Designing Worlds to Build Characters

Hello! I'm pretty new here, but I was just hoping I could get some advice from experienced devs

I run a game design club at my high school and the goal is to make a full game in under a year. We've all decided to go with a story-based 2D side-scroller that all takes place in a dream.

Our main goal while designing the game is to make it so we can learn more about the protagonist and their struggles as the player moves through the dream. I thought including repeating items or having themed scenery would be a good idea, but I'm not entirely sure. Can anyone please point towards the right direction?

Thank you!

 

In my opinion, you should sit with a group, and brain storm through ideas.
Write down them all, and discuss each point for 5 or 10 min. No longer.
Then you will have narrowed concept, what you want.

Measure your team capability. And remember, you may end up only on 1/3, or less of the team interested, at the end of project.

 

That's good advice. Retaining team members is really hard, especially when homework and exams start piling up. Design a game that you think you can make in 2 months. In reality, it will end up taking you the whole schoolyear. This way you can actually get it done and polish it.

You have a good instinct to tell the story through scenery and items. Even when you have a strong story, games are very often an exploration of a place. Keep the features simple so you can focus on telling your story. Don't jump straight into the Unity editor. Take some time to sketch concept art. This will give your artists some skin in the game so they'll be more likely to want to see it through to the end. Don't let them spend too long making masterpieces; just rough sketches to capture ideas. Good luck, and have fun!

 

It's possible that you guys might pull it off.
Don't forget, that making games, requires a good bit of time and patience.
And just as TonyLi said, sketching characters and stages etc, is a good idea.

Also, to save alot of time, I would also suggest, going with a nice, yet almost
simple graphics style, for your game. "You can ignore this advice if you want."

I wish you good luck.