Concept Art Game Proposal

Game Proposal:

The game is a 2d-sidescroller set in the sky above the clouds. With the land being flooded by water, you play as a small bird to save the day by navigating floating obstacles like floating islands and airships, and all the while fighting invading dinosaurs trying to conquer. The game will be in a retro- pixelated artstyle to give it a unique look and feel.

The Hook:

“A sky-high adventure to save the world!”

“Flying deadly dinos riding airships! Stop them!”

“A magical world adapted to live in the sky, once the world was flooded below.”

Rating:

The game will have a PEGI rating of 3+, appealing to a large audience of people. It will have a colourful artstyle that appeals to children, but with simple and fun gameplay that anyone can pick-up and play to enjoy too. This will also give the game a lot more potential sales since the largest amount of potential people will be able to buy the game. This, combined with the systems the game will be released on (explained below) will give the game the best possible chance of succeeding while also not upsetting any demographic by  leaving them out from playing the game.

System:

The game will have a targeted release for PCs and mobile devices, since they’re the most commonly used platforms which are very open and easiest to develop games for (since consoles require you to buy a very expensive development kit from the company who owns it). It also allows a huge amount of people to play the game without leaving out too many people, since almost everyone who plays games owns a mobile phone and/or computer, with a presumably tiny demographic owning just a games console, most people will be able to play this game regardless of me leaving out dedicated gaming machines since it’ll be something they can quickly download online.

Proposal (following pages):

What the game is:

The game, as briefly described on the last page, will be a 2d-sidescroller with platforming elements, as a throwback to the old NES/ SNES games with its charming, pixelated artstyle for all the characters, objects and environments. The controls of the player will be moving left and right with the A and D keys on the keyboard or touching their touchscreen, and pressing Spacebar/ tapping the middle of the screen to jump. Plus if they rapidly tap the jump button the bird character will flap their wings to slow their fall and float a further distance. If the player double-taps a movement key the bird will roll forward, knocking back and stunning any enemies he hits. Afterwards they’ll be stunned and you can sneak past them, or jump on their heads to stun them for longer. Enemies cannot be killed in this game (unless you roll into one and knock it into a bottomless pit) adding an extra layer of strategy and stealth, as you’re a small bird trying to survive.

Premise:

The entire game takes place in the sky, in and above the clouds. Many years ago the land below was flooded, and everyone built ships to survive. Years later, the only land-based species (that doesn’t live underwater) to survive were birds in certain insects like ants and butterflies, who took refuge on the floating islands in the sky, and the boats as they were slowly converted and turned into flying self-sustaining airships. Now with almost every species gone from Earth to ruin it, the sky has been transformed into a paradise with giant beanstalks, beautiful islands and other tall natural structures like huge glowing mountains with shining plant-life on them that pierce the clouds. And because there’s so much water on Earth now, many clouds have hardened into a soft pink colour with the precipitation, and are therefore safe to be stood and walked on, and such many creatures have even built houses on them too!

Sadly though, the dinosaurs, who are thought to have gone extinct are coming to invade and take over to live in the land. These creatures instead hid underground deep beneath the world for millions of years before they were wiped out by the meteor, but with all the flooding and water creaking down below through the cracks the dinosaur’s place to live has been destroyed. So in a desperate attempt, they resurfaced with submarines, jetpacks and home-made wings to live in the sky, and kick the birds out of their territory. So the plan of a single bird (the main character), is to infiltrate the main base of the dinos, an sinister giant floating castle in the sky, and take them out for good!

Features:

·     - Innovative multiplayer with up to 8 people!

You can customise your bird colour and choose things like different hats to wear. You can then play locally, wirelessly with different mobile devices, or online! You can roll into each other to knock them flying and even press the ‘roll’ button next to each other to pick them up and throw them! It’ll be a really creative system where players can assist each other in the game through the chaotic madness ass more and more people join, or also plan to sabotage others by rolling into them and throwing other players into a dangerous place rather than up a ledge.

·       -6 different ‘worlds’ with numerous levels within, and each level has it’s own theme and gimmick to make it memorable.

