Game Design Basis - help appreciated

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9 comments, last by ShiftyCake 11 years, 1 month ago

Hello everyone,

Below me I have everything I believe will be in my Game Design as of the moment (which I will expand upon later), I was just hoping that you, the community, would be able to review what I have done and give me feedback on what I should include/change.

I would greatly appreciate the help. Just so you know, it is a 2D side-scrolling Fighter as of the moment.

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Story Plot

Basic Story

Developed Story

Finished Story


Characters

Main

Player (Character)

Other

Story

Personalised

Helpful

Progressive

Side

Quests

Tier 1 Quests

Tier 2 Quests

Tier 3 Quests

Tier 4 Quests

Tier 5 Quests

Bought Quests

Random Tier Quests

Personalised

Unnecessary Story

Enemies

Randomised Enemies

Tier 1 Enemies

Tier 2 Enemies

Tier 3 Enemies

Tier 4 Enemies

Tier 5 Enemies

Set Enemies

Bought Enemies

Random Tier Enemies

Mini-Bosses

Randomised Mini-Bosses

Tier 1 Mini-Bosses

Tier 2 Mini-Bosses

Tier 3 Mini-Bosses

Tier 4 Mini-Bosses

Tier 5 Mini-Bosses

Set Mini-Bosses

Bought Mini-Bosses

Random Tier Mini-Bosses

Bosses

Level Bosses

Story Bosses

End Boss

Quests

Types of Quests

Tier 1 quest types

Tier 2 quest types

Tier 3 quest types

Tier 4 quest types

Tier 5 quest types

Levels

Gameplay Levels

Story Levels

Reason levels

Addition Levels

Mini-Game Levels

Intermediate Level

Menus

Main Menu

Continue

New Game

New Game +

Load Game

Tutorials

Options

Credits

Exit Game

In-Game Menu

Continue

Save Game

Load Game

Mini-Tutorials

Options

Main Menu

Exit Game


Unlockables

Progression Unlockables

Abilities

Upgrades

Shops

Items in Shops

Achievements and their Unlockables

Various non-helpful Accessories

Story Unlockables

Abilities

Upgrades

Extra Unlockables

Various non-helpful Accessories

Player (User)

Player Abilities

Movement

Fighting

Stats

Unique

Player Limitations

Controls

Upgrades and Shops

Upgrades

Shop

Progressive

Story

Level

Temporary

Shops

General Item

Weapons

Armours

Magic

Upgrades

Difficulty

Enemy Spawning

Quests

If, at any point, what I post is hard to understand, tell me. I am bad at projecting my thoughts into real words, so I appreciate the knowledge that I need to edit my post.

I am not a professional writer, nor a professional game designer. Please, understand that everything you read is simply an opinion of mind and should not, at any point in time, be taken as a credible answer unless validated by others.

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What's the game play like? What are the core mechanics you see being necessary? What is it about your game that sets it apart from other games like it?

Your outline seems usable, but doesn't address these questions (which I feel your design document should).

(Dumb part redacted.)
 

What kind of a game is it? Is it safe to assume that it's an RPG of some sort? Side-scroller? Top-down? FPS? 3rd Person? Shooter? Brawler? :) What game(s) is it like?
 
What's the game play like? What are the core mechanics you see being necessary? What is it about your game that sets it apart from other games like it?
 
Your outline seems usable, but doesn't address these questions (which I feel your design document should).

 

I already posted what type of game it is, did you miss it? I'll make it more recognizable when I get home.
It's a 2D side-scrolling Fighter in its basic concept. It'll also have RPG elements in it, but I don't know how far I wish to take that.

Ther gameplay will be like most of the genre, the normal go through and efeat enemies with your weapons. The twists I'd like to implement is randomised enemies/mini-bosses, as well as enviromental affects. I'm also thinking about giving stealth options to the game as well.

necessary core mechanics? I feel like, the core mechanic I want to maintain, is the simulation of the world. What I mean is, I wish it to be that everytime you do a level, it's different. Not only that, I want a hub to maintain, which will be like your private empire as such. I don't really know how to describe exactly what I'm talking about, but I hope you understand.

What sets it apart? To be fair, many of the aspects I'm taking has been used before (and I'md rwaing on that knowledge). Such as being able to spawn enemies to kill, done in an mmorpg I've played.
Where I really want my game to shine is the Hub world (or intermediate level as I have in my game basis). I want to make this a unique type of world, that's controlled by you, and maintained by your partner. Yes, this game will revolve around you and your partner (a jack-of-all trades person who maintains the whole of your hub area). It'll also be where all the people you meet gather, etc.
I really want to make what we all love, that is an area to build upon and call mine, and make it great.
I hope I make sense.

