Planning your Schedule
Switching Projects
I'll be switching from the plan for a grid-based plant colony simulation game, as planned at the bottom of this page, to a First Person Shooter with the goal of maintaining a high enough light level while escaping a crypt. I'm doing this because I am a member of the game development club, and this is the project we are planning on making for that. Instead of focusing on two completely different projects at once, I am dropping one to focus entirely on the other. Hopefully, this will allow me to put work into a higher quality final project. Additionally, Unreal Engine 5 was not a very good fit for my original game plan, but it will work a lot better with a first person shooter.
Game Design Document
One Page GDD
Pitch and Overall Vision
This will be a first person shooter in which the player is stuck in a crypt underground and has the objective of escaping. However, they are also stuck in a time loop. Any time the light level gets so low that they can not see anything, time resets and the player is returned to the start of the run. They have the objective of escaping this crypt and the time loop within it. They will do this with a combination of combat with strange, alien-like enemies using a flashlight/blaster type weapon, puzzling with puzzles that incorporate elements of time and may take knowledge accumulated from multiple runs to solve, resource management of a limited supply of light/fuel, and a little bit of light platforming.
Genre
It fits primarily into the genre of a first person shooter because this is what makes up a big part of the gameplay loop. Secondarily, it will be puzzle game. The player will need to accumulate knowledge across runs and from different sections of the crypt to be able to solve puzzles in other areas. Some games that this game will be similar to are first person shooters like Doom or Ultrakill, games with time loops and puzzles like Outer Wilds, and dungeon crawlers like Enter the Gungeon.
Target Audience
The target audience is everybody 10+ because it is a project for school. Because of this, the game won't be very violent. We won't show blood and we won't use a real gun. Instead, there will be strange alien creatures that play into the elements of light vs shadow. For example, we could have ghostlike or robotic enemies. The game will use a light blaster/flashlight weapon instead of a real gun too. However, despite the intended audience being quite broad, puzzles and gameplay might be fairly difficult for young children, so although it is appropriate for 10+, it is primarily intended for teens and adults.
Core Gameplay Mechanics
The primary gameplay element will be the player's weapon. They will use a light blaster type weapon with a limited amount of fuel. This weapon can be used both to illuminate the environment of the crypt and prevent time from resetting and to fight enemies. However, using the weapon drains its fuel. Because of this, the player must strategically choose when to use the weapon to fight or when to conserve fuel to extend the amount of light they have. The fuel will also be replenishable though, and by finding fuel reserves or defeating certain types of enemies the player can refuel. The supply of fuel will allow for a maximum of about a minute without recharges, keeping the player on their toes at all times because if they aren't constantly refueling, they'll lose. Fuel will be dropped by certain enemy types, inside of crates/chests/jars, and will also be a reward for finishing some smaller puzzles.
This blaster will be used to fight enemies in addition to producing light. The weapon will have two attacks: a burst of projectiles that create a fairly wide spread, which is done by clicking, and an automatic spray of accurate projectiles, done by holding left click. Some ideas for possible enemy types are:
The time loop is another core gameplay mechanic. Any time the player cannot see anything (the screen is fully black or the light level is too low), the game will transition back to right after the player entered the crypt by fading from black. In order to prevent this from happening, the player will need to maintain at least a little bit of light. This could be light produced by their blaster's flashlight, light from bullets/projectiles, or even glowing things in the environment. For example, an enemy that emits light could also keep a run going so long as the player can see it. There may also be sort of checkpoints in the environment that, once activated by the player, emit light and allow for a small island of safety, giving the player some time to breath.
Another core gameplay mechanic will be puzzles. In this game, the primary means of progression will be knowledge-based progression. This means that as the player plays the game more and becomes more familiar with the crypt, they will be able to regain progress more easily after losing. One way that this will happen is with puzzles. Puzzles will be the same with every run, meaning they only have to be solved once, and can be cleared easily afterwards in subsequent runs. There can also be puzzles that effectively require multiple runs to solve. For example, maybe there is a gate that requires a passcode, but the passcode is so far from the gate that it would be too difficult to find the code and get to the gate within a single run. Instead, the player could find the code in one run, remember that knowledge, and solve the gate in a later run.
This blaster will be used to fight enemies in addition to producing light. The weapon will have two attacks: a burst of projectiles that create a fairly wide spread, which is done by clicking, and an automatic spray of accurate projectiles, done by holding left click. Some ideas for possible enemy types are:
- A small bug-like creature that crawls on the ground and inflicts small damage, but can be powerful in hordes. These would die in just one or two hits.
- A floating creature that only becomes visible when the player is not pointing their flashlight at it. When not being shone on, it becomes visible and emits some light of its own, so it is still possible to see it. However, even when invisible, it can still be killed by the player's bullets. This enemy would be fairly weak and die in around five hits.
