(tentative title)
Temporal Diffusion game design document v1.2
by Heather M Decker
Interactive Design/Media App | ITGM-705-OL Savannah College of Art and Design Professor David Edwin Meyers August 11, 2010
Table of Contents Design Statement—1 General Description—1 Audience and Context—1 Motivation—1 Genre—1 Story (version 1)—1 Game Mechanics—2 Overview–2 Rough screen layout–2
Item Descriptions—2 Jilted Door–2
Levels—3 Level 1–3
Art Style—3 Reference images–3
Design Statement My external goal is to develop a gameplay mechanic that could possibly be applied to a multi-player Facebook game at some point in the future. The mechanic of time and the puzzle game genre seem full of potential, and the spirit and style of steampunk just lends itself to the time travel theme.
General Description The object is to exit the area, and the player has three phases to work with: past, present and future. Players are given time-warped pieces found in the room, which they can play and use only in specific phases (indicated on the pieces.) For instance, the player is given a door piece they can only play in the past and only interact with in the future.
Audience and Context The target audience is the casual puzzle game crowd, most notably fans of the steampunk genre. The context it is to be played in is (currently) single-player computer gaming sessions, such as browser-based Flash gaming.
Motivation My own particular motivation is to explore the game mechanic of time in a puzzle setting, as well as reacquaint myself with Flash. Externally, players should feel compelled by the story elements and appealing style of the game, and intrigued by the prospect of solving puzzles based on the relationship between objects in the field of three phases of time.
Genre Puzzle/platformer
Story (version 1) In this vast and amazing steampunk world, you are a brilliant female inventor preparing to launch your amazing new time machine to save the world from a fatal mistake that caused the eruption of a worldwide conflict. However, something went terribly wrong with your maiden voyage. As the smoke clears, you realize that you’re neither here nor there. In fact, you seem to have become lodged somewhere in an off-branch of the time stream, with only the smallest components of your time device in your possession. At this moment you are trapped in a series of pan-dimensional rooms that somehow relate to the tragic world events you set out to fix. Using your limited time-altering functionality and what radiated tools you can find around you, you must free yourself from the labyrinth of rooms and find your time machine.
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Game Mechanics Overview The protagonist possesses a limited flux alternator which causes the area around her to be pushed into a one of three phases: past, present, or future. However, due to the accident, the device has limited capacity, which she will only be able to rebuild over time. The quantum energy meter indicates how many mode adjustments may be made in the current level (bars.) All items picked up are stored in inventory by default. Items may be played in the level according to their specific rules. For instance, certain items may only be played in the past and interacted with in the future, door knobs may only be played on door handles, certain keys pair to certain types of locks, etc. Item requirements may be viewed at any time by hovering the item.
Rough screen layout
Item Descriptions Jilted Door A door that’s been warped by quantum distortion. • Only playable in Past mode • Only interactive in Future mode
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Levels Level 1 Layout: single room, single floor, no exits Starting Mode: Present Pick-ups: Jilted Door in Present Solution: Pick up Jilted Door. Toggle to Past. Place Jilted Door. Toggle to Future. Use Jilted Door. A torn fragment of your notebook flickers unstably on the floor, a composition your don’t remember ever writing, but that mysteriously details your current situation. “The time machine isn’t here with me… where ever here is. From my log readings indicate, some type of interference caused the generator to sputter, which in turn scrambled the parameters I had entered. I’m stranded somewhere outside of reality and existing time, but everything is still somehow connected. This looks like the federation’s library. I was trying to get to the capital…”
Art Style Reference images
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