Concept
Before the game was even made, we were set a few genre restrictions and for the design part my restriction was to create a strategy, simulation type of game. We came up with a few Idea but eventually we wanted to make a game based on a robbery simulation and one of our references came from a game on mobile called Robbery Bob.
Its a typical robbery game where a thief enters a house and steals thing then depending on your progress you will be awarded stars and move on to the next level.
This game concept was too generic to me. I then came up with the idea of "What is Mecha's perform robberies?" which immediately spark an idea in my mind about robbery in a high tech robot world where everything is based and themed around robots. As a huge mecha fan I love the customization part of a mecha game and in my opinion I think that is what pulls mecha fans to it, the customization!
Then I brought this idea to the team and they really liked it as it could be something really fun. This is where I stated to develop the flow of the game where the player starts off as a broke Robot trying to make a living but could not so his last option was to unfortunately rob other robots.
I also thought of there the items should be sold instead of it just vanishing into the void and can't be seen forever. I wanted it to feel more real and give the player the actual item they have stolen in which they can sell this item on the black market online for scrap where the prices will vary day by day so the player has to keep checking on the black market. With those scrap the player can buy augments and upgrade himself to increase their robbing efficiency.
Player's Mechanics
I wanted to keep the player's mechanic straightforward and simple to understand. The mechanics are similar to a robbery game with mechanics such as walking, running, picking up objects, interacting with items, hacking consoles and hiding.
Even though they are simple mechanics I wanted it to feel like its an actual robbery phase and that is where I added the sound radius that expands and grows bigger as the player carries more items in his backpack. This mechanic is further expanded by taking the current walking sound detection radius and doubling it if the player runs making them produce more sounds and making them to be cautions instead of just running around the house.
I also applied the same type of mechanic expansion to the hacking. When the player hacks a console he will produce a certain radius of sounds that will emit from that console and if the player misses an input they will be zapped and produce a bigger sound radius for a short moment before returning to the normal sound radius. This can make the player more anxious as they might not notice that the owner has detected them and is in pursuit of them or in some case even dying making them hit the skill checks better.
Players must also be aware of how much weight is each of the item which is represent through the amount of boxes highlighted on the inventory UI. A heavy item like a TV can sell for more but also takes up 3 slots out of 9 and produce more noise as you move about and the market might or might not have a demand for a TV which the player has to wait for a few days before selling. So, its a risk on weather to take the TV now and sell it for a high price when it comes up in the market or just grab the items that was listed on the market and sell it instantly.
Tutorial Design
In this game where there are so many things to learn like the sound radius, sight range, item slots, and owners its best not to tell the players but actually show them and make them perform the action which not only encourage play but also makes them remember much more easier visually through action than just text.
That is what I did for the tutorial where I provide the player with a short guiding text and force them to perform the action and when they have done it they can move on to the next level or they will die and respawn back at where they left off.
Full Tutorial Flow can be seen Here
When the game start the player will spawn in a totally isolated level to teach them about the basic mechanics such as movement, running, sneaking and hiding and when they are done with that they will be put in the first level where they will learn hacking and start their robbery right away. This can go either way if they die they will spawn back at the next location which is their home or if they are successful they will still spawn at their home.
At home there are 2 intractable objects the computer and the upgrade hangar which will tell the player about the upgrades, the market and also the level selection. The tutorial is divided this way to make the player understand information level by level starting with the actual robbery then moving on to the resting house part where its more slowed down.