- A bigger and tankier creature that sort of pounces. However, it would only reveal its weak spot when pouncing. When not pouncing, touching it does no damage to the player. The player can do very slight damage by attacking it while it is not vulnerable, but can defeat it fairly quickly when it is vulnerable.
- A more generic, zombie-like, type of enemy with medium health and medium attack power that walks towards the player. It alternates between glowing and not glowing every ~5 seconds.
The time loop is another core gameplay mechanic. Any time the player cannot see anything (the screen is fully black or the light level is too low), the game will transition back to right after the player entered the crypt by fading from black. In order to prevent this from happening, the player will need to maintain at least a little bit of light. This could be light produced by their blaster's flashlight, light from bullets/projectiles, or even glowing things in the environment. For example, an enemy that emits light could also keep a run going so long as the player can see it. There may also be sort of checkpoints in the environment that, once activated by the player, emit light and allow for a small island of safety, giving the player some time to breath.
Another core gameplay mechanic will be puzzles. In this game, the primary means of progression will be knowledge-based progression. This means that as the player plays the game more and becomes more familiar with the crypt, they will be able to regain progress more easily after losing. One way that this will happen is with puzzles. Puzzles will be the same with every run, meaning they only have to be solved once, and can be cleared easily afterwards in subsequent runs. There can also be puzzles that effectively require multiple runs to solve. For example, maybe there is a gate that requires a passcode, but the passcode is so far from the gate that it would be too difficult to find the code and get to the gate within a single run. Instead, the player could find the code in one run, remember that knowledge, and solve the gate in a later run.
Story and/or Characters
This game is not very story focused, but it does have a light story. It begins with the player entering the crypt in some way. Currently, the plan is either for their space ship to crash land into the side of the crypt, causing the player to get stuck, or for the player to enter the crypt with their group of other crypt raiders but get separated and stuck. Either way, the player will be isolated in an alien crypt after this, with the objective of escaping. The primary way of escaping will be to progress through the level until you reach the exit of the crypt, and also escape the time loop that way. If we have time, we may also add the option to kill the creature within the crypt that causes the time loop, and be able to escape that way. Once the player has escaped, the story ends.
Aesthetics
We will be using a fairly unique visual style. We plan on mixing a retro billboarded look for the enemies and object plus low poly models, with an Unreal Engine 5 scene with realistic lighting and effects. For the environment itself, we will use low poly 3d models with low resolution textures, in a style similar to that of the Playstation 2. For objects in the world, such as enemies or projectiles, we will billboard flat sprites to face the camera. This will create a strange visual clash not often used in games. As for colors, we will primarily use a mix of dark colors plus very bright, colorful colors, similar to the color style of an arcade game like pinball. This fits with the strange alien theme and also with the mechanics of light vs shadow.
Scope
The scope is really just as big as we are capable of achieving within the given amount of time. We hope to have at least five or six diverse enemy types with varying mechanics. We also hope to have a game that takes at least a few runs to complete, and should not be complete able on a player's very first run. We also hope that a complete run of the game should take about ten minutes. On top of this, we also want to have a relatively polished feeling game, and we'd rather prioritize quality over quantity. We do realize that this is quite ambitious overall though, so we'll be satisfied as long as we can accomplish most of this.
Everything Below This Point Is No Longer Relevant
[Garden Colony Sim] Pitch
Game Aesthetics
[Garden Colony Sim] Mood Board
- These are some of the types of colors that may be common and central to the designs of some plants.
- This is a more complete palette set including lots of earthy tones, while still having an overall vibrant feel. It is a good example of the types of colors I plan on using.
- This is a screenshot of the game Into The Breach, which uses a turn-based strategy type of gameplay. I may represent scenery and plants in my game similarly to how mountains, buildings, and robots are represented here.
- This is an image of a busy windowsill garden, containing lots of potted plants. It also has a a warm color scheme on the inside of the building and a cooler one with plants outside. .
- These are simplified vectorized representations of a large variety of potted plants. I may draw plants similarly to this in my game, though from a different perspective.
- This a a collection of simple and vectorized depictions of bugs, which is similar to how I may create bugs for my game.
- This is a screenshot of Stardew Valley, and the busy, vibrant interior of the greenhouse here is similar to the feel I want my game to have.
- This is a vector image of a person and their potted plants. I may aim for a similar interior garden feel, though from a more top-down perspective, and without any people.
- This shows complex calculated interactions between objects in the game on the grid, which is a feeling I want to be present in my game to an extent.
- This has a tiled grid of potted plants from a similar perspective to the one I will use, and has a warm, vibrant color scheme.
- This effectively captures the messy but clean indoor garden feel that I want my game to have.
