Inspiration

Inspired by the movie of The Hobbit and the game of WOW, I was enwrapped by the fascinating tale and rich races design. With the increasing popularity of sandbox games (e.g. Minecraft) and AR technology (e.g. Pokemon Go based on real locations), I wonder if I design a game that let players roam and change a virtual world. Based on the features of sandbox (such as structural, accessible and creative), I have an idea about developing the W-World.

Gameplay

It is an RPG nonlinear gameplay, which allows players to build a new virtual world in terms of their true life locations. Players will redefine its surrounding environment. (E.g. When they go to a cafe, they might enter a tavern on game map.) Players can view the distance of other players and interact with them.

Workflow

After resarch, I have identified the following UX goals:

In early stage

Players focus on design their own home/interior map.
Players needs to collect resources in order to develop their home.
There are plenty of lands can be explored because the world map has been thoroughly developed.

In middle stage

The number of players is increasing.
The first design of interior map was finished. Players need explore more lands for extending and developing their territory.
Players are able to join a union according to their races. They should contribute with their union and develop it together.

In late stage

The external world map is almost completely developed.
Players can launch a competitive war between unions for resources raid.
Players can challenge instance zones as a group.

Storyline

Once upon a time, the world was destroyed by demons. People did not give up and they were trying to rebuild their homeland. In order to fright against demons, people from different races formed alliances. They build castles, made weapons and enhance their abilities for defending the next attack from demons. However, when the rebuilding was almost accomplished, demons coveted the treasures in the newly built world. Thus, they invaded again. This time, demons bewitch people. People’s union was divided as some of them decided to desert themselves to the demons. The world was remained riven by internal strife and lacerated by external aggression. The greater threat is coming soon...

3D Modeling

Both characters and item entities in 3D vesion.

Elves
(character)

Mermaid
(character)

Beer
(entity)

Barrels
(entity)

Character Design

In the beginning, players are allowed to create their role and custom the appearance.There are 6 race options to players, including elves, mermaid, vampire, werewolf, human and magi. Each race not only provides unique the outlook and decoration but also contains different skills and characteristics. For instance, elves and human have wisdom. Mermaid and magi are good at using magic (high attack with long distance). The vampire has high speed and regeneration ability (HP healing). Werewolf has super strength (senior defense).

NPCs are also designed in the game, such as ghost and dragon. Players are able to attack them to earn resources such as exp., coins and equipment. In addition, if players defeat NPCs, they can choose to feed them as a digital pet or mount.

External World/Augmented Reality

Players' movement will be located according to their actual position. Players are able to view and interact other contiguous players. Additionally, the location of buildings in the real world is replaced by buildings which created by players in the game.

Interior Map

There are 4 basic types of interior map including castle (game union platform), tavern (social interaction place), blacksmith (weapon market) and lumber mill (building material market). Players can enter Interior map from the external world. Also, they can create and operate one building to earn benefits and resources.

Union War System/Instance Zones

There are 2 battle systems in W-World. For union war, one header of union can challenge other unions. After the challenge has been accepted by opponent header, the members in both unions can participate in fighting. For instance zones, the game offers some zones at special locations, player can battle with the NPC and BOSS as a group.

Design & Edit Your Home

Players are allow to set the usage and type of their home/territory and customize its outlook. Also, they can plunder the other players' land by battle or explore undeveloped area in order to extend own territory.

Development

This game developed by our team. In the studio-based development process, we also used GitLab as the version control platform to share, manage and achieve integrated optimization our design artwork and code resources. Additionally, we used Java with LibGDX as SDK and Google Map API to provide map services.

W-World