Game Design Group 2 - Joe & Nancy

During this project phase, Joe and I fleshed out different components in the first draft of Mail Order Monster document, such as Monster Catalog and player locations, to complete the course of the game. Our goal was to design the ultimate customizable game experience, which includes character design and abilities, style in gameplay, and environment personalization, as well as emphasizing the duality of the imaginary and the real world (The Realm vs. Player Room).

Mail Order Monsters (draft#2)
Game Diagram



The user begins the game in the Player Room, where he or she can create monster costumes through the Monster Catalog. Using a transportation device, such as the chair or the bed, the player transforms into a monster who takes care of the Village inside the Realm (the world of imagination). In the Village, the player can take part in the primary mini-games, which are story-driven single-player games that help the villagers rebuild and improve the village, or the secondary mini-games, which are bonus games that pads the gameplay with extra fun! The player can also participate in RPG quest games given by the Village Elder, which ventures out into the Woods (explorable areas outside the Village) and eventually the Capital City. In the Capital City, players can join the Monster Parade to see the Monster looks, weapons, and accessories of other players, and participate in multi-player RPG or multi-player mini-games when they invite other players into their village.

Examples & Precedents:

* Puzzle Pirates is an online game where the player learns how to be a pirate through mini-games. We used the navigation map and panel design of this game as an example of how user interface will look like in The Realm.

The mini-games in Puzzle Pirates, such as "How to Carpent!" and "How to Sail!", are also great examples of our primary mini-games in The Village.


* Another game with great examples for our secondary mini-games is the online game Candy and Clyde


* We decided to use the battle style of Adventure Quest for the primary and secondary single-player RPG Quest games in the Woods.


* For the exploration areas, we took examples from the online mini-game Exile for its user exploration map, where parts of the map is revealed as the player discovers more areas.



Another style of gameplay is from Dragon Fable where the user navigates horizontally through the game locations without a map system.


* For the Capital City, we imagine the city depicted similar to the design and interface of the game Warbears


The inspiration for Monster Parade in the Capital City comes from the Wii game's Mii Parade, where different characters are displayed standing around in a wide screen or marching in the town square.


* The Club Penguin magazine found in different shop corners throughout the game is an example of the Monster Catalog, where the player can purchase special edition weapons, accessories, mini-games/village buildings, and etc...


The Monster Catalog will serve as a newsletter of special events or seasonal and holiday multi-player RPG that takes place in the Capital City. For example, Halloween hunted house adventures, similar to the what has been done in Club Penguin and Dragon Fable.


The Monster Catalog can even include the Monster creation tool.


* We would like the Monster Creation tool to be as flexible or customizable as the Mii creation tool.


For future development (Mail Order Monsters 2.0), the Monster creation tool or any weapon creation tool (for the purpose of User Generated Content) can be as open for personalization as the game creation tool in Drawn to Life a Nintendo DS game for players who like to draw and see their creations animated to life.