next »

[Dom2D]

*Modified original post*
My programmer's gone, so I'm looking for another programmer.
Here's the current Design Document for the game:


Move out of Skull Island
The One and Only Treasure Defense Game

FULL GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT, PART I

Written by Dominique Ferland
Version # 1.04

 
Design History
This is a brief explanation of the history of this document.
 
Version 1.00
Officially starting of production on the game, version 1.00 will be its basis.
Version 1.01
-   Made the Infinite Gameplay clearer, by adding level refresh every time a player finds all treasure chests.
-   Added Pirate Traps category in Loot section.
-   Added Loot distribution example (to discuss)
-   Updated Pirate Ship graphics

Version 1.02
-   Added Treasure Helpers in Loot section
-   Clarified Pirate Traps
-   Changed the order of pages for more clarity
-   Updated Island Layout image
-   Added Contextual interface elements

Version 1.03
-   Added more Loot items

Version 1.04
-   Added Skull Mountain Character description
-   Clarified the Shaman’s role
-   
 

Game Overview
Philosophy
Quick to learn: We want as many people as possible to try out this game, therefore we want it to be really accessible. Tutorials should be as minimal as possible and not hinder the gameplay at all.
Replayability: The game is pretty simple, but that shouldn’t prevent it from being played over and over again by players. We need to encourage this behavior by having high score rankings and possibly achievements associated to the score.

Common Questions
What is the game?
As the player defends against invading pirates, he must dig out as much treasure as possible. As the game progresses more and more pirates attack, sending the player into a clicking frenzy.
Why create this game?
To make a simple game from start to finish, hopefully good enough to attract the masses! Personnally, I want to create a funky, fast-paced game in contrast with all the games I work on professionally!!
Where does the game take place?
On Skull Island, as the title says! It’s a secret tropical island with nothing but sand and a little mountain in the shape of a giant skull, surrounded by the sea!
What do I control?
The player plays the role of the Island’s Shaman, the owner of the Island. He controls he small band of Skeletons who do his bidding without question.
What is the main focus?
News broke out that the Island contains lots of treasure. The Shaman wants to move out with all his gold before the pirates arrive and pillage everything.  A whole lot of pirate ships are coming, better put give a shovel to those Skeleton Servants and get them to work.
What’s different?
It has the soul of a tower defense game, but replaced the tower building mechanics with familiar Battleship-like gameplay and frantic spell-blasting with basic mouse clicks.

Feature Set
General Features
•   One screen game
•   Play the bad guy
•   Jazzy, stylish 2D graphics

Gameplay
•   Intense, fast-paced gameplay
•   Mixes familiar gameplay types from popular games
•   Dig for treasure on a vast island
•   Blast pirate ships before they arrive in a basic mini-subgame
•   Desintegrate cocky pirates who dare touch ground
•   Maintain magic energy
•   Dig out upgrades and items
•   Go for the High Score!

The Game World
Overview
The world is pretty much restricted to Skull Island. The Island is made entirely of sand except the small skull-shaped mountain in the middle. A few décor elements like palm-trees and rocks are peppered around to make it more appealing. Water surrounds the Island from all sides.
A sandbox to play in: Most of the island consists of diggable sand. This is where the digging half of the game is played by having skeletons dig out stuff (called loot). The sand can be dug in multiple times with the right tool.
Under attack from the sea: Outside the Island are only endless seas for boat to arrive from.

Key Locations
•   Skull Mountain
•   Sand
•   Seas
•   Shore

Travel
The player does not move the Shaman. He is omniscient, controlling what happens on the Island from the inside of the Skull Mountain. The player does control the Skeleton Servants though, by dragging and dropping them anywhere.
Objects:
•   Skull Mountain is the main thing to defend
•   Loot can be dug up. See Loot Section for a complete list.
•   Treasure
•   Items
•   Crap
•   Curses
•   Bombs
•   Skeletons are the player’s workforce.
•   Pirates arrive from the sea to take over the Island.
•   Ships arrive from outside the screen
•   Pirates are dropped if the ship lands safely. They then go to attack the Skull Mountain (or sometimes attack skeletons and steal loot)

See the “Objects Appendix” for a list of all the objects found in the world.

Here's a bunch of assets (in progress) from the game:


Weather
As a possible additional layer of visual effect, some power-ups can affect the weather, slowing down ships with strong rain or destroying them in a storm.

