Question

A game design document is used to develop an actual game. I would like you to be disciplined from the start and build a document that you shall use later to build your final project. However, please note that a game design document is a living document. Therefore, you are allowed to change the game design document according to the progress made in the later modules. Most of game designers know that larger the design team, the better the document. However, for this assignment you shall work alone. Therefore, we shall confine the design documents to mainly focus on ideas learned during this course. I suggest that your design document may at least include following items. However, please feel free to add more as per your vision of the document and the game.

1. Game Dynamics Use MDA framework to analyze your game dynamics

2. Game Components · Characters · Text · Tiles · Graphics · Audio

Answer 1

Sample game documentation:

Description

Insecticide is a fast-paced first person shooter focusing on action, action, and more action. Set in lush, organic, and otherwise rugged outdoor environments, the world might be thought of as a parallel universe to the Wild Wild West, but with some fancier technology and really bad horse flies.

The player must not only eliminate hordes of swarming insects, but must strive to maintain pest-free zones by rooting out the insects at their very core, the nests themselves. The insects will multiply and employ sophisticated flocking AI to overwhelm the character and create varied, challenging tactical scenarios that the player must overcome. The player has at his or her disposal an array of outlandish tools loosely based on a real-world Orkin employee. Players will be able to compete for glory and reputation.

Key Features

System Requirements

• Platform: PC
• 1GHz Intel Pentium[i] III or AMD Athlon[ii]
• DirectX9[iii] compatible 32MB 3D graphics card with hardware transform and lighting
• 256MB RAM
• Microsoft Windows[iv] 2000/XP
• DirectX9 compatible sound card
• Mouse, keyboard
• 4x CD-ROM

Supporting Technology

The core engine of Insecticide will be based upon the Microsoft DirectX 9.0 suite of technologies.

• Graphics Engine
  • Direct3D
• Input
  • DirectInput
• Audio
  • DirectShow
  • DirectMusic
  • DirectX Media

[i] Intel Corporation

[ii] Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

[iii] Microsoft Corporation

[iv] Microsoft Corporation

Game Mechanics

Sample Game Play

Crouching in the early dawn under the trees on the ridge, you survey the family of five milling centipedes below. You know that this particular species, the White Eyed Centipede, has trouble seeing in full daylight. Chances are they’re digging for grubs before going back to bed. Finally the sun comes up over ridge to the East and you know this is your best chance to get hold of one, if not more, of their highly prized white, gelatinous eyes.

At the first crack of direct light you’re up out of your crouch, your disposable Raid[i] (Industrial Strength) Spray Cans in your hands, and your Poison Pellet Pistols in their holsters at your sides. Careening down the hill, you jump boulders, side step out of the way of trees, heart pulsing and legs pounding. Half-way down, the acute olfactory senses of the centipedes detects you, and you witness their gargantuan size as all together they rise up on their hind legs. You put away a Raid canister in favor of a Flash Flea Bomb, hoping the blast of light will you give you the advantage by the time you reach the bottom.

Before you know it you’re in full melee combat, sweating and emptying the Raid cans. The smallest one finally drops and writhes before giving up its life. But the other centipedes are ruthless and unrelenting. Wounded, you pull out another Flash Bomb, rip the dead centipede’s eye out of its socket, and run like a bat out of hell for the nearest hold out...

Core Game Play / Game Flow

Game play in Insecticide is fast-paced and action-packed.   It combines the shoot-em-up, instant-gratification style of an arcade gun-blazing maelstrom with longer term rewards more usually associated with adventure games, including the acquisition of status and loot.

The pure action-elements form the core of the game play. Melee to mid-range combat with large , frenzied flocks of insects is the norm. Hesitation, ammo-conversation, slow and drawn out strategies are of no use here; your survival depends on being either very fast, or very strong. Intelligence will never be punished of course, and opportunities will arise where a keen and observant player will clearly have the advantage over the casual player; examples include specific insect behaviors and weaknesses, vulnerabilities of certain insects to particular weapons or environmental conditions, as well as such standard tactical conundrums as “Who do I get rid of first?”, given a mixed bag of arthropods chittering around you from all directions.

The longer term, adventure-style elements of the game include the player’s accumulated reputation points, acquired loot and special, rare valuables, and the exploration and control of territory. These aspects of the game allow the player an on-going campaign style of play, with elements of character-development, encouraging the player to reach new goals and levels of success, as well as fostering multiple styles of competition (i.e., not only are you the quickest gun-slinger around, but you control 10 continents are your reputation exceeds the Gods, and you also have a fine collection of wall-mounted insect head trophies).

Game Modes

Single Player

Insecticide is in some sense “based” upon its single-player mode. As such, this document is dedicated to the discussion of single-player mode. See below for a discussion of multi-player play.

Multi Player

Multi-player play consists of network play using the client/server model, where individual players can host a game and play on the same machine. Players will also be capable of setting up a dedicated server.

The style of play for multi-player can best be described as full of options controlled by the server. Thus, as server, you could setup a game with small maps, extra-large numbers of bugs, and player alliances enabled. The core components that go into a multi-player game are still the same, the server now is allowed options to control the style of game-play they want to support. Thus, servers could tailor a game to be simply a Death-Match style game, where insects are more of an interesting wrench thrown into the player-only competition, or else a Capture-the-Flag style game, or a time-based game, where the goal is to capture as much loot as possible.