Gaia gameplay

References for game design : farmville gameplay and sims gameplay

Macro Objective
The game takes place on the real web, where the player is contacted by a pro-environment NGO, active and influent on the internet, but that does not clearly reveal its objectives. The objective of the player is to learn more about the organization's objectives by gaining the trust of this organization through the accomplishment of missions.


 * What : Learn more about the organization
 * How : the player earns the trust through accomplishing missions and maintaining high the trust level gauje.
 * Path (macro-loop) :
 * The player grows within the organization by earning trust points
 * Trust points are earned by maintaining a high level for the trust gauge and accomplishing missions
 * When the trust reaches a new level, the organization provides new type of missions to the player.
 * the stucture is a sandbox, with storyline missions (GTA-style)

Abilities, Resources, Attributes, Ennemies

 * Abilities (actions) of the player :
 * take and accomplish a mission for the organization (equivalent to plow/plant/harvest in FV)
 * hack &amp; scan web sites (the names of these actions will be changed)
 * not yet implemented in gp loops :
 * (?) multi - help friends/ Exchange information with other players / Collaborate on missions with other players
 * monetization - buy money &amp; things that help to ease micromanagement: they can be related to points - you could either spend your points to get the upgrades that ease micromanagement (like in the Sims), or buy them with real money 
 * Items
 * Skills
 * Resources :
 * web sites
 * trust points
 * Attributes of the organization :
 * list of web sites owned
 * NGO trust level
 * NGO trust gauge
 * NGO departments and associated trust gauges (continuously decreasing, increases only when a related action is performed).
 * Ennemies :
 * Maybe another organization which aims at destroying all of the accomplishements of the organization the player is working for. Trilateral (see missions ideas).

Low level objectives (loops)
The low level loops are the basic mechanisms that let the player achieve direct objectives.

For each one, we describe at least 1) the loop, 2) the objective/challenge/reward, 3) and we give exemples when it's relevant.

Main loop - Missions

 * Objective/Challenge/Rewards :
 * obj = fulfill the objective of the mission
 * challenge =
 * meet the prerequisite of the mission : The trust must be at the necessary level for the mission to be available
 * perform the task for the mission - the challenge can vary according to the type of mission (see examples below). The player must come back after the organization has performed its part in order to accomplish the last step of the mission.
 * comparison with farm ville loop : the player launches the mission (equivalent to plow/plant), 2) the player waits for the organization to do its part (equivalent to waiting for the vegetable to grow), 3) the player does his part and ends the mission (equivalent to harvest).
 * reward = depending on the type of mission, it can be trust points, a control modifier and/or an increase in the trust domain corresponding to the action
 * Examples of missions :
 * see missions ideas
 * Steps of a mission :
 * The player selects a mission
 * The player discusses with the contact through the chat to get more info about the mission
 * The player waits for the contact/organization to complete its part of the mission
 * The player perform his part of the mission
 * Reward is given

Secondary loop - Hack web site



 * Objective/Challenge/Rewards :
 * obj = hack the web site
 * challenge = have enough hack points and luck in order to successfully hack
 * reward = successfully hacking a site is part of the success conditions of some missions

Other low level gameplay elements - to be classified

 * Multiplayer : we can base the current gameplay on cooperative features such as :
 * collaborative missions
 * exchange items between players
 * Stealing websites between players
 * For the moment, we can imagine that a website can be owned by as many players as necessary in order to simplify the gameplay related to missions.
 * But the scan feature, that was originally used when the gameplay mentioned that a web site can only be owned by one player, could be useful in our current gameplay if adapted a little bit.
 * for instance, scan could be part of the missions - The organization would ask the player to scan a web site and the scan feature would bring relevant information for the player if he succeeds the scan.

Mid-level objectives :
The mid-level loops are intermediate elements that give the player some mid term perspective.

NGO Trust gauge :

 * Objective/Challenge/Rewards :
 * obj = Maintain a high level in the NGO trust jauge
 * challenge = 1) accomplish missions related to each NGO department and 2) obtain the most positive awareness modifiers and the less negative awareness modifiers
 * reward = trust points


 * The trust gauge is influenced by temporary modifiers, positive and negative, created by the context
 * The trust gauje is influenced by the various NGO trusts departments gaujes. Each department requires to regularly perform related actions (small missions) - if a department gauje is well fullfilled, it creates a positive awareness modifier, if it is neglected it creates a negative modifier.

Increase the trust level :

 * Objective/Challenge/Rewards :
 * obj = Reach a certain number of trust points so that the player reaches a new step in the organization
 * challenge = accumulate enough trust points
 * reward = new type of missions available when level up

Context (macro-storyline)

 * TBD

Ennemies

 * we can use another organization which aims at destroying all of the accomplishements of the organization the player is working for
 * they can attack the web site of a player
 * they can feel provoked if a mission involves hacking/scanning a web site that they own, and then either make the action more difficult for the player, or even retaliate...

Learning curve

 * We should use the missions as much as possible to teach the player :
 * During the first minutes of gameplay, a few missions can teach the basic features of the game
 * Each time a new feature is introduced for the player, a mission could be in charge of explaining the feature and helping the player use it.

Pace of gaming

 * There are two possible ways of maintaining a pace of gaming at around 15-20mn per day (they can probably be merged into one) :
 * time necessary for a mission to be completed.
 * When a player accomplishes his part of a mission (for instance retrieve an information from a web site), we can imagine that the organization needs a few hours in order to perform other tasks and complete the mission.
 * number of hack points :
 * the limited number of hack points prevents the player from hacking too many web sites per day.

Supporting Means :

 * AD :
 * realistic context and interfaces (must be similar to the daily exp of the user on the web)
 * powerful environmental NGO -&gt; corporate web site
 * pictures of representants of each department of the NGO
 * contact interface/representation :
 * they could appear in the chat interface, with an icon representing them like in MSN - would be nice if it's animated
 * Accessibility :
 * Virality :