I've been working on a new project for a few months now. A variety of things, such as fatigue, children, vacation, depression, Sea of Thieves, and Jessica Jones Season 2 have interfered with my productivity--but I'm feeling particularly motivated now!
I will being make a series of rapid fire posts to catch up on the story behind this game's development, but that will likely slow to crawl as I try to work my way through scripting hell.
To start things off, I'd like to share the game document I made for the project. It's, uh...three pages. At FIEA, 10 pages was considered a good length, but considering that those assignments were limited by only our imaginations, it was easier to hit the 10 page mark. This project is much smaller, and thus, requires less explanation.
Besides, one of my other Professors proclaimed that Rapid Prototypes were better than game design documents--so that's what I've focused on!
OVERVIEW: FPS is a first-person shooter about a character so obsessed with shooting games that their light-gun melds to their hand and becomes an actual projectile weapon. Their mother then sends them on a mission to buy groceries from the local shop. Only using their non-lethal gun, they must collect the required groceries without going over budget.
GOAL: Use the gun to shoot listed grocery items into a shopping cart then take those items to the checkout.
PROJECT GOAL: Create a quirky shooting experience that plays well on the mobile platform, entertains, and subtly inspires some thought about the simplicity of shooting games.
TONE/THEMES: FPS is quirky game of silliness. The intent (beyond just being fun) is to encourage the player to think about the limitations of shooting games and the narrow experiences they provide.
AUDIENCE: Casual gamers with a cell phone looking for a quick, quirky experience. Public playtesting will allow for better audience identification.
ART DIRECTION: The project will take inspiration from Playstation 1 classics, like Parappa the Rapper, with low resolution sprites and brightly colored environments. (Or something else if testers hate it.)
STORY
Pixelated graphics: A metal door opens, revealing a corridor with plain concrete walls.
We are in control.
On screen, we see a 2D hand holding a pistol, our pistol. We move forward and are confronted by monsters from hell. Very reminiscent of the original Doom.
We shoot the monsters as they come. They explode, but still more come. No matter where we go, there are more halls, more corners, more doors, and more monsters.
As we play, the camera begins to pull back. The graphics are now three dimensional and brightly colored, à la Parappa the Rapper. We are in a living room playing our game on a TV.
Pulling back all the way, we are now in the eyes of our Avatar, and the pixelated 2D hand holding a pistol is now substituted by a 3D hand holding a plastic light-gun in our screen view.
Suddenly, the gun begins to glow and after a quick flash of light, the gun is now melded with our arm. And it no longer just shoots light at the tv, but fires plasmatic orbs of force.
An irritated voice calls from upstairs--ordering us to fetch the grocery list from the kitchen and take the money along with it.
We rush to the kitchen, grab the list, and then leave the house.
At the grocery store, shoppers are irritated by our menacing presence. Store employees are constantly complaining about the mess we make as we try to shoot grocery items into our shopping cart.
After collecting our necessary items, we make our way to front register. There, our items are totalled and the clerk asks for the payment.
With a familiar flash, the gun suddenly morphs back into a toy and drops to the ground.
Fade to black.
GAMEPLAY:
MOVEMENT
Played like most FPS: the player controls movement with the left thumb while turning and aiming with the right. For mobile touchscreen devices, the left half of the screen will detect movement while the right half detects turning and tilting (*player may invert this in options).
SHOOTING
The player fires their gun by tapping the right side of the screen. This is also the side that controls aiming. To differentiate between aiming and shooting, we must detect how long the player’s thumb is held and whether or not it glides across the screen (implying turning/tilting).
THE GUN
The gun melded to the player’s hand is the player’s primary form of interacting with the world. It shoots “plasma spheres” that strike objects with a physical force--about equal to that of a tennis ball launched from a CO2 cannon. Smaller objects like a box of noodles can be launched into the air while larger objects like people will simply be annoyed.
GROCERY LIST
The player will be presented with a randomly generated shopping list at the beginning of the level. Aesthetically, it should appear handwritten on notebook paper and each item should be crossed out once collected. At the bottom of the list is a total of items collected. The list can be hidden and accessed by sliding it up and down with one’s finger like a cell-phone menu.
SHOPPING CART
To satisfy the grocery list, the player will need to shoot items into their designated shopping cart. The cart can be pushed around or shot.
CASH & COSTS
The player is given a set amount of cash at the beginning of the game and they must collect all the necessary items on their grocery list. If the total cost of items collected is higher than the cash the player has--they cannot complete the level.
NPC INTERACTION
NPCs will be shopping as well. If the player agitates them by shooting them, hitting them with items, or bumping into their carts--they may kick the player’s cart and eject the items.
SCORE
A scoring system could be introduced to give added replay and challenge.
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