The worlds are: 1) the Sky/ Floating Islands, 2) on and inside the Clouds/ Thunderclouds, 3) under the Clouds with under-hanging stalks, lightning striking downwards and mountains, 4) the Ocean,  5) the Ozone Layer/ Space and finally 6) the giant evil Castle in orbit around Earth. (Plus there are some bonus levels after the endgame, like the dinosaur’s flooded underground homeland.

The game has these 6 main worlds, but there will be a lot of variety in it and in the individual levels, from an entire level on a beanstalk, to inside a dangerous thundercloud, a gaping crystal cave and a small estate on some floating planets, there’s a lot of variety here.

·       -Simple controls which are easy to learn, hard to master.

You have the ability to move, jump, float, pick-up other players (multiplayer only) and roll with the game maximising the most out of your basic abilities without making the gameplay too convoluted.

·       -Variety of level themes.

Each level will have its own gimmick to it, which is a different location and setting to make the game more memorable. (For example, there will be a level sliding down a beanstalk or exploring a crystal cave, but these things will never make an appearance again outside of background elements).

·      - Online multiplayer with friends or strangers, and also leaderboards showing the best times for each level.

There will be a quick drop-in, drop-out online matchmaking system as random players can come and go throughout the game’s levels, but friends and randoms can stick together in a private room if they want and play together with nobody else. This helps enforce a cooperative, and also competitive element to the game.

Gameplay:

The user should experience a variety of sights and enemies when playing the game to keep it fresh and leaving them wanting more, with a subtle emotional drive of seeing more and more dinosaur-made landscapes and different types of enemies as the game goes on. This enforces the fact that they’re taking over more and more as your attempt at saving the world gets more and more desperate. However, this emotional aspect is for the core single-player experience, where the person playing can take their time through the game to take- in the sights. The emotional aspect of the game goes out the window in multiplayer, as the chaotic fun takes a centre-stage over immersing yourself in the game’s world, meaning the game can have two completely different experiences depending on how it’s played, but still be enjoyable at the same time.

(Soniczone0.com, 2015

As mentioned before, the core- gameplay will be very platformer-like in the vein of the retro Megaman, Mario and Sonic games, with an example above, where the player navigates from left to right avoiding obstacles and collecting items as they attempt to master their basic skillset. Because of this, the gameplay will be very-much precision based within jumping on and over platforms with your jump and float abilities, and stunning/ avoiding enemies with your roll and movement abilities (since they purposely cannot be killed), with strategy only really coming into play with a few minor puzzles here and there (such as hitting the correct switch to proceed, with clues being hinted at earlier in the level).

When the player rolls the bird will dash forward with a burst of speed, also allowing them to jump further and faster while also knocking back enemies when they master the timing, which is a great tool for higher-level play and also increases the game’s skill-ceiling without being 100% necessary for newcomers to learn. Likewise, the bird can float for longer the faster the player presses the button, allowing frame-by-frame button presses for skilled players to master and reach the furthest possible distances. Even picking-up and throwing other players will be useful for cooperative speedruns (a central theme the game will be designed around, constantly replaying levels to improve your time against a worldwide leaderboard), since you can pick-up, roll, jump, and throw another player a very far distance or onto a higher ledge for a possible shortcut!

(Gamesontheplatform.tumblr.com, 2013)

The game’s progressing will be in a linear-based structure, but while also allowing freedom of choice. Every level is set on a giant, interconnected world map. The player can freely move around following a path from level-to-level as it takes you across all of the game’s worlds, but it will be very cleverly designed with branching paths, hidden shortcuts in both levels and the overworld that can skip a section of the game/ take you to secret, challenging levels. This gives the player a lot of freedom in what they can do next, but finding shortcuts are very tricky and will usually not be found on the first playthrough, further encouraging high-level play in replayabillity and speedrunning, with an example of a professional speedrunning event shown above.  There is a catch to this though; at the end of each world there will be a dinosaur lair that’s locked by a certain amount of collectables (dinosaur eggs, which are mixed in with hats and other cosmetics hidden in stages that can be used to customise your character when collected), and the player needs to find these eggs by playing through the levels and finding a certain amount of them to open the gate to the last level of each world (there are 5 hidden in every level, but not every egg is required).

