The Loft

#334
Nice Games Jam: "The Loft"
2023.12.08
A picture of a group of pigeons.

This week, the clubhouse becomes the birdhouse; we're talking pigeons! Dale created a prompt inspired by Ellen's activities as a child and she bombards your nice hosts with a TON of pigeon facts! We somehow designed a game out of it!

As a note, Ellen's was still recording remotely but the first 5 minutes she was recording on the wrong mic! We corrected it after those 5 minutes. 

Prompt
Create a game where you breed and raise pigeons
Game type
Design document
Setup

None yet! It's a game design doc.

Rules
  • Control a group of pigeons

    • Real time strategy racing game

    • Manage each bird by going to each bird, checking statuses and causing communication so pigeons can help each other get to the goal

    • Players can give stats bonuses to each individual bird

    • You as the player don’t know where the pigeons are going, you have to figure out where the pigeons’ goal is

    • Can be multiplayer

    • Swapping between each pigeon gives you information about that pigeons’ status

    • Players have a very vague idea of where to go at the start

    • When a predator appears, the player needs to outsmart the predator to escape and keep racing

      • Then the player is off course and needs to find their way back

    • Some races can be longer, where you need to find a place to rest for the night and have enough food

  • Game loop

    • You get a random selection of pigeons

    • Compete in a race

      • Start in a random place on the map

      • Pigeons know where they need to go but the player does not

      • Players need to deduce where the pigeons are going and make sure to lead all of them in the right direction

      • Players control each pigeon individually, moving a pigeon will influence the other pigeons but will not move fully in that direction. Players need to guide each pigeon to their goal as a group, but control them individually.

      • Control of pigeons is in third-person perspective, players need to jump between pigeons to see the whole view of the flock

      • There are areas on the map that the player will know about that can have more risk involved (like areas where predators will often be)

      • There can be some collectables around that the player can pick up with birds to get bonuses (more points? movespeed?)

    • When you complete the race, you can remove a pigeon from the racing group and add a new pigeon from a set of 3 randomly generated pigeons