EDGE GDD Game design document 2
APPLICATION TASK MADE FOR TECHNOLOGY ARTS SCIENCES TH KÖLN COLOGNE GAME LAB B.A. DIGITAL GAMES SEBASTIAN GERENA CUBILLOS BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
2018 3
CONTENT INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND
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GENRE
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PLATFORM
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GAME MECHANICS
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GAMEPLAY
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SCORING
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TYPES OF MOVES
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TYPES OF CHARACTERS
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COLLECTIBLE ITEMS
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GAMEPLAY ELEMENTS
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GAME PHYSICS AND STATISTICS
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MOVEMENT
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PHYSICS MODEL
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USER INTERFACE
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HUD
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GAME FLOW HIERARCHY
ARTWORK
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STORY
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LEVEL DESIGN
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LEVEL STRUCTURE
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CREDITS
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INTRODUCTION EDGE is a 3D platform adventure game for PC/MAC software where players control Jek, a hero from other world whose main goal is to rescue their girlfriend and to bring
back the balance of his dimension controlled by Zrak an evil alien race. To achieve this, Jek will need to pass through impossible crashed-dimensioned worlds.
BACKGROUND This game is based on the concept “Crossroad� taken from the article The Virtual Reality Crossroads written by Reuben Steiger, the
art of the environment is inspired form the art of Maurits Cornelis Escher and the images obtained form the electron microscope.
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GENRE 3D platform action adventure, the player must run and jump to avoid death and defeat bosses to reach the goal.
Target: people in a generational range between 12-30 years old that enjoy the platform games, puzzles and action-adventure games.
PLATFORM this game is for PC/MAC and sup- this title supports keyboard and ported on the STEAM software, game controller.
GAME MECHANICS GAMEPLAY At the beginning of the game you will find that the entire world is a dimensional chaos, the world has a estrange shape similar to a Celtic triangle, each side of the triangle represent a single dimension and the center is other dimension as well for a total of 4 dimensions, each dimension has many roads sometimes these are totally destroyed in many pieces, 6
one main aspect of these roads is that some leads you to the starting point and some others will make you reach new zones, the other aspect is that the roads don’t follow any physics rule, so you can find them placed in any position. The only one that follows the physics rules is Jek, so you at the beginning of the game will have to find the special suit to climb
90 degree walls, or walking on upside down surfaces, but this ability is limited and you have to recharge it either by defeating enemies or by collecting energy orbs distributed in allaround the world. As the player progress through the map, the camera will follow him in third person, and the camera will adapt to changes of position or rotation. Every dimension ends with the guardian temple, to reach the next dimension you have to defeat the boss and collect a fragment of the gem. Jek can defeat an enemy by hitting them, the numbers of hits required to defeat an enemy vary depending on the difficulty, the map and if the NPC is a boss or a sim-
ple map enemy. If Jek will lose a part of his life whenever they touch an enemy, if they collide against traps such as spikes (Lethal surface) or fire they will lost the entire life bar and Jek will have to start from the beginning, iThe same applies whenever Jek falls into a dimensional void or fall fro considerable height. Along Jek’s way through the roads he will find also a special apple tree which fruit can restore the life bar, also you can checkpoint and save your progress in these trees and also in the portals at the end of each level, the portal can transport you to zones that you already have discovered or to the next zone in the story.
SCORING ENEMY
COMBO 1
COMBO 2
COMBO 3
SMALL ROCKET WORM
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200
300
BABY AQUA BULL
100
200
300
LITTLE MITE
100
200
300
BOSS ROCKET WORM
1000
2000
3000
BOSS AQUA BULL
1000
2000
3000
BOSS MITE
1000
2000
3000
LITTLE ZRAK
300
600
900
9000
9000
9000
ZRAK
Other methods of scoring:
Collecting energy orbs 100 pts 7
TYPES OF MOVES
Direction pad or left joystick Walk: In the X-axis, Z-axis.
Circle button Collect items
Direction pad or left joystick + R2 Run
Triangle button Energy punch
L2 See the sky Options button Pause Square button Attack X button Jump
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SPECIAL MOVES: Combo 1 Square+ Square+ Square+ Combo 2 Square+ Square+ Triangle Combo 3 Triangle+ Triangle+ Triangle
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TYPES OF CHARACTERS JEK High rankend warrior, the last hope of Nuk and Bri, his main aim is to collect all the Dimensional Diamonds fragments and bring back the balance.
BRI
The heiress of the secret location of the Dimensional Diamond, she falls in a parallel dimension after saving Jek from Zrak.
ZRAK The last of a dangerous race, conqueror of planets, he wants the Dimensional Diamond.
ROCKET WORM One of the three guardians of the parallel dimension, he protects a fragment of the Dimensional Diamond.
AQUA BULL One of the three guardians of the parallel dimension, he protects a fragment of the Dimensional Diamond.
MITE One of the three guardians of the parallel dimension, he protects a fragment of the Dimensional Diamond.