Time
Waves of attacking pirate ships arrive following a designed schedule based on time passed.

Camera
There is no camera movement. Some effects might use a little zoom in, zoom out or screen shaking effect though.

Layout
Pretty basic layout for the Island:




Single-Player Game

Overview
There is only one mode.
The player is thrown in the game quickly. After a couple of really quick instructions, the game starts sending pirate waves at the player.

Pirate Waves
See Pirate Wave Appendix for the order and timing of Pirate Waves. This will need balancing.

Gold Milestones
When the player reaches certain scores, he receives free upgrades. These are called Milestones. This will need balancing.
1.   20,000 Gold (Bonus Skeleton)
2.   40,000 Gold (Shovel Upgrade)
3.   60,000 Gold (Bonus Skeleton)
4.   75,000 Gold (Shovel Upgrade)
5.   100,000 Gold (Bonus Skeleton)
etc.


Story
Story is displayed in a quick introduction and in the Game Over and Win screens. These will be designed towards the end of production as they require little programming.
Victory Conditions
Upon reaching 1 million Gold, the player wins and gets a gold star or a sticker that should then appear on the title screen. This should be the hard achievement on sites like Kongregate.

Infinite Mode (Optional)
The player could unlock an Infinite Mode with a High Score instead of the 1M Gold goal.
Game Over Conditions
If the Skull Mountain explodes, game stops, the Game Over screen appears.

Continued in Part II...
I'll post the next parts tonight.

[team_q]

Hey Buddy, I'm glad you aren't turfing this.

[Dom2D]

GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT PART II:


Game Over Conditions
If the Skull Mountain explodes, game stops, the Game Over screen appears.


User Interface

Main Interface
Skull Mountain’s Health
Since it’s game over if the Skull Mountain is destroyed, the player needs to know its health. The skull’s eyes actually reflect its state, getting more and more cracks and getting unhappier as its health lowers.
List of Skull Mountain animations:
o   Skull Mountain being attacked (hurt face)
o   Destruction aka Game Over (explodes)

Mana (or Mojo?) Gauge
This meter shows the player how much mana he has available to cast magic spells.
List of Mana animations:
o   Small Mana Orb added (+10%)
o   Large Mana Orb added (+30%)
o   Full Mana Orb added (+100%)
o   Infinite Mana Item activated
o   Lightning used
o   Shock used
o   Mana is empty (0%)

Gold (Score)
This shows how much gold the player dug out in total.
List of Gold animations:
o   Score added
o   Score Milestone reached

Contextual
Lightning Roulette
When casting Lightning on a Pirate Ship, the roulette mini-game appears. Detailed in Spells section.
Gold added
When a player grabs treasure, the amount of Gold won has to be displayed (“+500 Gold”).
Mana added
When a player grabs Mana Orbs, the amount of Mana gained has to be displayed (“+50 Mana”).
Level up
When a player finds all treasure and levels up, the whole Island gets covered in sand again. A level number (or Shovel Upgrade) should appear in the interface. Each Skeleton should have a little happy animation that interrupts what its doing while the level changes, plus it shows the skeleton has leveled up.
Tutorial
To design when game design is final.
 
Game Characters

The Shaman
The Shaman has been residing on the Island for ages, gathering treasure from lost ships and travelers, hiding the Gold under the ground. The player’s actions are usually represented by the shaman teleporting to that spot and doing the action. For example, when a player drags a Skeleton to a new spot, the Shaman is actually shown levitating the Skeleton.
 

Skull Mountain
The skull at the center of the Island is also the player’s companion in the game. It will teach the player how to play, tell him what to do, and yell out for help when it’s under attack.




Skull Mountain (Let’s call him Skully for fun) is grumpy and wimpy. Here’s a few possible things he might say:

-   Hey, SHAMAN! I’m under attack here!
-   Ow! Get away!
-   Raaah, not the face, not the FACE!
-   Oh crap here they come!
-   I believe that means there are still 2 treasure chests left, buddy.
-   I was supposed to work on my tan today!
-   Work, work! Hehehe.
-   There’s a skeleton slacking off over here.
-   Why do you do this to meeee?!
-   Aaah that feels good.
-   Thanks man. I owe you one.
-   Nanananana nanananana SHA-MAN!