This helps negate the issue of the player skipping the entire game without playing a single level, but also gives them freedom of choice since they can choose whichever level they like first, and skip some levels they may not enjoy here or there while still being able to proceed. This progression system is also merged into the game’s levels too, as the main goal will always be to move right and reach the end, however the player will have the freedom to explore and find collectables and secrets. There is a pretty big problem with this game design that level designers should be aware of though, since almost every level bar the dinosaur lairs could be skipped, many mechanics are new ideas that are introduced in levels which may not be familiar to the player if they crop-up later on in the game, causing many level design issues with the game teaching the player how to play by doing, not showing. To prevent this, the player must instead play through the first and last level of each world, allowing the designers to introduce core mechanics in these stages that the player is guaranteed to be familiar with while also forcing the player to be introduced in each world’s concept and lore.

The game will definitely reward hard-work and performance though with some nice completion bonuses to boot. Finding every collectable in the level of each world (including the secret, hidden levels) will unlock a new, very hard level in a secret 7^th world (similar to the Star World in New Super Mario Bros Wii, shown below) set on the Moon, with the level matching that world’s theme (such as the sky or ocean), and finding every collectable in those levels will unlock the final level, which is actually set in the moon. This is by far the toughest level in the game, and will be a long gauntlet of a level putting every skill the player has learned to the test as they jump and float around different asteroids above the moon with a variety of enemies and obstacles. If the player somehow manages to complete this level with all 5 dinosaur eggs they’ll be treated to a ‘congratulations’ screen, and also unlock a playable, sparkling golden bird wearing a crown, allowing them to play online and brag to all their friends!

(MarioWiki, 2015)

Platform specifics:

The game will have a PC release online, with a free trial version online and the full game available for purchase on Steam. Likewise, the game will be available on the mobile iOS App Store and Android Google Playstore. This is because the game’s inherent design is simplicity, and it’s much more suited to being casually played on a computer or mobile device, than on a dedicated games console (plus those platforms are much cheaper to develop for). The game’s retro artstyle will take advantage of the basic graphics capacity of many mobile phones, allowing the game to still perform well and look stylised graphically. Likewise, many low-end PCs will run the game just fine without every potential customer having to be able to afford a high-end gaming rig.

Competitive analysis:

The game will have to compete with a variety of platformers already out there in the market, both with a huge budget and indie games. With many retro indie platformers on Steam like Fez, Finding Teddy and Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack, my game will need to find ways to stand out from the crowd. Unfortunately there are many platformers on mobile devices too, like Banana Kong and Lep’s World, however many of these are endless runners where the player moves automatically, and hardly any of them have online or local multiplayer, making my game a much more social, unique and fun experience.

My game will also have a few tools to help it stand out and separate itself from the competition: With 8 player multiplayer being a huge focus for it, games such as Runbow and Super Smash Bros 4 also have 8 player options, but these are console-exclusive games and Smash in particular can only be played with 8 friends locally, not online. This gives my game a pretty big niche as one of the few online multiplayer platformers with more than 4 people, helping give it an edge over other, older platformers. Likewise, other game mechanics also help blend together to make my game feel fresh and original; in particular the mechanics of rolling, floating and picking up/ throwing other players all merge together to create a unique experience not many other haves have all together. (For example, Yoshi games have ‘flutter jumping’ in the air for a limited time to gain height and Donkey Kong games let you roll into objects like crates to break them, but neither are in a format comparable to the mechanics applied here since they function differently in use and perform differently too in-game as I explained earlier.)

Also following the results of a recent study by (ISFE Game Track, 2014), the spread of different game-types played are very close together, as in the UK regarding the format of games played 24% of people play packaged games, 20% play apps and 19% play online games. With my game being both an app that goes online (with a disc-based retail version on PC), my game covers all three areas!

Overall my game will be launching into a rather crowded market on both mobile and PC platforms, but I strongly feel it contains enough substance and new mechanics/ ideas to keep it feeling unique, while also being familiar enough to grab people’s attention so they can download it to test it out and get themselves hooked!