Games Prevent The Apocalypse - A Zelda-Like MECH Timetravel ARPG

A once peaceful world now lays in ruins devoid of life. They pushed the advancement of technology too far. A young hero is thrust back in time to piece together what went wrong and...

------------------------
PREVENT THE APOCALYPSE!
------------------------​

​

Introduction - https://soundcloud.com/bud-leiser/time-travel-mech-action-rpg-zeldalike
Plot01 - https://soundcloud.com/bud-leiser/pta01

If anyone wants to make a Zelda-like top down action RPG hit me up. Would love to help.

If there is a zelda-like kit in the asset store kindly let me know if you recommend it. Cheers!

​

------------------------
KEY FEATURES
------------------------​

• Top down slanted view, ie Zelda, Moonlighter etc.
• 2D or 3D art
• Orthogonal and Diagonal movement
• Orthogonal attacks only for PC
• Variety of Ranged and melee weapons the player can craft and swap between
• Melee, unlike a lot of MECH games, is a key element to our gameplay
• Killed enemies drop crafting goods
• Player has limited inventory, goods are shown as icons in square grid on inventory screen
• Crafting - Raw goods dropped by enemies, found in breakables and chests can be combined into new weapons, consumable power ups, weapon upgrades, or recycled into 'scrap' or energy (basically its a currency), a common resource needed for all crafting. ie to craft a laser rifle upgrade player would need 2 tesla coils, 4 quartz lens and 15000 scrap/energy/goo/whatever
• No stores or interactable NPCs fits the time traveling apocalypse theme and reduces assets needed for game KIS method
• 1 Hero character, KIS
• NPCs are the scientist who can communicate with hero and move story along but do not interact, KIS
• No EXP or leveling. This is extra unnecessary work and adds a layer of complexity combined with weapon upgrades that make power adjusting tedious...unless we dont mind the player min maxing and going on a godlike power trip destroying everything in his path with no tension...

------------------------
DUNGEONS
------------------------​

Player explores a dungeon related to the events leading up the apocalypse as he searches for clues or information that lead him to the next dungeon. Dungeons are interconnected square rooms filled with monsters, breakables, obstacles, loot, and simple puzzles. Layout of dungeon procedurally generated which leads to higher replability. Templates can be used to create a series of sets for the generator to choose from, obstacle layouts, spawn points, spawn randomization set lists.

------------------------
BUTTONS
------------------------​

Gameplay buttons should be limited to 9 maximum so game can be played via keyboard and mouse or gamepad. Game will differentiate between fast press (fire on release) and long hold for powerful charge attack, may include dash, spin or other movement as part of attack. (again fire on release).

CONTROLLER BUTTON MAPPING​

• A, X buttons for melee weapon*
• Y button for ranged weapon*
• B/L1 Button for dash jump
  
• Start/select Button for inventory/pause
• R1/A Button for interact
• L2, R2 buttons for consumables
• Movement with Dpad and/or Stick

*x2 press types = 4 attack options for melee weapon and 1 for ranged. Each attack offers Different arcs, patterns, damage, charge time and recovery time.
ABXY buttons chosen for combat because the constant pressing will be more comfortable than using R1R2L1L2

------------------------
COMBAT
------------------------​

Weapon damage is fixed amount with defined value, variance, and crit chance, crit value. Ie

• Damage 90 (The base value for damage is 90)
• Variance 10 (Damage will be randomized between 80-100)
• Crit Chance .1 (10% chance to deal crit damage)
• Crit 2.5 (Crits deal 250% damage)

ie Daggers have faster attack animations, and high crit chance but lower damage
Swords have medium arcs, medium animation, and medium crits
Axes have wide arcs,slow animation, high crit damage

Armor
Armor 10 - reduces damage by 10 points
Armor% 10 - reduces damage by 10%

It is possible for armor to have both a integer value and % value, ie 10/10%. % is calculated first, thus reducing the damage first by 10%, then reducing it by 10.

Optional: Adding elemental types to weapons and weaknesses to armor increases the range of crafting attributes and enemy resistances but may not be worht the timecost of designing and implementing. Let's assume it's not necessary at this point and only if budget/resources allow consider adding it back in. (Keep it simple)

------------------------
ENEMIES
------------------------​

Players like it when Enemies follow predictable patterns, giving them a sense of skill mastery as they avoid attacks and slay enemies with ease. Good tension comes when threats are layered on top of each other creating a complex web of dangers and then diminish as the player kills off enemies. Giving an Ahh so satisfaction feeling when you can finally breathe again. So it's important to have a variety of enemies with varying attack patterns, sizes and walk routes.