Character Design
This character is a Potted Venus Flytrap. In the game, it will attack bugs in nearby areas. It is potted because I am currently planning on most plants being potted on a grid. Despite the flytraps only being on the front and sides, it will likely attack bugs in all directions equally. Additionally, despite the fact that I drew side and back views here, the character will probably only be visible from the front in the game
I also created a thumbnail for a dayflower, which as the name suggests, will not last very long. It will likely come and go within a few in game days/turns and have shorter effects. It is also potted for the same reason. Lastly, I created a thumbnail and rough sketch for the rattail cactus, which will likely ward off animals and many bugs who try to attack it. Additionally, it will be able to go without water for extended lengths of time, being a defensive and strong plant.
I also created a thumbnail for a dayflower, which as the name suggests, will not last very long. It will likely come and go within a few in game days/turns and have shorter effects. It is also potted for the same reason. Lastly, I created a thumbnail and rough sketch for the rattail cactus, which will likely ward off animals and many bugs who try to attack it. Additionally, it will be able to go without water for extended lengths of time, being a defensive and strong plant.
Storyline
Overview: The story in this game is not very structured, instead being based on a series of interactions that vary by playthrough. The game will begin with a small garden containing a few plants already in place and a colony or two of bugs inhabiting them. The player plays as the gardener, taking a godlike role in which they can influence the plants directly through planting, pulling, moving, watering, fertilizing, and more. The player will also be able to indirectly influence bugs in the garden by influencing plants, which will affect how the bugs behave, grow as a colony, or die out. Different bugs will also have different effects on the plants in the garden, creating in-depth interactions, both positive and negative. As the game plays out, they manage the garden strategically in order maximize some sort of point score determined by the health and quantity of both plants and bugs. The garden will eventually run into hazards such as fires, invasive plants and animals, lack of nutrients or water, or temperature. The player will have to manage the garden in order to keep it alive. Inevitably, the garden will collapse and die, and the game will end. This game is intended to be replayed in order to achieve a high score, and it not very story heavy.
Plants: There will be a large variety of plant types, each with varying effects on its surroundings. For example, the Venus flytrap will be hazardous to bugs but require a fairly large amount of food in order to stay alive. The dayflower will last for only a few days, as the name suggests, and will have support effects, boosting growth of other plants within a small radius. The rattail cactus will require fairly few nutrients and not very much water, but will fill a large area, and will be hazardous to attacks from larger animals in the garden. The rattail cactus will also be incredibly susceptible to fire due to its dryness. I will come up with more plant ideas with unique mechanics in the future, but these are the currently planned few.
Animals: Most animals in this game will be in the form of bugs. For example, honeybees will aid the growth of most flowers, but will require a large amount of resources in order to survive. Ants will eat plants, but they will also create mounds, disrupting planting in certain areas but boosting plant growth in areas around the mounds. Spiders will eat other bugs nearby them, and will require dense areas of plants to create webs and live. There will also be certain larger animals such as cats, which may attack plants or bugs, causing them damage. Mice or rats could also appear to eat other bugs.
Hazards: The player's garden will face difficulties in order to survive. For example, if an area gets dry and hot enough, it could be vulnerable to fires, which can spread and kill plants and bugs. Plants will also be harmed if the temperature gets outside of their range of comfort. Additionally, pests will pose a lot of risk to gardens. For example, if a colony of ants gets too big, it may begin to fully destroy plants around itself, eventually wiping itself out. Some other hazards may be lack of nutrients, high or low moisture, high or low temperatures, ice, strong rain, drought, pesticides, overpopulation, invasive animals or plants, and more.
Interactions: One element of the story that I want to promote as much as possible is amusing interactions between individual objects. For example, a mini narrative could emerge in a playthrough if a colony of ants prospers due to lots of positive interactions with plants, and then eventually becomes so big that it no longer has enough resources for survival, and wipes itself out. Or maybe, this colony of ants gets really big, which becomes a massive food source for spiders, so the spiders begin eating the ants, growing their own population, then eventually wiping both themselves and the ants out as they deplete their foods source. Small interactions such as these that are only apparent when a player pays attention to the small interactions can be very rewarding to see and come across, and can add amusement to a game that otherwise lacks a structured story.
Setting: The setting will be in an outdoor garden. In this setting, the garden will be susceptible to more environmental hazards and I will be able to include more elements of time in the game as the sun sets and rises. I initially planned on doing an indoor, maybe windowsill-type garden, however I ma shifting the an outdoor garden because of the restrictions an indoor garden entails in regard to the gameplay.
Reflection: Overall, the story in this game is not very structured because of the nature of the game. I want each run to be different and play out as determined by the actions the player makes. Additionally, there are lots of potential "characters" in the game because of the large amount of possible plants or bugs I want to be in the game, influencing the gameplay through various mechanics. The outdoor/nature setting of the game also fits well with a bunch of unexpected elements to the story in a playthrough. The intended gaming experience is that the story in any run will be slightly different in any given run. Different characters will be relevant in any run, and different elements will lead to the downfall of the garden each time. I also want every story to feel independent to the player, which is fitting with the elements of randomness.
