I am working on a new side project which just happens to be a game. So far I have spent alot of time getting the basic technical challenges solves (3d rendering, collision detection, controls, etc) but now that most of those problems are finished, I find myself needing a good plan so my game turns out alright. So I wrote up some sort of a design document. I am hoping to get some feedback from other people who have worked on larger game projects, as this is my first one that will be over 10,000 lines of code. Thanks! updated: http://www.geocities.com/scottrick49/design.html

What, no elves, magic or fairies????? The fact that you're attempting a non-fantasy RPG is refreshing in and of itself.

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Each sector will be populated with 3 randomly assembled ships of the appropriate level for the Sector (i.e. Sector 6 will be populated with 3 different level 6 spacecraft). You can view the opposition you will face from the galaxy screen. This allows you to appropriately fit your spacecraft before entering. Once the enemies for a Sector have been generated, they are saved and cannot be re-rolled until the current sector is cleared (even if you close the game and restart).

I think this may harm your idea in the long run. Variation and surprise are important components if you're not going to have lots of different forms of gameplay or center the game around a story. If by sector 10 or 25 you're still facing three ships, even randomly generated, that could get dull. You never will have the thrill of triumphing in one-to-many conflicts that comes when you defeat a swarm of weaker enemies, for instance, or the dread of just one huge boss enemy (a dreadnaught, for instance).

If you're going to do this, I would encourage you to open up the map and allow players to go to whatever sector they wish.


Some of the rules, like armor damage reduction, will just have to be played. You could mock up a mini-board game to test them before committing to code.

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Structure is essentially a ship's health. Structure is protected by a spacecraft's shields. There are two types of damage: energy and physical. Shields are more effective against energy attacks, and armor is more effective against physical. (Possible third type? Plasma? structure and shields are not very effective against it and thus best way to avoid is through maneuverability?)

I'm wondering how you can achieve Diablo-like variety with only a few variables, unless your equipment will modify other stats. I might be misunderstanding you here.

The plasma idea is interesting and gives different gameplay, so I'd say go for it. You could also have weapons with status effects, such as EMP lasers that drain energy, map areas (nebula?) that drain shields, or kenetic weapons that cause knockback effects.

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Structure does not repair mid-level.

How do you heal during damage? Or are you trying to make the player take a minimum amount of damage (if so, ignore my one-to-many comment)

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Each segment can choose a specialization, which cannot be changed.

What happens if you specialize up in a direction that doesn't allow you to get past a sector?

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In addition, every spacecraft will have one "special component." The special component will have some special ability, active or passive. Some ideas include a "Leech Component" which restores energy as you destroy enemies, a "Invincibility Button" which makes you immune for 5 seconds or so, a "Nuke" which destroys everything on the screen, a "Stasis Device" which freezes everything on the screen (shorter cool-down than the nuke), a "Blaze" type component which leaves a trail behind your ship, a "Learner" which increases the rate at which your ship gains experience, a "Magnet" which pulls enemy ships into your ship, a "360 Gun Turret" which allows the ships cannon to turn in a full circle, or a "Time Portal" which moves you back in time 7 seconds to your previous position, energy, and structure.

I like this and would probably spend most of my time trying to get these different components just for the gameplay variety.

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Heavy cannons shoot bullets with high range but low accuracy. Space bomb is a slow moving weapon with a timer and a large explosion. Rockets which fire slower but have more accuracy?

Are you giving any thought to point-defense weapons? Rockets could be fast, cheap and weak but weaker against point defense, while missiles could be slower, strong but more vulnerable to being shot down.

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Spacecraft does not move. Stationary ships have +50% structure / armor?

Good idea (just don't stick a stationary with anything other than a rotating weapon)

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After firing a certain number of shots, the spacecraft creates copies of itself.

Should there be a limit to this based on the sector? (This definitely could get out of hand)

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Mouse position determines where the ships cannon is aiming. Unless you have a special component which changes this, the turrets range is only ~90 degrees in front of the ship. The aim change should not be instant, it should rotate at some speed. A potential component attribute would increase the turret turn speed.

Unless you have a strong gameplay reason for the 90' limit, I'd recommend changing this. You could really open up lots of different variation for the cost of a simple number in code. You could have, for instance, tracking forward guns that have a 45' variation, or a long range super heavy gun that has only a 15' variation.

As to mouse control, maybe have a mouse cursor and an aim sweep indicating that even though your mouse cursor is say behind the ship, the aim sweep shows that the weapon will only fire forward. I'd go so far as to cancel weapon firing if the mouse is not in the aim sweep.

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Still unsure if the player will be able to continue or if they will be required to start the Sector over.

Don't restart over and over. That would be frustrating as hell.

