Constraints:
Team Project
We were just told to make a game on the historical battle of Panipat. With pre-decided teams consisting of three Game Designers, two programmers , three artists and five months to finish the project.
Given the fact that we had to focus on one historical instance, we wanted to set a few constraints for ourselves, make a 3D puzzle game and not make it just a battle simulator / war game.
Interpretation:
Game Plan
There were a few things we had to keep in mind, keeping the game historically accurate, making a 3D game within the given time, and focusing on more than the battle. So we started with a three stage plan - Research, Ideation, Production.
A little Extra
I was the Project Manager of this game and this was the largest team ever in our college history...literally. It was hard getting everyone to agree to the same idea and follow my vision and be excited for it. This turned out to be a smooth sail as everyone was extremely motivated to work on the project. We even got comments from teachers saying this was the best student game in Rubika's history.
Description
The First Battle of Panipat was fought between Babur and Ibrahim Lodi, paving the way for Mughal rule in India, 1526. Our game is set in the present on a grieving daughter searching for her fathers killer. The game is a series of back and forth scenarios where we draw parallels between Ananya our protagonist and Babur's life. The parallels range from physical situations to emotional trauma.
Conceptualization
During the pre-production period, we focused on only research and ideation. Focusing on any plot holes or empty spots in history to use it as the entry point for our creativity, as we did not want to falsely depict history in any way. We created a board with all our findings and research which we later on pulled from when the ideation started. Each member took a few research chits to come up with concepts out of which only one stuck.
P.S. - I'm the guy in the blue T-shirt.