• Small enemies typically are easier to kill with few hp and do little damage, but their small size combined with speed make them a nuisance
• Medium enemies (same size as PC) are mid tier threats
• Large enemies are usually well armored, harder to kill but balanced by being slow or predictable (signaling before charging)

It's important for enemies to follow player expected behaviors. If a smart animal such as person or bird, movement patterns should be more complex. This also leads to additional animations needed such as, unaware walking, becoming aware animation, wind up, sprint.

If environment threat or low intelligence like boulders, golems, etc their movement patterns should be simplistic. Often just moving back and forth or bouncing off walls.

------------------------
ENVIRONMENT THREATS
------------------------​

Similar to Enemies but typically defined as no AI and often unkillable. Sometimes environment threats can be neutralized with opposing energy types, ice vs fire etc.

• Lava
• Fire
• Turrets - Laser, machinegun, rockets
• Pits
• Collapse-able terrain

------------------------
STATUS EFFECTS
------------------------​

Damage isnt the only way we should use to build tension, we should also think of what kind of status effects we want to inflict on the PC and for the PC to inflict on Enemies.

• Slow, from ice or an oozy monster that sticks to the PC
• Knockback, that shoves the character in a direction and interrupts their action
• Poison that damages the character over time and has an audible and visual clue to what is happening
• Shrink with slow and increased damage felt
• Enlarge with increased hit box but also increased damage dealt
• Stun

------------------------
JUICY / COMBAT NUANCES
------------------------​

It's incredibly important to spend lots of time going over the 'feel' of player actions and combat (and weapons/swords interacting with environment), when things are hit there should be the right amount of knockback on each party, action interruption, swing cool down, sound effect, particle effect and more. When direction is pressed there should be a fast response with little drag from acceraltion curves to begin moving in that direction.

Here is an excellent thread that goes over this with detailed examples from previous zelda titles: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/85genb/how_do_i_make_zeldalike_combat_feel_good/

Zelda: Link to the past is a great example of good character and combat nuances. Hitting your sword on a boulder/wall has a noticable pushback and clink sound that feels very different from hitting the soft squishy meat of an enemy. If we do this right, which requires a lot early development, testing and feedback; then players will enjoy the game and controls on a subconcious level.

------------------------
VISUAL EFFECTS
------------------------​

Animations and characters are expensive to create so we should make sure we get a lot of mileage out of each one or not make it at all. Alternatively we can also get a lot of mileage and feeling from good visual effects which is more reliant on code than a custom series of animated images. Obviously there are plugins in the asset store we could use but each those needs to be integrated, tested and tweaked.

• Screen shake from being hit with more shake for higher damage hits
• Screen rumble from large enemy walking or hitting ground
• Screen flash from weapons or hits
• Red tint with audio when life is low
• Color Tint overlay when poisoned or affected by environment
• Dust particles

------------------------
PUZZLES
------------------------​

Simple puzzles are an important and effective game design mini-game in Zelda that challenges the player and blends or distracts from combat as the designer sees fit. Most puzzles in Zelda are very simple to figure out with the hardest stemming from confusion and *intentionally* not a problem of dexterity or skill.

These simple puzzles are laid out in one of 3 ways

1. Self contained in the room
   • The problem and all the solutions are in room
     • The buttons are in the room and so are the sliding statues that need to go on the buttons
2. Spread out over the dungeon
   • The problem and solution are in different rooms
     • We need to go find the block and bring it back to put on the button
3. Multi layered
   • Usually the overall puzzle spans multiple rooms, the problem is known to the player, but in order to get the solution the player must solve a smaller or series of smaller puzzles along the way to the solution. ie to get the block from floor 2 we have to move the statues in 3 rooms on all the buttons in 3 other rooms to open the trapdoor, then use the block that fell to re-angle the laser towards the wall button (If you've played LOZ: Link to the past this should all make sense lol)

------------------------
PUZZLE ABSTRACT LIST
------------------------​

• Doors open when all monsters are dead
  • Solution: Kill all monsters
    • Variation: Solve an in room puzzle that kills unkillable monsters

• Step on button door opens, step off door closes
  • Solution: Move thing on top of button
    • Variation: Kill a something or unlock a what to get the thing.

