Parchment
Overview
Essence Statement / Core Concept
Elevator pitch (really short summary) of the game
Parchment is a
vertical platform game based on the concept of spiritual enlightenment. Players have to interchange between the physical
and spiritual environment to progress up the platforms and reach the end.
However players must be careful not to stay in the spiritual world for too long
or they may become trapped there for good. The main character is portrayed as a monk who is searching for enlightenment and it is the players job to enable the character to do this using the gameplay provided.
Gameplay Promise / Key Features
What is the core gameplay mechanic?
The core
gameplay mechanic is the switching between the physical and spiritual
environments. In changing the
image/environment this fits closely with the concept of the brief: morph. Players
will need to work out what path to take and learn to take risks in order to get
to the next stages.
What are the secondary mechanics?
The first
secondary mechanic is that of the time limit on the spiritual state which will
challenge players to make decisions fast, and to learn from their previous
mistakes. As well as this a point
scoring system will be used to encourage replay, based on the time taken to
complete a level. There may also be a
collection/pick-up based incentive to give more purpose to the player in
playing the game. Another key mechanic is
the enlightenment element in the game.
The player will be chasing after the ‘ultimate enlightenment’ object
giving then purpose to continue through the game.
What makes it fun?
The elements of
risk and strategy will be important in making this game fun. Players will need to engage with the
environment, ahead of their character, and will need to devise solutions to
problems within the environment based on the information they receive. As the game progresses the routes will become
harder, ensuring that the difficulty/skill level is correct, this will help to
add challenge.
Technology Requirements
What technologies will the game use?
Include
specific software / hardware / programming languages
Any
other custom hardware outline here
The game will
use the Flixel game engine which is built using Flash Actionscript to work as
the basis on which the game can be developed.
Flixel will be used inside Flash Builder, a Flash and Actionscript
software which will be used as the IDE for this game. In being built using Flash and Actionscript 3
the game will run on a computer with Flash Player 11 installed and the
interaction of gaming will also require a keyboard and mouse. Speakers or
headphones will be required for the audio.
The brief also requires the game be housed in a webpage and so the
player will also require an internet connection and browser. As well as code based development software
including Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator will be used for the design
development.
Gameplay &
Mechanics
Primary Mechanic
Detailed description of the primary gameplay
mechanics, unknown elements, how you will test it
The primary
mechanic of Parchment is to swap between two worlds, the physical world, and
the spiritual world in order to progress up the platforms and reach the
end. In order to do this the player will
press a key on the keyboard to trigger the switch from one to another. In order for this to be an achievable game
there are three different types of floor block, spiritual, physical and
‘safe’. The safe floor type will exist
in both worlds to give the player an idea of the next place they have to reach
in the level that will be ultimately safe, and from which they can work out
what to do next. This main mechanic we have already tested slightly by use of
our quick prototype. This test proved
that there are interesting aspects to the mechanic which we will be able to use
to make the game engaging and challenging to the player.
The main unknown
element with this mechanic is the complexity to which we can take the levels,
purely based on blocks. It is possible
to add other more dynamic elements in to counter balance this.
Secondary Mechanic 1
Detailed description of the secondary gameplay
mechanics, unknown elements, how you will test it
The first
secondary mechanic used is the time limit on the spiritual world. The spiritual
world has a limited time applied to it which will force players to work fast
and also to take risks on level sections they have not been to before. This
mechanic is relatively basic, but hopefully will provide challenge within the
gameplay. The amount of time required
for the spiritual world limit will have to be tested to ensure that it is at a
viable length for the challenges provided by the platforms. It may even be required to make the time
limit variable depending on where a player is within the level system. We will be able to test this by creating the
game level that we design for our product and then getting people to play it to
determine what is a fair time span.
Secondary Mechanic 2
Detailed description of the secondary gameplay
mechanics, unknown elements, how you will test it
The secondary
mechanic will consist of the chasing aspect of the game. There will be an enlightenment element in
front of the character which will move along a path to direct the player to
where they have to go. This will
encourage the player to play as they have an on screen incentive that urges
them to continue. This will also help us
to build on the achievement aspect of the game, as the final part of the game
in which the player manages to retrieve the enlightenment object will be more
poignant to the player. One unknown
about this mechanic is the path aspect to the item. We will have to work out how far ahead the
object should fly and also it follows directly the path that should be taken by
the player or not. This will be decided
upon by implementing the mechanic and then play testing it to work out what
works best.
Controls
Consider the technology and the interface when
designing the control systems. Are there
any industry standard control systems?
What works best for your game?
The controls
used in our game will be keyboard based.
In terms of character control the industry standard for this on a
keyboard is usually the arrow keys, or WASD keys and often the space bar for
jump control. It is most likely we will
use the arrow keys for this game as it does not require any multiplayer
controls. This game will also require a key to change between the worlds. In our prototype the space bar was used for
this, as it is a nice, easy to access key for quick changes such as this, but
this may not be the best choice of key, as sometimes it could conflict with
people’s expectations for the jump key.
We therefore could use the left over arrow key/keys, but this may also
be conflicting and it may be better to use a ctrl of shift key instead. This mainly depends on what we believe our
target audience would be for this game as hard core gamers have a much
different expectation towards standardised controls to other less experienced
players.
Scoring
How will players score in your game?
Scoring in the
game will initially be calculated based on time taken in each section. Other aspects however could include number of
deaths, number of collected items, or number of morphs made. The aspects chosen
will then be put together to create a final score which will be shown to the
player whenever the finish the game.
Screens
User flow through the menu systems and in-game
screen(s)
The user flow
for Parchment should be relatively basic.
We will require a menu screen from which to begin the game and then the
game level screen itself. The level will
be continuous with checkpoints and so there will be no requirement for multiple
levels. We will also need a menu area
which can include the credits, sound options etc and may consider adding on an
introduction screen for the branding of our game/team. Depending on the methodology at the start of
the game, we may also require an instructions screen to explain to the player
how to play. The graphical concept of
Parchment is that it is drawn onto a piece of parchment in a Japanese painting
style. In particular we are thinking of
using a scroll format for the basis of the viewport, so this scroll concept
could be a good way to present each of the various menus and screens. For more on the design aspects see the Design
Notes post.
Reference
Include sources of inspiration etc.
There are a
number of sources from which we have found inspiration both graphically and
functionally with this game. These
include:
- Contre Jour
- Mario
- Braid
- Tron
- Samurai Jack
- Fez
- Shift
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