Group Synoptic Project Pitch – PM 2. / PM 3.

PM 2. Plan the provision of requirements for a specific production

PM 3. Be able to co-ordinate a production process

18th December 2019

For the past month or so, I have been working in my group to develop a fully planned pitch for our Synoptic Project. This is so we can start development in January when we come back.

Games Design Document

Summary

The idea we developed was based around mythical forest gods and the four seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter). The game is based in a universe different from our own, in which there is a world split into four sections. Each of these sections corresponds with a season and harbours animals that live there. This world is ruled by a forest god that rules over them and must keep the balance of nature. Surrounding this world, there is a barren land that only the souls of the dead can enter which is inhabited by an outcast forest ‘god’, the player character.

The game will contain a large portion of dark humour. For example, the player character will have the option to kill innocent animals and collect their souls to bring to the astral outside barren lands that the player lives in. The characters motive will be to solely infuriate the forest god by disrupting the peace in its realm, and must not get caught otherwise the game will end. Therefore, it adds a stealth aspect into the game similar to Untitled Goose Game.

The player’s sole mission is to enter the forest gods world from the outside lands and disrupt the balance. Whether this be killing animals and collecting their souls, or just causing generalized mischief. The ‘tasks’ that the player must complete will be tracked via a to-do list, keeping an aspect from Untitled Goose Game.

Game loop / Features

The game loop for our game will be to enter the forest gods realm and complete the tasks on the to-do list and cause general mischief.

Below is a list of the core mechanics and then some game mechanics and/or features.

Core mechanics

Collect souls of animals (via collection system)

Game mechanics

Sixth sense (able to sense broken trees to manipulate, animals etc.)
Possess animals (thoughts and/or actual body)
Indirect Interaction with environment (trees falling over etc.)

Possession

Using this mechanic, the Player will have the ability to ‘possess’ an animal NPC and control them.

This will be an efficient part of gameplay as when the player interacts with the environment to kill animals, the animals need to be in the correct places. e.g. the animal needs to be under a tree before it falls.

To do this we will need to have a blueprint/code made in unreal by Aleksy which will then be imported in the final vertical slice.

Indirect Interaction

Using this mechanic, the player will have the opportunity to interact with the game world and some of the assets.

This will include things such as making trees fall onto animals, moving rocks, landslides and perhaps even a change of weather.

Considering the players goal is to collect the souls of animals, this will be the way to kill animals and collect them.

Artificial Intelligence

Using this aspect of the game, the player will have NPC’s with AI to interact with. This makes the game interesting and allows other mechanics such as Possession and the manipulation of the environment to take play with meaning.

This will need to be developed properly with a lot of careful research. Each animal will need its own AI with its own routes throughout the game world which calls for a pathfinding system.

Collection system

Using this mechanic, the player will be able to keep track of the souls they have collected. We are experimenting with how we will show this to the player, but for now we will just have a simple HUD in the corner of the screen.

Demographic

The demographic of our game will be 15+ as it contains mature themes such as violence, death and perhaps gore.

Competitor titles

Competitor titles for our game will be ones such as the Shelter franchise (There is a new game releasing in 2020) and Slime rancher. These are both games with similar art styles to the art style we are aiming for despite the genres and themes being slightly different.

Art style

I really like the simplistic art style of UGG. However, instead of directly copying UGG, I want to try and create something more unique. The game franchise ‘Shelter’ has an art style and gameplay I really enjoy- it’s a gorgeous game with a very, very unique story-aspect to the game. The game that we have in mind will utilize the story-aspect in the same way that Shelter does- but we definitely want to look into replicating the art-style in some ways. 

As well as this, I really like the fact that both UGG and Shelter have very little to virtually no HUD. The gameplay is extremely simple, and most tasks/hints/tips and interactable objects are shown via visuals rather than words or dialogue. For example, in UGG, interactable objects are shown by little white lines surrounding the object. In Shelter, interactable objects are shown through the objects flashing a bright colour to indicate it is something of interest. In Shelter, events or tasks are also shown through images that pop up on the screen rather than words or dialogue. 

Sprint planning/Dates

We have from the 2^nd December to the 29^th June to complete a vertical slice. With being in from Wednesday-Friday and excluding half terms we have around 64 days in class.

02 December-18 December (week 12 to 14)

WINTER BREAK

06 January-13 February (week 15 to week 20)

HALF TERM

24 February – 30 March (week 21 to 26) COLLEGE CLOSED ON 25^TH MARCH

SPRING BREAK

20 April-19 May (week 27 to 31)

HALF TERM

01 June-29 June(Week 32 to 36)

Pre-production

During Pre-Production, me and my teammates must discuss and come to a compromise on what the game is so we can go into production. This consists of the main theme of the game and the story and then gameplay features such as core mechanics, game mechanics and then a solid gameplay loop. During this time, we will work from mood boards we have made as a team and small concepts to communicate our ideas of the art style and characters for the game. Once we have agreed on a story, characters and gameplay loop, we will each start our own research.

Production

During Production, we will begin on the making of our vertical slice. By this point we will have sprints organized and will have agreed on what we want to show in our vertical slice. For example, we will want a fully finished level in which the player experiences, we want the two main characters (protagonist and antagonist), NPC’s and a fully functioning to-do list in which we can show off some of our game mechanics. We will have concepts completed by Emma to go off of in terms of creating landscapes and characters.

Post Production

Once we have everything we need for our vertical slice, we will go back and begin to perfect everything that we need to. For example, if there are errors or anything that Is performing badly, we will need to fix it in post-production.

Below is the waterfall chart of our production process. It consists of research(theme/story/workflows), Design(concepts, rough modelling/blueprints), Creation (actual production of assets), Implementation(blocking out, adding code etc), Finalizing (Touching up) and maintenance.

Most of the design process will be for concept art, and some rough 3D models as well as rough blocking out of the level design in UE4. This is where concept art and level design overlaps. During the design process we will also start to design a proper gameplay loop as well as gameplay mechanics in which blueprints and play boarding will overlap.

Road map

Pre-production