Team 2 - Game Document - Homework 3: The Tetrad - 09/17/15

Team 2 - Game Document

Homework 3: The Tetrad 09/17/15

Story:

Our story, told in a linear fashion, will unfold beginning in an environment in a world familiar to that of ours. Our hero, Gaya, the child of Mother Nature, is awakened in a peaceful area of Eden that will provide a place for them to learn and practice these newly acquired elements(Game Mechanics) that they must use on their quest. Once leaving this eden, Gaya will enter a world of turmoil and imbalance, and the only progress will come through the mastery and practice of the elements to reestablish balance. The foreign race of creatures, Malterra, has destroyed Earth’s environment and is abusing these elements for their own desires. The Malterra will use these elements to fight our hero in combat. Gaya will use their four elements to battle the Malterra, to display balance of elements over the abuse of the single element being used by the individual Malterra. The final test will be a twist thrust upon our character as their final challenge. The twist being that their final foe was yet another child of Mother Nature, one that was sent upon the exact same quest to free the elements, and through their mastery became overcome with the power to control them, and thus the infinite cycle has continued to repeat.

Relation to the other elements of the Tetrad:

Aesthetics: Our Story will introduce the various aesthetics of our environment, as our hero must journey to the next area to reestablish balance. After doing so the aesthetics in the environment will become full of life.
Technology: All story telling will be through conversation with Mother Nature during Gameplay. This will be broadcasted through a speaker system, and the script of the conversation will be on the lower half of the screen during gameplay.
Mechanics: The story will consistently lead the player toward the understanding of a new mechanic. For instance the beginning of the game will be in a peaceful region for the player to test controls, movement and combat without stress. Later they will be tested more on their mastery of the mechanics by the story progressing toward a more challenging area. Twists in the story will then hopefully allow our player to test a mechanic in a different way.

Technology:

Computer
Monitor
Keyboard or gamepad Input
Speakers


Relation to the other elements of the Tetrad:
Aesthetics: All visuals in our game will be broadcasted on a computer monitor or other form of HDMI output. Sound effects of the environment, enemies, and movement will all come out from speakers.
Story: Story telling will all be done through narration and visual reading on the lower half of the screen.
Mechanics: Using a gamepad input controller, our players will use a d-pad to switch between elemental power mechanics. A left analog stick will be used for player movement, the right will be used to control the camera following the character to enable a free mode and not locked camera.

Aesthetics:

Our game will have a semi-realistic fantasy art style that will make heavy use of particle effects. The game’s UI will be simple: at the very least, it will include the player’s health gauge and a “special meter” for special attacks. Models and other assets for the environments will be mostly imported. Visual effects will come from the different elemental powers of our protagonists and their foes. Other effects will be seen in character movement based on the element being currently used. Landscapes will include environments that will come off as once beautiful, but now used to the point of lacking life. Most sound effects early on will be reaction sounds to our characters attack and movement actions.

Relation to the other elements of the Tetrad:
Story: Our game’s aesthetics will convey turmoil and unbalance. Helping further suspend the player’s disbelief in this troubled world that needs their help. When they succeed the area’s aesthetics will become happier and more jovial to convey success and progression in the story.
Technology: The controllers input will change the aesthetic look of our character, by changing their stance and elemental power.
Mechanics: Using a gamepad input controller, our players will use a d-pad to switch between elemental power mechanics. A left analog stick will be used for player movement, the right will be used to control the camera following the character to enable a free mode and not locked camera.

Mechanics:

The main character will have the ability to jump, and in each stance will have a basic attack, and a special, unique to the stance. To use the special attack, the main character will need to store up energy and activate the energy to perform the special. There will be about 3 different enemy types: basic Malterra, single element Malterra, and boss malterra. All Malterra will have a simple basic attack and jump, while the single element and boss Malterra will have a secondary special attack unique to their element(s). A majority of the game will be played outdoors except the boss fights will be fought in a “temple”.  The boss fights will be more puzzling than the other Malterra, to force the user to think about how to use stance switching mechanic to win.

There will be individual stages but the entire map of the stage is continuous within its provided area, functioning in three dimensions with possible platforming elements. The game will operate in continuous time but the game can be paused and when killed the player will be reset to a check point.

Relation to the other elements of the Tetrad:
Story: The action-oriented nature of our game will affect how often the story crops up and how quickly it moves along. The most important storytelling will be told between levels, but dialogue may also be used in the levels themselves.
Technology: Beat ‘em ups like this one lend themselves favorably to gamepads, so that is the input method that we will be focusing on.
Aesthetics: The different stances of our character will be the primary focus of our combat mechanics. Physically changing our protagonists appearance between fire, water, earth, and wind power mechanics.

Minimal Prototype:
visual indication for the four stances
basic player movement
basic attack/s, different effects for each stance
basic enemies that react to attacks