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COLLECTIBLE ITEMS SHOBIK WARRIOR ARMOUR
NUK’S APPLE
DIMENSIONAL DIAMOND DIMENSIONAL DIAMOND FRAGMENT ENERGY ORB
MITE’S CLAW
ROCKET WORM PROPELLER
AQUA BULL ARMOUR
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GAMEPLAY ELEMENTS The gameplay in this game is linear although some of the roads leads you to the starting point, only by reaching the end of the area the player can progress and see more of the map or arrive to the final point. The aim of the enemies is to to hinder the player from achieving this, when Jek faces an enemy they have tow options, escape form them by running or hitting until the player defeats them. Jek’s life is reduced whenever he is reached by an enemy or an attack from them, his life depends on a counter triangle with
10 units each side, every enemy hit reduces by 2 points the Jek’s life; throughout an area some of the roads could also leads to collectible items like energy orbs, live apples or improvements to Jek’s costume. Each area finishes with a triangle shaped entrance that has a Green glimmering and this portal connects to the boss area in which you have to defeating him, after defeat the boss of the level you get 2 items: a special improvement from the boss and one of the four fragments of the Dimensional Diamond.
GAME PHYSICS AND STATISTICS MOVEMENT The principal movement of Jek depends on the directions of the joystick, this means that he is able to move in 8 directions in the X and Z axis, but in some cases when he is jumping, you can set the direction of 12
the jump, when he is flying or climbing he can move also in the Y axis. The movement of the enemies follows a predictable pattern except for the main bosses that have a more complex pattern of movement.
PHYSICS MODEL The game physics in EDGE are a bit hard to understand because gravity depends on the orientation of the horizon of the area, that means that
you could fall up to the sky or in a X or Z axis, the roads are inspired in the Escher illustrations so most of them are set in a orthogonal view.
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USER INTERFACE HUD
ENERGY BAR A light green triangle next to the life bar, each triangle have 10 units and it reduces if Jek walks upside down or if he performs a energy attack.
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LIFE BAR A with a triangle composed by three segments, each segments represents 10 units of life points and they reduces if Jek is touched by an enemy or an lethal element in the map or if Jek falls from a considerable high.
GAME FLOW HIERARCHY MENU
GAME SELECTION
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PAUSE SCREEN
OPTIONS SCREEN
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AUDIO OPTIONS
CONTROL OPTIONS
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SCREEN OPTIONS
GAME OVER SCREEN
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ARTWORK The artwork in this game is a cartoon style, with saturated colors and a flat style to give them a 2d look, the main characteristic of the artwork is seemingly imposible scenarios, the multiple roads and the strange gravity. The architecture and the nature of the world is based on the electron microscope
images, the concept of the enemies comes from the little worms or other microorganism found in the electron microscope images as the Water Bear, Mite and worms, to make it easier to recognize them as an enemy, The Shobik race is a mix between lemur, cat and a dog in a humanoid shape.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE COMPLETE ARTWORK
STORY Nuk It’s the name of the planet which had a long lasting peace and an armonic atmosphere, it is populated by a peaceful race. Known as the Shobik, guardians of one of the most important things in the universe: the Dimensional Diamond, a gem with the enough power to distort the dimensions, reason why the Shobik keep in secret the location of the gem in their planet. But It was only matter of time until this secret reached one of the most evil force in the universe, Zrak a planet
conqueror arrived to Nuk with An only purpose, to obtain the Dimensional Diamond. Zrak in his effort to achieve this sent an army of drones to capture all the population of Nuk with dimensional portal weapons and take them as slaves. The army of Zrak reached the temple of the stone and their last guardians Jek, a high ranked warrior and Bri the heiress of the secrets to use the gem, held the last battle to protect the stone take place there, but unfortunately Jek was defeated easily, and 19
before he received the coup de grace, Bri saved him but the volatile gem exploded in fragments distorting reality and sending them 3 to different places. Zrak was placed in the kingdom palace with a piece of the stone, Jek was placed in a desert
unconscious and Bri falls in an unknown dimension. Now the main objective of Jek is to collect all the fragments of the gem divided in 4 zones of the planet and defeat Zrak to bring the balance back and rescue Bri.
LEVEL DESIGN At the moment of the creation of the levels I just kept in mind the crossroads concept, that’s why I found in the Escher pieces a source of inspiration, but I just wanted to adapt his words to the EDGE aesthetics, the principal aim of the game
is to make the player think about what road to chose, because based on this decision you’ll advance or just go to the starting point of the game. Each level has its own thematic environment based in the four zones of the Nuk planet.
Sketch of the illusory architecture in the game. 20
Sketch of the architecture in the game.
Sketch of Nuk planet after the dimensional chaos.
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THE ART OF LEVEL DESIGN
LEVEL 1
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LEVEL 2
LEVEL 3
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LEVEL 4
FINAL CASTLE
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LEVEL STRUCTURE GAME START GAME SELECTION
WORLD 1 AREA 1
AREA 2
AREA 3
AREA 1
AREA 2
AREA 3
AREA 1
AREA 2
AREA 3
AREA 1
AREA 2
FINAL
SURFACE
TEMPLE
PORTAL
WORLD 2 SURFACE
TEMPLE
PORTAL
WORLD 3 SURFACE
TEMPLE
PORTAL
WORLD 4 SURFACE
CENTER
CASTLE
FINISH
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CREDITS
SPECIAL THANKS TO: MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS WRITTEN BY: SEBASTIAN GERENA DESIGNED BY: SEBASTIAN GERENA ILLUSTRATIONS: SEBASTIAN GERENA ORIGINAL IDEA: SEBASTIAN GERENA FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES ONLY
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