Multiple people in one body room
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In our game there is a hub area where the players start and from there you can access 3 rooms. Each of those rooms has its own theme. I'm currently designing the second room, also known as the Multiple people in one body(MPOB) room. The idea behind the theme is to let the players experience what it's like to manipulate another "body" together with someone else, we'll do this in multiple different ways in the room.
Both players navigate the environment on top of a creature/object controlled by user 1. User 2 tries to keep them safe. Optional: sometimes user 2 has to step off the mount.
Is mounted on an animal/object that they can control the movement of.
Possible mounts:
Flying/swimming-like movement (fish, bird, ghost, etc.)
Horse like movement
Can sit on the back of the mount of player 1. Has to keep both players safe.
Possible options for that:
Uses magic to manipulate the environment (move walls, etc.)
Throws projectiles at threats
The users are both in the same body, user 1 controls the movement and user 2 controls the mouth. User 1 needs to move the body across the map and aim at certain objects/creatures for user 2 to interact with them.
Controls the position of the body. This user would mainly be focused on aiming the body the correct way so user 2 has an easier time hitting things. Can walk/teleport.
Controls the opening/closing of the mouth. Can also swallow or blow.
Things user 2 could do:
Swallow objects to store them
Shoot stored objects
Control how open/closed the mouth is
Grab objects with your tongue (like a frog)
Optional: eating certain things will affect the movement options of character 1.
User 2 has another perspective of view than user 1. Example:
Room experience is separated into 2 acts.
Players work together in separate bodies to manipulate a big entity. Either like a marionette or by interacting with the environment. The big entity needs to make it across the first stage for the players to be able to progress.
The players now get to inhabit the big entity's body together.
The users need to complete certain challenges. Kind of like a series of minigames where the clunkiness of working together in a body becomes visible. Examples could be:
Paint something together
Try to park a vehicle while both controlling certain parts
Make hamburgers while you both control only 1 hand and 1 leg.
After discussing the different concepts with the team we decided to go with concept 3. We liked the idea of having the users do multiple smaller tasks from concept 4, so I included that a little bit in the next design of the room.
Room experience is separated into 2 story acts. Act 1 focuses on freeing the marionette body. Act 2 starts when the players inhabit the marionette body and open the large door.
Players work together in separate bodies to manipulate a big entity. Either like a marionette or by interacting with the environment. The big entity needs to make it across the first stage for the players to be able to progress.
Big marionette-like body is suspended in the air
The players are unable to reach the marionette body, however they notice that they might need it to open a giant door/gate.
Players control the marionette body together using the strings that are attached to it.
The players need to maneuver the marionette past several obstacles together, so they can cut the strings from the marionette so it falls down.
The players are able to cut the strings.
The marionette falls down.
The players can together inhibit the marionette.
The players will need to get adjusted to the new movement.
They open the giant door.
Act 2 starts.
The main objective in act 2 will be moving together as a unit and clearing several obstacles while doing so. The players will have to seek out items as well. In the above image you can see a schematic overview of what the second act of the room currently looks like.
In act 2 the players get to move the marionette body directly, each player controls an arm and a leg.
The player can hold items and interact with items
Item concepts:
Scissors (1 player)
Pruning Shears (2 players)
Gate/door (2 players)
Stick (1 player)
Something to stick on the stick (1 player)
Balancing an object on a tray, for example a cake (2 players)
Weights (2 players)
Throwable item (1 player)
Objects that will shoot strings at the player to make them stuck. (Players will be familiar with this mechanic thanks to act 1).
Grabbing objects, players will have to grab objects both individually and together (if they are heavy). This will require coordination.
After I made the main concept and iterated a bit on it after getting feedback from the team I had a conversation with Laura (our lead artist) about the environment that the MPOB room would be in. She didn't feel like a garden would be a good fit for the style of our game and asked for several changes. I didn't disagree with her, the purpose of the map was meant to be a schematic overview of the mechanics. I only implemented a garden element to it, so it would be easier for others to grasp the different interactions. However she gave me some ideas on how to integrate the environment better with the mechanics. After we had the conversation I was curious how the room would be played by players so I decided to brown box it.
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Because the development of the echolocation room was a bit slower than we expected, we don't have the time to develop the MPOB room as I had previously designed.
We redesigned the room to be a simpler room with stationary bodies that can be used to grab objects and shoot/throw them. In the room will be a sort of river where balls and elastics will float around. Those can be shot/thrown at objects to color them the color of the ball/elastic. Spread throughout the room will be some of the bubbles that we previously made, when the bubble gets hit with a projectile it will pop and reform once it reaches the ground. In the center of the room is a rotating orb, we thought that it could be fun to shoot on a non stationary target, we chose for a rotating orb because it could be the center piece of the room, and all the users could reach every side of the orb, so they could create a piece of art together. It would be like a giant canvas.
While brainstorming for an activity for 2 people to do in 1 body, someone came up with the idea of shooting a bow with 2 people. While I didn't feel like a bow would be interesting for 2 people to handle, because it would be very awkward in handling arrows. I did think that shooting/aiming something together was a good idea. So that's when I came up with the following concept:
Each user controlls one hand, between both hands is a magical line that grows or shrinks depending on the distance between the hands. When one of the hands lets go of the line, the line will shoot away in the direction of the opposing hand. Here's an image to demonstrate it:
When you make a shooting mechanic, you obviously need something to shoot on. Our first thoughts were to shoot on targets. Targets could either be a stationary object like a dart bord, or moving targets. After that we thought about a scoring system for hitting the targets, but then something dawned on us. Wouldn't that be a bit of a waste of our mechanic?
There are already dozens of standard arrow practice games on the market, while they don't control the archer with 2 people it would be a bit of a waste to do design our room based on such an oversaturated genre. Luckily Anouk came up with a pretty good concept: What if we shot paint at objects in the scene?
So that's what we end with, an experience where 2 users can pick up elastics in varying colors and then shoot them together to paint the room around them.
