Wildlife - A Game Concept

Anyone who has worked in the games industry for a while will have a number of games they have worked on that didn't make it to market for numerous reasons. I have a number, and will discuss some here on the blog. The first is a game called Wildlife that I worked on whilst at Cohot Studios.

I first started thinking about Wildlife many years ago, whilst I was working at Lost Toys. I was looking out the garden one day from my little basement flat in Guildford, and watching a squirrel torment next doors cat. It was fascinating to watch, the speed and cheek of the squirrel and the pure acrobatic ability got me thinking. I grew up watching wildlife documentaries, and they are something I still take great pleasure in especially with the advent of Blu Ray. They are both entertaining and informative at the same time, and I really feel there is a place for games that are not just about homoerotic space marines thrusting chainsaws into each other, if you'll excuse the sarcasm. (Disclaimer: not that there's anything really wrong with a bit of space marine action, I enjoy shooting the occasional rocket into people same as the next guy) My commercial reasoning is that natural history is a relatively untapped market segment, and there's an opportunity to create something genre defining, especially as the 'gamer' demographic widens. Wildlife is/was intended to be a 3rd person Action Adventure series of games, where the player experiences life through the eyes of different animals from their perspective, and simply has to survive. Adventures take place in interesting time periods and locations such as Britain during the industrial revolution or the American West during the gold rush. It's entertainment 1st with educational value. There's probably an influence there with climbing buildings from my earlier work on Feral at Lost Toys, I love the idea of being able to climb up walls and run along roof tops, like a super hero but without the need for wearing spandex. Here's an example of Red Squirrel features:

• Play as a squirrel and experience their story of 'survival'

• Perform acrobatics, climb buildings and trees, run along roof tops, jump large gaps with natural super hero like abilities

• Simulated ecosystem where animals and humans interact, that also reacts to what the player does

• Avoid natural predators, unfriendly humans and environmental hazards like steam trains

• Compete for food resources with other animals, steal food from humans and survive natures seasons

• Player directed by Narrator voice over

• Social network integration with asynchronous and synchronous online play.

The game progression in Wildlife would be a typical Heroes Journey, where the animals are the heroes that have to overcome the odds to survive. Whether they are lone heroes, or heroes that lead a pack, the player will be sent on a journey through the natural world and history. The basis for every journey will be from nature itself, so the lifecycle of the animal for example. On top of this factual background will be placed an Action Adventure treatment, so a squirrel going to get food from a specific location, will be treated like Indiana Jones trying to retrieve a piece of treasure, all done with a firm foot in reality. Real world gains One of the main aspects that really interested me with Wildlife was the potential to create a title with educational value that could create real world gains. I first started describing the game as 'edutainment' but thats not really a great description. The thing that really interested me was creating an entertaining experience that produced benefits in the real world, so instead of just trophies the player would consciously and subconciously learn about nature, animals and history and therefore take away something from the game that wasn't superficial. I took this thought process further and thought it would be great to incorporate this into a gamification of a natural history course, as it would be a great way to educate in an entertaining way. This starts to verge of what would be described as serious games but the emphasis would always be on creating an entertaining experience first.