• All of these things are on buttons (except one) and there is an exposed button, step on button door opens, step off door closes. Move the wrong thing off a button and now that button must also be covered.
  • Solution: Buttons are visible under 3 things but not the 4th move the 4th thing on top of the button.
    • Variation: Everytime you re-enter the room it looks the same, except the non-button is randomly in a different spot

• Repeating Maze looks the same no matter which way player goes ie if player moves through left door he enters room that looks exactly the same as the room he left. If he ever exits from the door he entered from he returns to the room previous to the start of maze
  • Solution: Clue tells him directions to go that will solve the maze, ie up up down down left right, north, south, east easte
    • Variation: Things in the room changes that clue the player into which way to go, ie always go in the direction of the broken statue. Obvious if only one things changes, less obvious via layering ie statues change, footprints change, torches change

• The thing is surrounded by immovable blocks
  • Solution1: One of the blocks is actually movable
    • Variation: The block is movable, but only when pushed from a certain side
  • Solution2: You can fall from the 2nd floor into the middle of the immovable blocks and then get the thing and push a block outwards or use the stairs/teleporter

• You can't do the thing because you don't have the tool
  • Keep exploring until you find the tool then come back to the thing, ie icewall blocks your path until you find the fireorb, need the boomerang to get the key across pit, need the arrow to shoot the button across spikes etc
    • Variation: Can't kill the dude because you don't have the tool/weapon ie The turtle can't be damaged until you flip him over with the shovel/fan/hammerquake, Can't kill the ice demon until you get the flaming sword upgrade
• Laser refraction
  • Use the glass block/mirror to point the laser 90 degrees so it hits the button
    • Variation solve a puzzle in another room to drop/teleport/unlock the block in the laser room
• Hidden in plain sight
  • This thing looks like all the other things, but it's actually breakable/movable
    • Variation: This thing looks impassable, but player can actually just walk right through it
• Red switch blue switch toggle
  • Somewhere there is a switch that toggles blue/red. While this switch is Red red doors and red blockers are open to the player while blue doors and blockers impede the player.
    • Solution: Hit the switch to reverse the open/closed of these doors/tiles.
      • Variation: Player needs to traverse to a different side of the room to hit the switch with a ranged weapon that is blocked by other sides
      • Variation: Switch toggles to more than 2 colors/modes
      • Variation: 1 or more switches toggle to pairs of colors not just 1 color ie red/blue, red/green, blue/green
        
      • Variation: Player must collect a respawning item/enemy and use it (throw, shoot, drop) on the switch
        • Best when switches must be toggled off on repeatedly from previously innaccessible locations.
• Off/On Switches
  • The players path is blocked by obstacles/doors but player is shown switch or series of switches
    • Solution: Player navigates on his limited path, hits the switch and new pathways in old rooms are now open to him, player retraces his path to find new pathways that lead to more switches, once all the switches are toggled the path to the exit/solution is open to player.
    • Variation: Switches can only be activated by specific tool, such as a new tool that the player must find in the dungeon
      • This straight forward puzzle is good at making the player revisit old rooms increasing the complexity and reusability of a map without having to increase it's size.
      • Best combined with dangerous environment effects, enemies that don't die (or can't be killed until new too is found via opening switches), or enemies that respawn.

------------------------
AUDIO
------------------------​

Audio is a vital component to creating emotion for players. While sound tracks and sound effects can be purchased from 3rd party websites or outsourced, it's important to bring on a dedicated audio engineer to tweak those assets to maximize their emotional impact.

Music sets the tone, crunchy hit impacts and weapon explosions raise the excitement, pulsating warning sounds raise the tension to a crescendo then clearing the stage of enemies and sliding off to a calm melody releases that tension for that all too addicting gameplay of tense & release.