To Be Continued in Part III...
I'll post part 3 this weekend

[LoserHands]

I'm really glad this isn't scrapped, too! Your style is extremely delicious, I could just pat that skull on the head. C:

By the way, I imagined all those lines in the Dutchman's voice from Spongebob perfectly. :D

[piyush86]

Is it going to be a Flash game or a stand-alone game ?
I would love to help with the programming.

[Dom2D]

At first it was thought out as a flash game, but it can be anything. In a stand-alone game mindset, we could go to higher resolutions, which would help as there's a lot happening at the same time in the screen.
 
But yeah, if you're interested, keep reading the design doc and tell me how you'd like to do it! I'd be really glad to work with you, if you're in for the full development!

[Dom2D]

GAMES DESIGN DOCUMENT PART III:

The Pirates
Pirate Ships
Pirate ships appear from outside the game screen, navigating in a straight line towards the Island. When they touch shore, they drop a certain number of pirates then disappear. The player can click on them to try and destroy them with a Lightning Spell if they succeed at the Lightning roulette mini-game. (Note: When ships spawn at 0, 90, 180 or 270 degrees, they should take as much time to reach the shore as a ship that would spawn at 45, 135, 225 or 315 degrees.)

Different types of pirate ships will attack the Island:
Small Pirate Ship
o   Goes at 1x Pirate Ship speed.
o   Drops 1-3 pirates.
o   Has 1x success zone on the Lightning Roulette.

Medium Pirate Ship
o   Goes at 1x Pirate Ship speed.
o   Drops 5-8 pirates.
o   Has 0.75x success zone on the Lightning Roulette.

Large Pirate Ship
o   Goes at 0.75x Pirate Ship speed.
o   Drops 10-12 pirates.
o   Has 0.5x success zone on the Lightning Roulette.

Pirates
When dropped on the ground, pirates immediately do one of those actions:
o   Run to the Skull Mountain and attack it. (95% chance)
o   Run to a Skeleton Servant and attack it. (5% chance)

When attacking Skull Mountain, they just stand right beside it and do an attacking animation, dealing 1 damage per second.

When attacking a Skeleton Servant, they stand right beside it and do an attacking animation once, stunning the skeleton for 5 seconds.

When clicked on, the pirate explodes, at the cost of 1 mana.

Pirate Wave Design
Overview
Here’s how the game could be balanced automatically with some randomization. I’m open to suggestions if a better system exists (and it probably does).

Pirate Ship Wave Difficulty Chart
Each element has a difficulty value. Each wave has a certain challenge rating, which is the total difficulty value of all that is in that wave. The Challenge Rating increases with each wave. This chart will require heavy balancing.
The elements of a wave should be selected at random in this list until it adds up to the Wave’s difficulty rating. All ships spawn at an interval of 2 seconds unless the Less Delay or No Delay option is chosen for a ship.

Element      Difficulty   Notes
PirateShipSmall   +2   
PirateShipMedium +3   
PirateShipLarge   +5
Spread   +1 per ship - Ships will spawn at a distance of 80 to 120 degrees between them.
Spread Wide +2 per ship - Ships will spawn at a distance of 120 to 180 degrees between them.
Less Delay +1 per ship - Only 1 second delay between ships
This option can be applied to some or all ships, at the cost of 1 per ship.
No Delay +2 per ship - No delay between ships (This option can be applied to some or all ships, at the cost of 2 per ship.If this option is used on a ship, that ship cannot use Less Delay.)
Quick Next Wave   +4  - Next wave arrives 25% faster than normal.Can only be used once per wave.

Note: When ships spawn at 0, 90, 180 or 270 degrees, they should take as much time to reach the shore as a ship that would spawn at 45, 135, 225 or 315 degrees.
The first few waves could be scripted for tutorial purposes.


Loot
Overview
The variety of things the player can dig up is what makes the game interesting. There should be surprises and funny things to discover still after multiple playthroughs.
A certain number of Treasure Chests is hidden in a single level. When all treasure chests are found, the player receives a Shovel Upgrade and the whole map is refreshed with a new level. That makes the game infinite.
There’s also a certain logic to the disposition of the loot on the map, as described here.The distribution system needs work, as programming might have simple solutions I can’t come up with. Here’s an example of one level of loot distribution:
http://dom2d.squarespace.com/storage/pictures/MockUpLoot.jpg

Sand Tiles
Only tiles that contain 100% sand can be dug.


Continued....

 

[Dom2D]

Properties
Unique Items
These items can only be gained once in a single game.
Optional
If some of the mechanics used in Loot are too complex, we can easily cut them down.

