Kimmo’s Blog (classic)

Game Design Document - The Apprentice ( ver. 0.0.2 : 20. August 2007 )

0. Structure, Purpose and Scope of This Document

This document explains and describes the computer game The Apprentice (working title) in as much detail as is deemed necessary and practical for the purpose of producing it as a finished software product. The author intends this document to accompany he’s effort to do just that and it should be regarded as educational and slightly experimental. All feedback is appreciated.
The structure of this document as well as its content is subject to change. As it stands at least the model of the game software, the User Interface, Gameplay and Audiovisual … should remain as separate articles. The current index is listed underneath.
It should also be noted that the finished game is intended to be based solely on this document and not the content of my mind. All ideas going in to the game will have to show at first in this document. The project and the game design will be split in three stages, in order of increasing complexity. These stages are codenamed:”Nokkapokka”, “Kärhämät” and “Vihollisuudet”. For vanity reasons these names are in Finnish.

As this project is primarily an attempt in showing off and practising game design skillsI suspect this to show in this project and to some extent in this document as well. Gameplay elements will be given priority (?).

1. Abstract

Theapprentice is a vertical-scrolling shooter with light strategy elements. These light strategy elements mean in practice that whatever the player shoots or destroys isn’t meaningless. The player fights an enemy that has production facilities and number of different kind of resources, these can be destroyed by the player and eventually taken over by players side. The game offers physics-modeling adequate to give a sense of destruction and also an environment that supports and allows interesting side-effects (e.g. falling enemy craft destroying something on the ground). These kinds of possibilites will be addressed in game design.

Main emphasis will be placed on the attributes that are important for the gameplay and less on the audiovisuality. For example it can be expected that the objects in the game will have quite a rudimentary appearance.
The game will be somewhat overdesigned or appear to be so, but this is because of limited development resources at this stage.

The game is set in the future with humans as a space-faring culture. Humans have colonized other star systems when their forces and installations are suddenly attacked from nowhere by an unknown force. Human capacity to wage effective war is destroyed. The player has lost his father in the attack and vows to revenge his death. The players father has left him a mysterious spacecraft with strange powers that seems capable of attacking the enemy.
Soon it is discovered that the enemy is an alien race from another, parallel universe. They had apparently planned theit attack and jump from their universe carefully because of the huge amount of energy required. This means that they are here to stay and the main goal of their attack was to tap in to the production capacity of the humans. They are using it now to build their own forces. The player is given the task to attack the enemy where ever possible, capturing bases where possible and destroying them when not. The broader purpose is to allow humans build their armament capacity but the player-character is in it for revenge.

2.
a.) Free form Explanation of Nokkapokka

Player will fly his ship in space and engage enemies there. The behaviour of the ship will be final, i.e. won’t see substantial changes in later stages. Players ship is affected with inertia and control of the ship is based in it’s thrusters that will provide push in a certain direction. This makes the movement of the ship slightly “wobbly” and this is intentional.

Players ship is armed with two kinds of projectiles, twin projectiles and faster, auto-fire enabled single projectiles. Twin projectiles are unlimited, single projectiles are earned from successful hits of the twin projectiles (If anyone recognizes the game where this system was used, pleeeease contact me. -Author).
Players ship also has shields that protect the ship up to a point. Player can make a emergency escape from play at any moment with emergenct thrusters. I am considering making the ship operate in such a way that you can divert power to the thrusters (making the ship more nimble), to the shields, or the weapons, allowing the player to make some tactical decisions.

Any part of the players is subject to destruction. Any of the thrusters, shield generators, engine, or weapon system might get broken by the enemy fire. This holds true for the enemy ships as well.
There will be one type of enemycraft. They will attack the player in formations of which there will be several. The enemies shoot projectiles at the player. The projectiles will be of different strength. Stronger projectiles are more taxing for the enemy crafts engines, so they can’t be fired as often as weaker projectiles.
If player should feel that he is in too desperate of a situation, he may bail out of the level. Players craft will accelerate away.

At the end of the level the player is represented with a few statistics for his efforts.
b.) Free form Explanation of Kärhämät
c.) Free form Explanation of Vihollisuudet

3. a.) Description of game mechanics and elements in Nokkapokka (updated 20. August 2007)

Game mechanics

Game Elements
Player’s Ship
Player’s ship consists of following elements:
- Generator
- Main engine
- Shield generators
- Cockpit / Lifesupport-systems
- Twin-shot cannons
- Single-shot cannon
- Thrusters
- Cooling-system
- Auto-repair system
- Antigravity-generator
- Radar
- Emergency Escape System

Generator:
Generator provides energy for the other systems on the ship. Player can be affect the way this energy is distributed by controlling how much the thrusters, cannons and shields use energy. If the generator is damaged it quickly reduces the available energy for the other systems. Damaged engine is also increasingly in the risk of blowing up. Naturally fully destroyed generators cuts down the existense probability of the players ship to zero.

Main Engine
Main engine is used to travel in interstellar space. If it is damaged player is unable to escape from battle.

Shield Generators
Shield generators provide protection for the ship. They are chargable. The ship has 4 shieldgenerators but it is possible that these are combined to make two shields. These 4 shields comprise of one quarter of a sphere around the ship. Looking the ship from above these shields comprise 4 distinct slices.
Damaged shields won’t charge as fast and provide less protection. Completely destroyed shields leave the other systems on the system susceptible to damage.

Cockpit / Lifesupport-systems
Cockpit houses the player. If it is destroyed it is very much a Game Over.

Twin-shot and Single-shot Cannons
Twin-shot cannons (TSC) provide unlimited ammo. Single-shot cannons (SSC) offers faster projectiles and auto-fire, but limited ammo. The cannons are chargeable. When more energy is diverted to the cannons, the projectiles are stronger. It is to be decided if charging increases the ammo of SSC.
Damaged cannons won’t be as effective.

Thrusters
Thrusters propel the ship. There are 8 thrusters, two in each main direction. They will be quite powerfull. If they are damaged, players ship won’t be able to move to the desired direction.

Cooling System
Inclusion of this system is to be decided.

Auto-Repair System
ARS repairs damaged systems of the ship. Of course it itself can be damaged. It is to be decided if it can be completely destroyed and whether the player can decide the preferred order of repairs if there are more than one damaged system. Damaged ARS operates slower.

Anti-gravity Generator
AGG is only used around significant gravitywells such as planets. They keep the ship above ground. Damaged AGG means that gravity wins again.

Radar
Provides some insight to what is coming ahead. Damaged Radar provides less in that way.

Emergency Escape System (EES)
EES will allow player to escape from tricky situations by providing a short burst from the ships thrusters. In practice this means player quitting the level.

Enemy ship:
Enemy ships consists of the following parts:
- Generator
- Shield generators
- Thrusters
- Weapon system(s)
- Anti-gravity Generator

These parts are mostly the same in general function as those of the players ship’s. The exception being is the weapon system.

Weapon System
The weapon system in enemy ships in Nokkapokka is simple. It generates slow-moving projectiles which can be of different strength.
b.) Description of game mechanics and elements in Kärhämät
c.) Description of game mechanics and elements in Vihollisuudet

4. a.) Game algorithms and game objects in Nokkapokka
b.) Game algorithms and game objects in Kärhämät
c.) Game algorithms and game objects in Vihollisuudet

5. Audiovisual Overview
a.) Suggestions for the look, sound and feel of the game
b.) User interface

6. Metastuff, some reflection on the process, open problems, other notes

Appendices
-Licences
-Analysis of the gameplay
-Feedback and history