------------------------
OPTIONAL
------------------------​

Each feature, character, *thing* we add to the game increases our workload, so we should strive for quality over quantity. But here are some things that might be worth adding to the game

*Shopkeeper who appears randomly throughout the dungeons selling completed items or item recipes
*Hidden rooms
*More speaking characters for the PC to interact, like a sidekick human, advanced pet or robot
*Dialogue or event tree - dangerous workload increaser!
*Randomly occuring rare events
*Rare hard to find randomly occuring items
*Multiple endings
*Grab and throw - extendable robotic arm telescopes out grabs an object/enemy that the player can walk around with and throw as a weapon or puzzle interaction

------------------------
ENEMY LIST
------------------------​

To keep costs low and improve reusability we should recycle enemies and animations when possible yet we need to balance this by having a good amount of variety also. One method for this could be to warp the player or let the player warp around to more difficult dungeons in the same time period, thus limiting the enemy types to be thematic of that time period. example: Oozes appear in 2099, the first time the player visits 2099 the oozes he fights are light blue and deal 25 damage and have 25 hit points. 2 hours of gameplay later the player visits a new dungeon in 2099 where oozes are orange and have 100hp and deal 100 damage. Recycling the same attack pattern, animation and silhouette just applying a new color scheme and increasing parameters. Note that if the player has upgraded his items his power arc should still treat this new improved ooze as an easy enemy, yet if the player is allowed to explore there too early and has not upgraded the ooze may be very difficult.

• Slimey Ooze
  • Small, low hit point, leaps at MECH when close, Sticks to the PCs mech and slows them down, falls off after a few seconds of walking

• MrMoneyBags
  • Fat round robot that appears randomly in one doorway and waddles straight across the room and exits out the other door. Unkillable but each time the player hits it money (scrap, crystals) comes out.

• Rocky
  • Rolls right to left, or up and down until bumping into an obstacle, pauses, rolls the other way, repeat. High hit points and armor, high damage, very predictable and easy to avoid.

• Metal Hawk
  • Clings to wall, swoops quickly towards player in a straight line and continues to opposite wall where it clings, pauses for 3 seconds then repeats. Low health, high mobility, medium damage.

• Laser Turret
  • Starts pointed in a set position when entering the room, not directly at a door. Every 3 seconds the turret lights up for 2 seconds, turns 90 degrees and fires a straight laser beam. Medium health, medium damage, ranged unit, does not move only turns.

• Cowardly Archer
  • This ranged unit runs away if you get to close. When it reaches a 'safe' distance it pauses for a moment, aims then fires a medium speed bolt at you. Unlike most enemies this moves away from the PC on purpose, by moving in attacking quickly or dashing ahead cut off it's retreat the player can kill the annoying ranged unit. Low health, low to medium damage, slow rate of fire.

• Poisonous Archer
  • Same as above but arrows are tipped with acid/poison causing extra damage over time.

• Machine Gunner
  • Walks back and forth along simple path until it visually sees player. Then shoots out a trail of 6 bullets before it must reload. Player's best chance to kill enemy is to sneak up behind it or hide behind cover until its forced to reload. Hitting the MG interrupts it's turning action slightly, so if a player uses a continuous series of quick attacks the MG won't be able to turn and fire at the PC if behind it.

• Diagon/Bishop
  • This creepy cloaked figure moves around in short diagonal hops and hops in and out of range of the PC. Whenever he lands in a diagonal spot next to the player his cloak flies up and a dagger slashes out at the PC (attacks diagonally). If we get the timing down correctly this should be killable yet annoying for the player as it takes advantage of the fact that the player can only attack orthogonally. Low hp, medium damage, melee only

• Hardened Plasma Turret
  • Turrets cannot move only turn, this turret charges up and shoots an oval like ball of plasma at the player. Hitting the turret with any weapon deals no damage. The only way to destroy this turret is to time and angle your sword slash to reflect the plasma ball back at it. Medium damage, 1 health point but invulnerable to everything except it's own attack. Note the plasma it shoots is blue, when the player hits the plasma it turns red thus clueing the player in that it can be used as a weapon. Converted plasma will hit any enemy (including the turret) and deal 100 damage.

• Camoflauged hunter
  • Entering the room players see this enemy phase into invisibility, clueing them into it being in the room, but it only becomes visible when close to the MC. We should come up with an interesting way for this enemy to circle the room or come at the player from a new angle before getting too close. Low hp, low/med damage.