If, at any point, what I post is hard to understand, tell me. I am bad at projecting my thoughts into real words, so I appreciate the knowledge that I need to edit my post.

I am not a professional writer, nor a professional game designer. Please, understand that everything you read is simply an opinion of mind and should not, at any point in time, be taken as a credible answer unless validated by others.

I did in fact miss it. Apologies. smile.png

Shifty, I don't see anything in your outline about the controls. Does that fit under "player abilities," is that where that goes?

Also, under "character's" [sic], you list "player." I think you need to differentiate more clearly between the "Player" (the human being who's actually playing the game" and the "player character." One way to do that might be to give the player character a working name.

-- Tom Sloper -- sloperama.com

Shifty, I don't see anything in your outline about the controls. Does that fit under "player abilities," is that where that goes?

Also, under "character's" [sic], you list "player." I think you need to differentiate more clearly between the "Player" (the human being who's actually playing the game" and the "player character." One way to do that might be to give the player character a working name.

No, the abilities are the in-game things you can do, so for movement abilities it might be dash or double jump etc.

I didn't really consider controls, silly me, so I'll input that too.

Also, I'm considering making the Hub Area a 3D area, while the actual game is 2D. Would that b fine to incorporate? Or could it lead to misleading the player.

EDIT: Also, defined the two different players as Player (Character) and Player (User).

That should be clear enough right?

If, at any point, what I post is hard to understand, tell me. I am bad at projecting my thoughts into real words, so I appreciate the knowledge that I need to edit my post.

I am not a professional writer, nor a professional game designer. Please, understand that everything you read is simply an opinion of mind and should not, at any point in time, be taken as a credible answer unless validated by others.

Mechanics, skills and controls could definetely be added to the list, just as Tom and thade suggested. What is not necessary but I've often seen in a design doc is an art section with at least some general mood concepts or references, but that can also be included in the "levels", "enemies" or "characters" section.

I've added in controls Woland, and everything else should branch within what I have already put in there.

Now, There's a couple of things I want to do with the story/talking and I'd appreciate any feedback on the idea.

First off, I want all of the talking to be actual voices. I want this story to be very assimilating and personal, so I believe this'll be another huge part of the game. I'll also be including cut-scenes in it for the exact same reason, most cut-scenes will involve talking as well.

Now, let me start off with saying this game will be revolving around two people. The player and his friend, who you meet near the start of the game. Since I want this to be a deep and personal story, this friend will be a women and you will have some sort of romantic relationship. I know, but I wanted to have the two hold clashing personalities. As in, nearly polar opposites in how they are. Anyways, I really wanted to expand upon this "friend" and make you feel as if your truly talking to a person.

So this is where my idea comes in. I wish for what she says, and acts, to change whenever something different happens. That is, if you change your appearance she'll comment on it and maybe make a joke or something. Or, say, you just bought a new high-quality weapon. She could giggle, and say that it doesn't suit me etc.

I really wish to make their relationship real, and involving for the player.

Another thought I had, with the hub world, is this.

Ohk, so the player is the owner of this world. The King, or whatever you want to call him. Your friend is the manager/creator, she does everything for this place. So she'll manage everything for you, and she'll create everything for you (with the necessary items and directions). Yet I feel as if this would lead to a ghost town, and wouldn't satisfy people. Therefore, what if I made it so that people you meet along the way can be brought back to your place. There you can choose to place them in whatever spot you want, say it be a weapon shop you want. This way I can make a thriving world reality, and at the same time give the player a choice of what to implement in his world.

just some thoughts.

If, at any point, what I post is hard to understand, tell me. I am bad at projecting my thoughts into real words, so I appreciate the knowledge that I need to edit my post.

I am not a professional writer, nor a professional game designer. Please, understand that everything you read is simply an opinion of mind and should not, at any point in time, be taken as a credible answer unless validated by others.

I like the idea of this project if I'm understanding it correctly. It sounds kind of like double dragon or final fight mixed with a jrpg-style town/love story. I would be wary of feature creep though. If this is an indie game I would advise against full voicework, even if you have piles of money lying around to pay voice actors to record multiple takes of possibly hundreds of lines of dialog. The process of recording and overseeing the whole thing would be pretty monumental. Even professional games are notorious for bad voice acting. The payoff vs the work hours spent on it isn't worth it in my opinion.

I would focus on finding the core features that make the game stand out and work on ways to make them better. I think having 2 great features is better than having 5 average features. I would think about ways to make being in the town an interesting experience with plenty to do. You'll obviously be spending a lot of time fighting, as well, so that can't be a monotonous experience. Using randomization and all the ways you can tie the fighting world back to the town may help keep this aspect from feeling like a chore.

The plural of "character" is "characters."

The plural of "menu" is "menus."

-- Tom Sloper -- sloperama.com

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