August Wind
A Game Design Bachelors project
Short Description
August Wind is a Bachelors project in game design which is a tiny top down airplane sandbox all about the season of cloudeels coming from the below.
Full Name: August Wind - The Season of Dreams and Cloudeels
Made By: Full Color Planet
Made For: Full Color Planet
Platforms: PC, Mac
Roles in Project: Everything except Music
Background
In 2009 it was time to decide on a project as a Bachelors thesis for the Game Design study. It was the first time students were unleashed to chase their dream. August Wind is an airplane sandbox, where a young daring pirate visits the town of Eelhaven VII during the season of Cloudeels.
Gameplay
Every day, players start from Eelhaven VII to find and harvest precious metal from “the below” from the fur of the majestic cloudeel that breaches the cloudlayer somewhere in the vicinity of Eelhaven VII. While you wait you can compete in races, go and fight pirates, upgrade your plane or chat with your fellow Eelhunters.
In its final state after 4 months of work, the game was far from finished but a small demo of which a narrative and progression could be built upon.
Design
The main goal of August Wind was to build a small narrative world and a sandbox with activities which reward players for different play-styles. So a lot of time was spent to build small gameplay activities like a basic racing mechanic, an AI battle mechanic and a shop for airplane customization with stats.