• Shift Stabber & Shift Archer
  • Using a temporal drive these enemies shift away in a blur and flash, just as the players sword/bullet would have hit it. Recharging the drive takes 3 seconds, so players should spend a leaving the shifter vulnerable to attacks during that time. So players should use a quick weak attack to disable the drive then dash in and finish it off with a more powerful attack. When it recharges a spectral shield of color and light washes over the silhoutte cluing the player in that they shift away again on the next hit. Low health, medium damage.

------------------------
MVP
------------------------​

To keep development time and costs as low possible development should focus on creating 1 interesting room with full functionality and polished graphics.

This vertical slice of the game would accomplish 2 things

1. It would show whether the existing talent of the team could deliver a high quality product
2. It would be enough for me to show VC, publishers or crowdfunding a high quality demo of the game and raise additional capital to finish

Details
3 different enemies, 1 simple puzzle (move the box on to the switch to open the door), obstacles, breakable obstacle, pit, character animations, skin, shadows, lighting and 4 melee attacks (2 press, 2 hold) and 2 ranged attacks (1 press, 1 hold), dash, music, sound, screen shake when hit, knockback when hit, loot pickup, loot chest and able to craft a new weapon. (Loot for demo would be static so player always had enough raw material to craft after clearing enemies).

------------------------
MARKETING - THE HOOK
------------------------​

So far we have a fairly straight action RPG that still needs a real hook to drive players excitement and anticipation up and into buying it.

------------------------
HOOK - CRAFTING
------------------------​

• Crafting - Raw goods dropped by enemies, found in breakables and chests can be combined into new weapons, consumable power ups, weapon upgrades, or recycled into 'scrap' or energy (basically its a currency), a common resource needed for all crafting. ie to craft a laser rifle upgrade player would need 2 tesla coils, 4 quartz lens and 15000 scrap/energy/goo/crystals

If crafting is going to be a direct path, a one and done for the player to just upgrade his next gun/sword etc to the next improvement then the cost to craft the next more powerful item should be known to the player yet hard to gather. And the power creep between upgrades should be significant, the player should really feel significantly more powerful and rewarded for investing so much resources to unlock that upgrade.

OR

If on the other hand there is going to be a myriad variety of items to craft, then raw goods should be plentiful and item requirements should be low; making it easy to craft lots of items... but new items should be locked and secret until a recipe is found to craft it. This is done to prevent the player powering up too quickly.

NOTE: This key decision between 2 crafting styles needs to be made before designing out the crafting tree can continue.

IS CRAFTING OUR HOOK?
For our game if crafting weapons and upgrades is going to be a main feature then this should really be driven home by going deep with the options and possibilities. Players could craft a huge variety of weapons, armor and powerups, and those items could have procedurally generated stats on creation.

So for example if a player crafted a sword once it might be pretty standard, craft the same sword again and that new sword could have Sheen giving it +10% crit chance, and random base damage might be higher or lower.

--------------- 2018/06/18
AHA! I just had an awesome idea. We could structure the procedural generation to improve the more times a player crafts an item of that type. Here's how it could work. The player finds a recipe for a Plasma Sword, the first time he crafts it it's just a plasm sword with base stats and no abilities. Next time he craft's it we give it 3 crafting points. Each subsequent crafting of a sword or plasma sword (depending on how want crafitng to carry over) adds 1 or more crafting points to that item. Each crafting point improves random elements of the sword, the stats and abilities that it's given would be titled and random, but would "cost" a number of craft points based on it's impact. Note its important for clarity what to spend those craft points on is decided at random by code not by the player. This creates a lottery/raffle/slotmachine like feeling as the player 'crafts' amazing items not 'buys' the item he wanted. It's also faster and less 'difficult' and stressful for the player as the item is instantly randomized, instead of forcing them to agonize over every point spent.

Some examples

• Sheen 2 points - Crit chance +10%
• Keen 3 points - Crit damage +50%
• Vicious 2 points - Damage +10%
• Brutal 1 points - Damage +10
• Berserk 4 points - Damage +25%, 10% chance to miss
• Vampiric 3 - Heals for 10% of damage dealt
• Cursed +3 points - Player max HP -20 (note this item has a negative effect but gives the item 3 more points resulting in more craft abilities assigned to it)
• Razor 1 point - +1-10 damage
• Serrated 2 points - +5-15 damage

Crafting point tree
0 > 3 > 1 > 1 > 2 > 1 > 1 > 3 > 1 > 1 > 2 > 1 > 1, repeating 2nd step onward

So by the time the player crafts his 5th Plasma sword it would have 0, 3, 1, 1, 2 points. aka 7 points and might end up a "Keen Brutal Vampiric Plasma Sword"

-----------------

By mixing and matching these randomized attributes and specials on each craft the player is encouraged to craft lots of items. As the player gets used to this feature it will become a fun and exciting core loop for them to search out raw materials, craft an item and feel the anticipation of being rewarded with a more powerful and never seen before combination of abilities. This a very slot machine jackpot kind of feeling!