Plants: There will be a large variety of plant types, each with varying effects on its surroundings. For example, the Venus flytrap will be hazardous to bugs but require a fairly large amount of food in order to stay alive. The dayflower will last for only a few days, as the name suggests, and will have support effects, boosting growth of other plants within a small radius. The rattail cactus will require fairly few nutrients and not very much water, but will fill a large area, and will be hazardous to attacks from larger animals in the garden. The rattail cactus will also be incredibly susceptible to fire due to its dryness. I will come up with more plant ideas with unique mechanics in the future, but these are the currently planned few.
Animals: Most animals in this game will be in the form of bugs. For example, honeybees will aid the growth of most flowers, but will require a large amount of resources in order to survive. Ants will eat plants, but they will also create mounds, disrupting planting in certain areas but boosting plant growth in areas around the mounds. Spiders will eat other bugs nearby them, and will require dense areas of plants to create webs and live. There will also be certain larger animals such as cats, which may attack plants or bugs, causing them damage. Mice or rats could also appear to eat other bugs.
Hazards: The player's garden will face difficulties in order to survive. For example, if an area gets dry and hot enough, it could be vulnerable to fires, which can spread and kill plants and bugs. Plants will also be harmed if the temperature gets outside of their range of comfort. Additionally, pests will pose a lot of risk to gardens. For example, if a colony of ants gets too big, it may begin to fully destroy plants around itself, eventually wiping itself out. Some other hazards may be lack of nutrients, high or low moisture, high or low temperatures, ice, strong rain, drought, pesticides, overpopulation, invasive animals or plants, and more.
Interactions: One element of the story that I want to promote as much as possible is amusing interactions between individual objects. For example, a mini narrative could emerge in a playthrough if a colony of ants prospers due to lots of positive interactions with plants, and then eventually becomes so big that it no longer has enough resources for survival, and wipes itself out. Or maybe, this colony of ants gets really big, which becomes a massive food source for spiders, so the spiders begin eating the ants, growing their own population, then eventually wiping both themselves and the ants out as they deplete their foods source. Small interactions such as these that are only apparent when a player pays attention to the small interactions can be very rewarding to see and come across, and can add amusement to a game that otherwise lacks a structured story.
Setting: The setting will be in an outdoor garden. In this setting, the garden will be susceptible to more environmental hazards and I will be able to include more elements of time in the game as the sun sets and rises. I initially planned on doing an indoor, maybe windowsill-type garden, however I ma shifting the an outdoor garden because of the restrictions an indoor garden entails in regard to the gameplay.
Reflection: Overall, the story in this game is not very structured because of the nature of the game. I want each run to be different and play out as determined by the actions the player makes. Additionally, there are lots of potential "characters" in the game because of the large amount of possible plants or bugs I want to be in the game, influencing the gameplay through various mechanics. The outdoor/nature setting of the game also fits well with a bunch of unexpected elements to the story in a playthrough. The intended gaming experience is that the story in any run will be slightly different in any given run. Different characters will be relevant in any run, and different elements will lead to the downfall of the garden each time. I also want every story to feel independent to the player, which is fitting with the elements of randomness.
Game Storyboard
1. Player begins the game with a garden with a few plants and bugs, and has a few items in their inventory.
2. Time passes in the garden and interactions between objects happen. Ex: flytrap eats ant, other ant goes in the hill, grass spreads, flower begins to grow.
3. Player begins using their items to manipulate the garden to promote its survival. Ex: planting seeds near the spider, fertilizing grass, watering the flower.
4. Steps 2 and 3 repeat, developing a more complex garden. Some things may kill each other off, others may do well a nd spread.
5. Eventually, something will happen to the garden, collapsing one element of it, leading to a domino effect that takes out most of the garden. Ex: the grass spreads a lot, but gets very dry, catches fire, and spreads throughout the garden.
6. With much of the garden burnt, the remaining things are no longer able to survive, and die off as well.
7. Garden dies, and player restarts.
2. Time passes in the garden and interactions between objects happen. Ex: flytrap eats ant, other ant goes in the hill, grass spreads, flower begins to grow.
3. Player begins using their items to manipulate the garden to promote its survival. Ex: planting seeds near the spider, fertilizing grass, watering the flower.
4. Steps 2 and 3 repeat, developing a more complex garden. Some things may kill each other off, others may do well a nd spread.
5. Eventually, something will happen to the garden, collapsing one element of it, leading to a domino effect that takes out most of the garden. Ex: the grass spreads a lot, but gets very dry, catches fire, and spreads throughout the garden.
6. With much of the garden burnt, the remaining things are no longer able to survive, and die off as well.
7. Garden dies, and player restarts.