the same. There should be a little fog to indicate where you can and can't build.

Each island hovers due to the power of its Island Heart. When you give a IH HoneyDue Crystals they grow in power and are able to hold up more blocks. In practice, this means you can build further away from the Island Heart without having the blocks fall. The goal of the fog is to show you how far you can build. There is flexibility in this concept if you have an idea of how to make this block placement limit really understandable.

Here is how the island heart functions:

When you give honeydew to the island heart the island heart grows physically in size. It also expands your build radius. It indicates this build radius by highlighting the line around the island using a light that comes out from the island's Island Heart itself.

When you feed the island heart it should actually glow a little bit and pulsate out to show the build radius growing.

When you expand your build radius the island heart signifies this expansion by pushing out the light from the center of itself to the build radius

Finally, when you find the correct jelly type to match the island heart type you place the jelly inside the island heart to upgrade it and therefore there will need to be a space within the island heart to allow you to do this.

There are many different types of Island Hearts, one for each type of Island. Right now you're only working with the forest biome Island Heart and not any of the other ones. However, there will be a stone Island heart, a magma Island heart, a desert island heart, and one for each biome in the game. This island heart can be composed of two different sections one is considered the island heart holder where you will place the jelly for it to level up. And the other part of it is the island heart itself which should float above the island heart holder.

 

Forest Island Heart Level-Up Pattern

Each level up,

Level 1:

1 grass jelly Jelly Dew (grassy dew) = 1 level up for forest island heart.

10 of all other types of honeydue = 3 grassydue = 1 level up.

Result: 3 more blocks of building room

Island Heart should also drop 10 blocks of grass on level up.

Level 2:

5 more grassy dew = level 2

Result: 3 more blocks of building room

Drops 10 blocks of grass.

Level 3:

10 = level 3

Result: 3 more blocks of building room

Drops 10 blocks of grass.

Level 4:

30 = level 4

Result: 3 more blocks of building room (12 total)

Drops 10 blocks of grass.

Level 5:

60 = level 5

Result: 3 more blocks of building room (15 total)

Drops 10 blocks of grass.

Level 6:

120 = level 6

Result: 3 more blocks of building room (20 total)

Drops 10 blocks of grass.

Level 7:

240 = level 7

Result: 5 more blocks of building room (30 total)

10 grass.

Level 8:

480 = level 8

Result: 20 more blocks of building room (50 total)

10 grass.

Level 9:

2000 = level 9

Result: 50 more blocks of building room (100 total)

10 grass.

Level 10:

3000 = level 10

Result: 50 more blocks of building room (150 total)

10 grass.

Level 11:

4000 = level 11

Result: 50 more blocks of building room (200 total)

10 grass.

Level 12:

5000 = level 12

Result: 200 more blocks of building room (400 total)

10 grass.