To follow this up weapons could have durability and break down over time forcing the player to craft and equip new weapons regularly. There is a trade off here as it lowers a player attachment to powerful weapons or causes them to save (not sure) their most powerful weapons until necessary thus not enjoying them regularly. We should consider this carefully before coming to a concrete decision and be ready to test and reverse this decision if necessary.

We should definitely further encourage the player to craft by giving them more scrap (currency) when they recycle a completed weapon vs recycling raw goods.

So if the total of raw goods would generate 100 Scrap, combining those same raw goods into an item and then recycling the item should give them 150-200 scrap. A clear and large difference. Doing this nets them more scrap and also showcases the randomized weapon attributes feature as the player crafts to recycle rather than just recycles raw goods.

---------------------------

------------------------
HOOK - TIME TRAVEL
------------------------​

Another hook and more thematic if the game stays time travel based is to create abilities, puzzles and plots that revolve around manipulating time.

For example we change 1 of the buttons to Rewind, which would use up an energy bar and rewind the action that just took place undoing damage, resetting enemies etc. Giving the player a way to escape damage/death. We could even make it automatic if they die that if they have enough energy bar left it would automatically try to rewind time so they didnt die. Turn this into a roguelike game and that could be a lot of fun and good tension. Each time they auto rewind their energy bar could shrink. When they finally die and can't rewind, they have to start the game all over again!

Additionally there could be time traveling puzzles to solve. Like walking into a room where a doorway freezes with ice. But by walking over to it and rewinding the environment the player can dash through it before it freezes.

Pushing a button causes a door to open, but also releases a trap so the player rewinds time from inside the doorway.

A lot of possibility space here.

-----------------------

------------------------
HOOK - MULTIPLAYER
------------------------​

Looking over the market analysis a common theme is apparent that while they are single player stories most don't even offer the option of a multiplayer experience.

I'm reminded of Sonic 2 where a 2nd human player would take control of the invulnerable sidekick Tails.

Sidekicks offer a lot of mileage in gameplay, combat, plot and dialogue interaction. Allowing additional human players to take control of a sidekick would likely be a good decision.

OR

taken to the extreme the game could lean heavily on multiplayer experience. Expanding it up to 5 players on screen simultaneously local and online.

This is a large decision and is likely irreversible once development starts, by scaling up to 5 players on screen the attack patterns and health of enemies will need to scale as well.

Different PCs should have varying weapons and specials. Puzzles would need to be different as well, leaning on players to co-operate and use a variety of tools correctly, this giving each player a responsibility in the puzzle and the satisfaction of being helpful. (or the tension of being blamed lol)

WARNING: It's incredibly important not to understimate the decision to move into multiplayer as it affects the hardware requirements, the server logistics, the controls, the puzzle design, monster design, weapon design, and how to handle latency/disconnect issues mid combat resulting in a lot more QA and bugfixing.

------------------------
FUNDRAISING
------------------------​

Our MVP is all about showcasing the FEELING people will get seeing and playing our game. It showcases our ability to create a marketable product that people will want to buy, which is all about generating an emotional reaction.

If they want it and want to see more then our MVP is ready! To that end details like story, plot, etc are not as critical. Whereas having good visuals, audio, controls and combat interaction is vital!

Once we have nailed down our MVP and HOOK we can accurately create a budget, pitch deck and begin marketing for seed investors. After we secure our seed investment we should have enough cash to build out a full demo of the game to take to Publishers, VC and/or run a full crowdfunding campaign giving us the money we need to finish and market the game.