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The End

On the whole, a nicely organized (and necessarily sparse) design document. Left to do would be specifying details on AI behavior, more varied weapon effects (arcs? cones of damage? effects that spin enemies?).

I'd like to see less binary damage status and more status effects. Being slowed, nanite hull eaters (akin to poison in Diablo), and the like could add lots of spice.

Are you thinking of doing quests? If not, how will you prevent an uphill grind. Even if you're going for twitch, this could get old.

Can you collect any resources, treasure, etc.? (ie., what's the item drop?)

Great job! Love to see more!

Thanks for the input! Some responses:

Quote:I think this may harm your idea in the long run. Variation and surprise are important components if you're not going to have lots of different forms of gameplay or center the game around a story. If by sector 10 or 25 you're still facing three ships, even randomly generated, that could get dull. You never will have the thrill of triumphing in one-to-many conflicts that comes when you defeat a swarm of weaker enemies, for instance, or the dread of just one huge boss enemy (a dreadnaught, for instance).

If you're going to do this, I would encourage you to open up the map and allow players to go to whatever sector they wish.

The idea of a sector is basically a level. At anytime you can chose to play a sector level you have already cleared, and the next hardest one. So at the start of the game, you can only play through a sector of level 1. Once you have defeated a level 1 sector, then you can choose to play another level 1 sector, or a level 2 sector.

Also, when I say that each sector is populated with three types of ships, I dont mean there are just three ships. The sector will have three TYPES of ships, and probably ~50 ships of each type in the level. Some ship attributes may change the number of ships (bulky=sturdier ships but 1/2 the number, swarming=2x number of ships, etc). Also, there will be randomly placed "Captain" ships, much like unique monsters in diablo 2.

Also, not in the design document, but was planning on making every 10th sector be a boss sector, with some sort larger scale boss battle.

Quote:I'm wondering how you can achieve Diablo-like variety with only a few variables, unless your equipment will modify other stats. I might be misunderstanding you here.

I have not fleshed out every attribute that will be modifiable, but there will be much more than just structure and energy. Some ideas: increase movement speed, increase firing rate, increase armor, increase max structure and energy, increase shield efficiency, increased weapon turn speed, increase weapon firing arc, etc.

Quote:Structure does not repair mid-level.

Quote:How do you heal during damage? Or are you trying to make the player take a minimum amount of damage (if so, ignore my one-to-many comment)

The idea is that you have two types of health. Shields, which can recharge, and structure, which can't be repaired mid-level. Shields take damage before structure, and recharge during the level. Some more powerful weapons will always do a % of damage to structure (say a bomb) which will make them more feared, since you can't get structure back.

Quote:What happens if you specialize up in a direction that doesn't allow you to get past a sector?

First, this shouldn't happen until you have already passed a bunch of sectors. If you are unable to pass a sector, you have the ability to play lower level sectors repeatedly to level up more and gain better components for your ship. However, eventually I hope it is very difficult to defeat some sectors, and I want it to get harder and harder the higher you get. A goal of the game should be to devise a ship setup and component setup that lets the player get to the highest possible level that they can.

Quote:Are you giving any thought to point-defense weapons? Rockets could be fast, cheap and weak but weaker against point defense, while missiles could be slower, strong but more vulnerable to being shot down.

That is the current idea, although more still needs to be fleshed out.

Quote:Should there be a limit to this based on the sector? (This definitely could get out of hand)

Referring to enemy spaceship duplication: enemy ship attributes will scale based on what sector they are found in. A ship in the first sector may need to fire 15 times before it duplicates, while in sector 30 it may only need to fire twice. The "hasty" mod in the first sector may only give a 25% increase to speed and movement, but in sector 30 may give 100%. It could definitely get out of hand, and I certainly hope that it does. :P

Quote:Unless you have a strong gameplay reason for the 90' limit, I'd recommend changing this. You could really open up lots of different variation for the cost of a simple number in code. You could have, for instance, tracking forward guns that have a 45' variation, or a long range super heavy gun that has only a 15' variation.

This is a good idea I hadn't thought about. The 90' limit is by no means set in stone - just a number i picked out of the sky for now. It might be a very good idea to have the ship begin with a base arc range of 90' and then have the current weapons modify this. It may be necessary to change the special component from 360' arc to just a bonus of like 90' though. Good idea.

Quote:Are you thinking of doing quests? If not, how will you prevent an uphill grind. Even if you're going for twitch, this could get old.

I am going for twitch, but I have though about quests and I think they could be a great addition.

Quote:Can you collect any resources, treasure, etc.? (ie., what's the item drop?)

The enemy ships will drop all the components for your ship. It will be similar to games like raiden III, or galaga, where the items are floating in space when a ship dies, and you must collect them.


WOW! Great feedback! Thanks alot I really appreciate it!