About Mayor Mayhem
Mayor Mayhem is a gamified web-based simulation tool which aims to intrigue children and teens with the prospect of democratic participation. By placing players in a position of power, they envelop themselves with a role of responsibility, in which they must make decisions which impact numerous variables in the lives of their citizens. As the game progresses, the player will implement new local laws, with the aid of two advisors that can try and predict the outcome of each action. The consequences won’t fully reveal themselves until an action has occurred.
The original concept for this game is based on a sophisticated mathematical theory which allows for the simulation of a population driven by various political interests, as well as personal variables such as health, status, wealth and education. Mayor Mayhem also incorporates an innovative AI system which is able to mediate conflict and identify stable coalitions as well as fair and balanced outcomes.
Gameplay is randomised, meaning each playthrough will be different from the last. This is made possible through the generation of unique and random events that the player will have to respond to accordingly. One player may have to delicately traverse a prominent issue regarding their town’s local environmental status, whereas the next player may have to try and tackle a wealth disparity amongst their simulated population.
Mayor Mayhem has been funded by The University of Southampton.
Gallery
Below you will find a gallery showing some screenshots of the final game setting, as well as progress pictures too.
My role in Mayor Mayhem.
Over the course of this short project, my main role was the art direction of the game. I was in charge of choosing a style that would suit the target demographic, after which I had to create the backdrops for the game. Although this was my main role, I was also involved discussions concerning the gameplay in which numerous ideas were generated. During this time, I was able to research and look into similar type products, which led to me pitching the idea of multiple advisors that could have their own motive and political leaning.
Art Direction & Asset Creation
Mayor Mayhems art direction needed to be simple as to not draw too much attention away from the screen overlay, although it also needed to be visually striking enough so that when it changed it, the passage of time could be visually seen. Although the game could be set at any time or place, I thought a realistic depiction of a progressive, modern office would be the best setting for this game. The setting of the game is an office interior, that I tried to fill with as many interesting items that could convey some form of character.
A feature within the game that I came up with was that the players rating whilst in office would impact the background. If they were performing well and had the majority of support from their voters, this would be reflected in the scene. The lighting would be warmer, flowers and thank you cards could be seen across the room, and any rubbish would have been cleaned away. If the player is performing poorly or they had caused any major issues whilst in office, then this would be reflected too. The lighting would be cold and cast a blue tint across the room, the lights would flicker and occasionally go out, rubbish would be piling up in the room as if the cleaners on strike, and the laptop would occasionally switch to a blue screen of death. This can be seen above, the two centre pictures in the gallery show this off, the top shows a poor playthrough, the bottom shows a successful one.
Animations
In game, the player makes a handful of big decisions regarding their town using information given by their advisors. After making these decisions the game skips forward a month to see how those decisions have had a lasting effect on the community. As this time is skipped, a transition animation plays that shows the impact of these changes, which are reflected in the look of the players office. These transition animations show assistants and colleagues bringing in new items, or taking items away over the course of this time skip, dependent on the actions the player just made. The first video on the right is an example of an end of month transition animation; in this example the player has ended the month on a high, and as such is being delivered presents, thank you cards, and new office decorations to show their success.
Besides transition animations at the end of each month, I also created looping background animations that play on repeat behind the UI overlay whilst the player is making decisions. The second animation on the right shows an example of a looping background animation. The next animation is a looping background animation that would play whilst they make decisions during a month of high success whilst in office. Everything is running smoothly, and a fresh breeze is moving through the office.
In contrast, the last looping animation shows what would play on repeat during a month where the player is currently performing poorly. Due to their poor performance in office, the power keeps having minor outages which is impacting the AC and the lights, the equipment in office is malfunctioning and rubbish has piled up in the background too.
These animations were made in blender, then rendered and used in game. Although all of the visuals are of 3D scenes the whole game uses rendered looping videos. This was decided to lower the apps size; instead of needing users to live-render a scene .mp4 videos would be looping as a backdrop instead.
Current State of Mayor Mayhem
Currently Mayor Mayhem is in-between funding. We initially were able to secure a small grant to create a prototype, but there is still so much more that we are wanting to add to the game before an official release. Although other major projects have taken the spotlight within our company, we are all still collectively trying to source an appropriate grant that would fit this game perfectly and allow us to finish it.