Game Design Brief - Essay Example

I. Game Design Brief Almost every game plan starts with a more or less arbitrarily chosen idea and in my case, when choosing a suitable idea for game, I had to also consider the limitations that were imposed by the way the course was layed out and other factors. First, the total time of the project would be relatively short; about a month from start to finish and during this time there would be several breaks (such as exams and holidays). The other major factor was that only one member, which am me that would work for this whole project. The demands these limitations made it very hard to find an off-the-shelf idea for this game project. Keeping in point of view, the limitations discussed in above paragraph, my proposed idea is a single-player game in which a player, you, is a great adventurer who decides for a trip to famous historical sites, located all across the globe, for example, Statue of Liberty in United States, Ancient great pyramids of Egypt, Great wall of China, to name a few. But unfortunately, you do not have enough funds and needs someone to sponsor this trip. So, you ask your boss, Mr. X for help, who comes up with a very interesting deal due to his wild craze for puzzle, according to which you, the player, must go through his special area (level of a game), populated with a set number of destructible bricks and you must break all of them using a ball and a paddle, without letting the ball fall to ground; if you succeed, then you will get a chance to fly to any one historical place in the world; in this manner, as you can predict, for each place, there will be a special area. However, if you, the player, lose then you will have to work for Mr. X for a year without any pay. The core idea of the game is heavily inspired by another, similar game - Smashing (available at http://www.miniclip.com/games/smashing/en/) in which each level has a set number of destructible bricks and the player uses a ball and a paddle to break all of them to move on to the next level; if the ball falls below the game area, a paddle is lost.. Even though, this existing game is highly enjoyable but at the same time, there are various aspects that can be enhanced or added, for example, facilitating the player to select difficulty level, inclusion of distinct sound effects for ball collisions as a means to praise the player for destroying bricks or adding a game-continue feature, therefore, becoming a clear source of inspiration to modify the existing game, without compromising the core notion that made the existing game so enjoyable in the first place. II. Genre and Audience The games that are based around the dynamics of a player controlled block, called a paddle or a bat, which hits a ball towards another player's bat or game specific object are generally categorized under "Bat-and-Ball" genre. At more specialized level of this genre, those games which are characterized by the addition of a wall of blocks or similar objects, that the player chips away at with the ball as part of the main game-play, are known as "Breakout-style game" or "Breakout clone"; most of these games highly depends on hand-and-eye coordination and quick reflexes, rather than thought and logic. Some of the notable Breakout Clone games are the Arkanoid series, Circus Atari, Thro' the Wall, DX Ball and Block Breaker Deluxe. The profusion and notability of such games has been sufficient enough for them to also be referred to by some as a genre in their own right. However, since this is a fairly narrow definition of a genre, it is often not considered as such, but even then so, in the view of above statements, our proposed game can be tagged same as a Breakout-style game, and therefore, can be categorized under "Bat-and-Ball" genre. Although Smashing is a nice game and both kids and teenagers can enjoy playing it but it might not be the choice for adults as it doesn't have much to offer, especially in terms of complexity and involvedness. On the other hand, this game will not only cover the Smashing's audience, but will also take care of grown-ups by offering them variety of difficulty selections, which they will be able to choose according to their competency level. III. Elements a. Ball The ball is the 'smasher' character in this game, which destroys the destructible brick, when hits it and can only travel at 15o, 30o or 45o angles. If the ball hits a brick, the brick disappears and the ball ricochets in a different direction at the same angle. The ball's speed depends on the type of brick it hits: stone and iron bricks increase its speed, while sand bricks and walls have no effect. A sound effect is also played when the ball collides with an object or wall, with walls producing the lowest pitch and iron bricks the highest. The ball's direction and speed can be controlled by the paddle's velocity and point of contact; changing direction, the moment the ball comes into contact with the paddle, will bounce the ball upward with increased speed. Moving the paddle quickly in the opposite direction than the ball is headed will result in the ball bouncing in the same horizontal direction as the paddle at a 15 angle. If the player contacts the ball with the body of the paddle before it falls into the pit below, it will bounce back into the playing field. However, if instead either corner of the paddle collides with the ball at that moment, it will be knocked directly into the pit. The most important part is that ball cannot be locked in an infinite loop of ricochets. Whenever the ball starts to loop between objects such as the walls and indestructible objects, its velocity will change at a random point after the second cycle on its next collision. As a result, the ball will travel at a slightly raised or lowered angle depending on its current trajectory, and will break out of the loop b. Paddle The paddle, hero of this game, can move only horizontally; in other words, the paddle is allowed to move either in left-hand or right-hand direction. It is positioned at a fixed point, at the bottom of the game area. The player uses the paddle to hit a ball, aiming towards a destructible bricks and continues to do so until all of the bricks are not wiped out from the game area (level). c. Walls Their role is like an obstacle, to prevent the ball from breaking the bricks; therefore, it's logically understood that they are unbreakable. Most of the time they are static but they may override this behavior, in cases where the difficulty level is highest. They also form the boundary of the area (level). d. Bricks Bricks are the target of the player, as they need to be all wiped out to move on to next level. Depending upon the material of which the bricks are composed, some of them are destructible and some are not; the material can be sand, stone or iron. Those bricks which are made from sand, called Sand Blocks, are the most easiest to break in sense that they just need to be hit once; almost similar to sand bricks, are another kind of bricks, Stone Bricks, which require two hits to get demolish. Finally, comes those bricks which are made of pure iron and are simply indestructible. The type of the brick can be easily distinguish from its color and texture. IV. Rules and Game Play The player's objective is to destroy all breakable bricks in each level using a ball and paddle, similar to that of Smashing. The paddle can move only horizontally at a fixed height and must hit the ball to avoid it from falling into the pit below the paddle's position, otherwise the paddle gets demolish, hence, losing a life. At start of each new level or life, the player can reposition the paddle before releasing the ball and commencing gameplay. When released, the ball will always begin a 45o angle above the paddle aimed toward its center. The player will start with three paddles; each time the ball falls into the pit below the paddle, a paddle is removed and the ball is reset. The game ends when all the player's paddles are depleted. Sometimes a smashed brick turns into a bonus, which, when activated, gives extra powers or points. There are two sorts of bonuses; Paddle Bonuses and Ball Bonuses. To activate a ball bonus, hit it with a ball before it disappears. Similarly, to activate a paddle bonus, grab it with the pad before it drops below the game area. Note that some bonuses may not suit. Points are awarded for destroying bricks based on their type, with 50 points awarded for the weakest (sand bricks) and 100 points for the strongest (stone bricks). The player may earn additional points by catching bonuses. An additional paddle is granted for each 1000 points scored, until the player has over 10,000 points; so in this way, the player may have up to thirteen (13) paddles at once. High scores will be retained but only until the game is turned off. Also, the game must be completed in one sitting as there will be no save option. V. Timeline On the basis of limitations that are already discussed in I. Game Design Brief, the suitable process might be a mixture of iterative approach and agile process, comprising of short iterations, running over approximately one week each. This will encourage division of objectives into small sub-parts which can be quickly implemented and tested, which in turn maximizes the use of the short total time. The suggested timeline can be logically broken down into a few main activity blocks, which are mentioned below: Content Creation: The content creation includes elements, levels, sound and 2D art. Game Development: The design and implementation of the game itself; this consists of game design documents, prototyping, testing and implementation of final gameplay machanics. Read More