Toy - More In-Depth

For number seven, I did something simple.
I created an environment that players need to explore and find an item in. Once they find that item, the gate will open:

The story of this is sort of an "Indiana Jones" concept. You search for runes that are displayed on the wall. After collecting them all, the door opens. It's sorta based off of the old MAC/DOS game of Indiana Jones.
Once you open the door, you get a tomb full of gold. Yay!

More to come.

"TOY" or Mechanic Ideas - Game Design

Brainstorming time for potential mechanics!

1. Interchangeable Environment - Press a button and the environment around you changes. Could be super easy to incorporate this into a story. Top down, or third person would work best for this.
2. Shapeshifting - Player character or another enemy changes shape when you confront it or press a button.
3. Transform non-sentient items into sentient - Button you press/weapon that turns inanimate objects into minions that follow you. Most likely thinking of something like boulders or kitchen items.
4. Edible Weapon - A weapon you can use to attack, but also can consume when you run low on health. Once you consume, it's gone, though.
5. Enemies that change with environment - Change in lighting (i.e. spyro dark level enemies), change in water, change in lava, etc. etc.
6. Puzzle that requires using clues in the environment to solve - Arrange tiles in a certain way based on things that appear in the environment
7. Puzzle that requires searching for objects and then placing them - Ancient tomb or something that needs tablets to open with certain designs on them
8. Sighting - Finding hidden objects/seeing them and receiving points. In a large environment with many buildings, tiny animals or sculptures
9. + 10. - Spotlights/Climbable Assets - Tall assets to climb up with spotlights that, if you're caught in, you have to start over. Must make it to the top to win.

Craggy Valley - Multiplayer Level Overview

Craggy Valley PICTURE TO COME!

Craggy Valley takes place in... A Craggy valley. Lots of rocks, rugged terrain. There'll be lots of slopes and hills, giving players vantage points and disadvantage points. The focus of the level is a large hill with two flags atop it.
There are three main assets that make up this level: one tree (that'll steal from my biome), round rocks, and the flags.
There are also little fences, but those can come later/last.

Craggy Valley acts as a beginner level, or one of the easier, smaller multiplayer levels that would exist in a larger game. The Valley is a piece of land/territory that would give either team an extraordinary advantage in one of the upcoming larger battles. The two teams have a unplanned scrap in order to see who gets to claim the Valley for themselves and have the upper hand in the next fight.

Here's some real world reference!:

TF2 - Turbine Level Layout

Here's a level layout I created in part with the analysis I did!

Multiplayer FPS Analysis: Team Fortress 2 (CTF, Turbine)

Back again with a quick Analysis of TF2's Capture the Flag Level, Turbine!

Turbine was one of the first community-made levels to be officially published/released by Valve. Yay!

Team Fortress 2 is an obscenely popular multiplayer FPS available for all consoles, but was originally created, and preferably played, on the PC. The game is comprised of many different level styles, some created by Valve, and some created by the community. There are eight different types of games (capture the flag, king of the hill, payload, etc.) but today I'll be talking about this Capture the Flag level in particular.

When you choose a level, you pick a team: red or blu. After you pick a team, you pick from one of the three classes, which are categorized into offensive, defensive, and support. In Offensive, there is: the scout, the soldier, and the pyro, in Defensive there is: the demoman, the heavy, and the engineer, and in support, there is the medic, the sniper, and the spy. You pick based on whatever your particular favorite playstyle is.

First of all, TF2 has a very basic UI. You have a health meter (in the bottom left corner) and slightly above that is a chat box that allows you to communicate with other players. In the bottom center is the number of "intelligence", or flags, each team has captured. There are two teams; red and blu. The blue side indicates the number of intelligence "blu" has captured, and the red side indicates the number red has captured. In the right bottom corner is your ammo and other things related to your weapons. On the top is the amount of time allotted for the rest of the game.

You move around using the mouse to aim your camera and WASD to move around. Space is jump, left click is shoot. You can press 1, 2, or 3 to switch weapons, or use your scrollwheel. I figured it out pretty quickly, having not played TF2 in a while.

The goal of the turbine map is to basically capture the other team's "intelligence", or flag. In order to do so, you must run into the other base, run into their suitcase, and run back to your "intelligence" location, or base, to capture it. However, you must do all this without being blown up by the other team, which is difficult.

The turbine map in particular is very simple. Each side is the exact same as the other (no variations, like some maps have), with the same vantage points and large area in the middle. Most of the blood is shed in the center, when one of the other team tries to take a brave stand and run over to the other side (see me pictured above).

Besides this, the entryway to the center room is protected by a temporary door, which opens when you get close to it. This is probably to help keep players from being sniped/immediately shot at when they walk down the stairs. It gives the player temporary cover so they aren't blown up immediately; just shortly after.

Each side also has a small ventilation shaft to sneak through. Unfortunately, this makes you an easy target for spies (one of the nine classes you can pick from), which I died to more than a couple of times.

The vent has three entrances/exits, one of which is a drop down into the intelligence room, and is unenterable after you jump down, and the other two entrances are right into the large room, and one right outside the two player's starting areas.

Littered around the level are plenty of ammo boxes and health chocolate bars (and halloween boxes? not sure if seasonal), which can be used strategically while you're fighting in mid or needing a quick recovery.

If you run low on health or ammo at any point, you can also run straight back to the spawn spot, where there are several lockers that will restore your ammo and health back to maximum.

Stay classy!