Treasure
Treasure is grouped together around a big one (let’s call such a grouping a Gold Field). When finding Coins or Coin piles, the player should know there’s more in the same vicinity.
Gold Field Layout
Spawn Treasure Chests and Gold Bags first. Then distribute Gold around it. These numbers will probably need to be tweaked. Diagonally adjacent tiles get half the spawn percentage of adjacent tiles.

Treasure Chest
o   Adds 20,000 Gold
o   Every adjacent tile has a 50% chance of getting a Gold Coin Pile,20% change of Gold Coin, 5% chance of Gold Bar and 25% chance of Nothing.

Gold Bag
o   Adds 5,000 Gold
o   Every adjacent tile has a 45% chance of getting a Gold Coin Pile, 15% change of Gold Coin, 15% chance of Gold Bar, 5% chance of Gold Bag and 20% chance of Nothing.

Gold Bar
o   Adds 2,000 Gold
o   Every adjacent tile has a 15% chance of getting a Gold Coin Pile, 25% change of Gold Coin, 60% chance of Nothing.

Gold Coin Pile
o   Add 500 Gold
o   Every adjacent tile has a 20% chance of getting a Gold Coin 80% chance of Nothing.

Gold Coin
o   Adds 100 Gold

Gold Dust (Optional)
To help the player remember where he found Gold, it might be helpful to leave traces of Gold in dug up tiles where he found treasure.

Treasure Streak (Optional)
To help the player understand the Gold Field layout, when a skeleton digs up two Treasure Tiles in a row, the skeleton starts a Treasure Streak. It makes it dig 10% faster for every treasure in the streak after the first one.

Mana
Mana Fields are usually grouped in lines, like a river flowing through the Island. The line is broken up in some places. Multiple Mana lines run under the Island.

Small Mana Orb
o   Adds 10% Mana

Large Mana Orb
o   Adds 30% Mana

Full Mana Orb
o   Fills 100% Mana

Mana Streak (Optional)
To help the player understand the Mana Field layout, when a skeleton digs up two Mana Tiles in a row, the skeleton starts a Mana Streak. It makes it dig 10% faster for every Mana tile in the streak after the first one.

Items
Strong items are usually surrounded by crap and curses.

Shovel Upgrade
o   Skeletons dig 120% faster on regular ground.
o   One per level, is given automatically at each level up. Maximum 200%.

Skeleton Skull
o   Adds one Skeleton to the Shaman’s army. Spawns right next to the Skeleton who dug it out.
o   At a certain score this upgrade is given automatically. It can still be dug out though.

Storm Talisman
o   Starts raining
o   Screen Darkens
o   Spells do not cost any Mana for 8 seconds

Thunder Scepter
o   150% success zone on all Lightning Roulettes
o   Unique

Magic Sandglass
o   Freezes all Pirate Ships and Pirates for 8 seconds

Reaper Box
o   Kills all Pirates on Screen

Cloning Ring
o   For the next 30 seconds all treasure found is worth twice its base value.


Treasure Helpers
Since the player has to find all treasure chests to move on to the next map level, there are numerous objects to help him find the chests:

Eye of Voodoo
o   When in the player’s possession, every 30-60 seconds, a really quick shimmer of yellow light reveals the position of one Gold Field OR Shiny blue light reveals a Mana Field position.
o   Unique, very rare

Greed Compass
o   Stays on the map
o   Points toward one treasure chest
o   When that chest is found, the compass disappears

Treasure Map
o   Places a 3x3 red X on a treasure Chest
o   Its center is NOT necessarily the Chest

Bag of Holes
o   Instantaneously digs up to 8 empty tiles in the map

Spy Parrot
o   Moves slowly from one tile to the next in a random motion, once every 3 seconds.
o   Will squawk loudly for 10 seconds when hovering over a Treasure Chest
o   Stays on map even after a level up

Curses
A few loot items have a bad side effect on the player. They are applied automatically when dug out, the player does NOT need to click on them to activate them.

Sun Talisman
o   Sun shows up, shines brightly
o   Colorful birds fly around
o   No spells can be cast for 5 seconds

Symbol of Life
o   Stuns all Skeletons for 3 seconds

Bomb
o   Drops on the floor where dug up
o   Will explode after 5 seconds, so the player has time to move its skeletons out of the way
o   Destroys nearby Pirates
o   Stuns nearby Skeletons for 5 seconds

Snake
o   Stuns Skeleton for 3 seconds

Crap
When a tile has nothing in it, one of these Crap items can pop up. Most crap items are completely useless, but some add at least a bit of mana to keep the player going. There should be a great variety of Crap items, and make most of them somewhat funny or a bit absurd. I’ll create a bunch more if I have more time.
There could be an achievement for getting all the different types of Crap.
Fish Bones
o   Nothing
Rock
o   Nothing
Boot
o   Nothing
Dinosaur Bones
o   Nothing
Broken Vase
o   Nothing
Arrowhead
o   Nothing
Dollar Bill
o   Nothing
Spork
o   Nothing
Empty Treasure Chest
o   As the skeleton lifts it up, it looks like a normal treasure chest, but when clicked on it, opens up with nothing in it.
o   Small Mana Orb
Boomerang (Zelda reference)
o   Small Mana Orb
Beetle
o   Small Mana Orb
Nazi Helmet
o   Small Mana Orb
Hat (Indiana Jones/Spelunky reference)
o   Small Mana Orb
Whip (Indiana Jones/Spelunky reference)
o   Small Mana Orb
Mummy
o   Large Mana Orb
Tiny Flying Saucer
o   Large Mana Orb
Mini Moai Head
o   Large Mana Orb
Genie Lamp (Arabian Nights reference)
o   Large Mana Orb
Nothing
o   Gives NOTHING.

Pirate Traps (optional)
Bear trap
o   Activated once when a pirate steps into the middle of it
o   Kills all pirates that are in that tile at that moment
Carnivorous plant
o   Stays on map
o   Triggered when a pirate touches its tile; that pirate gets eaten
o   When it eats something, goes to sleep for 10 seconds
T-Rex
o   Stays on map
o   Walks in a random direction every second
o   Eats all pirates it touches
o   Disappears after 20 pirates or 1 minute.
 

[Dom2D]

Spells
Overview
The variety of things the player can dig up is what makes the game interesting. There should be surprises and funny things to discover still after multiple playthroughs. There’s also a certain logic to the disposition of the loot on the map, as described here.

Lightning
Clicking on a Pirate ship activates the Lightning Roulette. It pops up near the targeted ship, pointing towards it. As soon as it pops up, an arrow rotates around its edge at about 1 rotation per second. The starting location of the arrow is random.


(Placeholder art)
 
If the player has at least 5 mana, when the arrow is on Success zone of the Roulette, clicking on the Ship again blows up the ship.
When the arrow is NOT on Success zone of the Roulette OR if the player does NOT have 5 mana, clicking on on the Ship again removes the arrow, shakes the Roulette for 1 second. Then the arrow restarts at a random position.
The Roulette is made of four parts
•   LightningRouletteButton
o   Pushed to activate
•   LightningRouletteArrow
o   Rotates from the middle
•   LightningRouletteSuccess
o   Changes according to the ship targeted and the possible magic upgrades
•   LightningRouletteBack

Shock
When the player clicks on a Pirate, he spends 1 Mana and blows up the pirate. An electric shock disintegrates the pirate.
If Mana is at 0%, nothing happens.
 



Then there's the asset list, but I won't post that here

END GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT

I hope this game won't die!

 

[piyush86]

I am really impressed with the design documents...it is very detailed and awesome..

[Inanimate]

FANTASTIC design document. It kept me enthralled, and it is extremely detailed. I can visualize the game very easily with this; hopefully I can soon play it as well!

[Dom2D]

Hey thanks!
I learned from the best 

I'm working on making this game a reality right now.

[Dom2D]

Things are moving fast!

I want to welcome Piyush86 as the programmer of
MOVE OUT OF SKULL ISLAND

The project is BACK ON TRACK!!

[Inanimate]

Looks really awesome, Dom2D! Maybe you could make the SKULL ISLAND part look more like all those old B-Movie posters, with the jaggedy, 'lightning bolt' style font?

Also, I LOVE you awesome programmer! YOU BETTER NOT ABANDON THIS PROJECT

[piyush86]

No way I am abandoning this....this game will come out in all its awesomeness...

[Dom2D]

New island layout.

[Wander]

go dom go!

You guys gonna animate the tide?  the beach would look great with that dark wet strip of sand at tha bottom thar.

I can't wait to see your dude animated in action. 

[Dom2D]

Yeah that'd be great, I'll look into that!