------------------------
ROADMAP
------------------------​

1. Prototype
2. Create MVP demo
3. Create Pitch Deck
4. Fundraise - Seedround
5. Create full demo
6. Fundraise - VC or Indiegogo
7. Fundraise/Market - Kickstarter
8. Sign publisher or self publish
9. Presale game
10. Finish game and launch
11. $uccess

*All images copyright their respective owner and are example art only and not to be used in the final product.

 

------------------------
PLOT
------------------------
​

The year is 2318 and the world has suffered greatly through an apocalyptic war that started in the mid 2000's. Society is at a technologically and population level lower than then. 3 Scientistics have gone rogue from their Nationstate overlords and reanimated a young man from cryopreservation. A young man born before the war. Hiding from the authorities and on the run, they quickly send him back in time to figure out what went wrong and how to PREVENT THE APOCALYPSE.

-----

Brady (placeholder name) is not sure what's going on, last thing he remembers was a warm day at the park with his parents before the skies went dark and fire rained down from the skies.

Now he wakes up to strangers, scientists, telling him theres no time to explain that he must get in the MECH and travel back in time to save his world,

-----

• Plot device: The MECH was sent back in time by them, but has no ability to travel backwards in time on it's own. It can only rewind time a short distance on it's own.
• Plot device: This may be the future, but records are worse then, than they are today. The Scientists don't know exactly when/where to send him to stop the Apocalypse so it's up to Brady to find information along the way and uncover what went wrong.
• Plot device: Scientists will be able to communicate with Brady through DOGGE, a robotic dog sidekick they have provided him. Which also works as comic relief and dialogue interactions for Brady.

Pros

• MC being young and hurridly put into a mech gets us to the action quickly and explains his(players) unfamiliarity to it
• MC's being young appeals to young audiences right? yo we hip yo

Cons

• Sidekick being a robotic dog is cool (worked for megaman), but a bit childish and might not fit the more mature theme and artwork of a post apocalyptic game. Then again it's good to have something funny and loveable or the game gets depressing. (Fallout uses sick outlandish twistd sense of humor, but it's still humor and an important design choice to keep the player un-depressed)
• Back to the future Marty! It will be compared to back to the future, a lot, too much?
• Anything timetravel related lends itself to 'Why didn't they just go back further and do x' theories.

LEADS (CLUES)

• Project S.E.R.F.
  • Amid the ruins of an abandoned military base Brady finds encrypted files that outline plans to a Project S.E.R.F. A Self Engineering and Replicating Factory that autonomously upgrades drones to gather more material and wage war.
  • Scientists: "Incredible, if even one of those Factories were kept hidden the war would never end. Can you imagine, a factory that constantly upgrades and recycles robots to build better kill drones? This is a huge discovery!

 

------------------------
CHARACTERS
------------------------​

All names are placeholder for now.

• Brady
  • Teen cryogenically frozen upon death just before the war started.
• DOGGE
  • Robotic dog and sidekick for Brady. Comic relief, helpful buddy and communication device with scientists from the future. Plot device for dialogue interaction and player guidance.
• Dr Alrbright (f)
  • Bio engineering
• Dr Hutchinson
  • Physics scientist, 50/60 years old, fat, gruff voice, practical and level headed
• Dr Farnsworth
  • Computer Science, 80 years old, old raspy whiney nerdy voice, paranoid and pessimistic

------------------------
LEVELS
------------------------​

• Cryo-Lab year 2030
• Cryo-Lab 2150
• Military Base 2050
• Drone Factory 2060
• Self Replicating Factory 2099
• Humanity's Last Stand 2243

 

------------------------
BUDGET/ASSETS
------------------------​

Back of the envelope budget allocation by weight
Development 30%
Marketing 15%
Character Animation 13%
VFX Animation 12%
SFX Engineering 12%
Music 10%
Design & Prototype 8%​

2018/06/24 DECIDED to embrace the grunge. Cute stuff sorry but goodbye.

---------
Models
---------
Prefabs can be bought from bitgem, 3drt. Really enjoy the designs and colorscheme used by slavaz. Should consider reaching out to them for custom work and modifications.

• 
• SlavaZ
  • Mech Constructor: Humanoid Robots $29
  • Sci-Fi Turret Constructor $29
  • Mech Constructor: Heavy Robot $14
  • Mech Constructor: Light and Medium Robots $29
  • Mech Constructor: Spiders and Tanks $29
  • Sci-Fi Tanks and Buggies $14 (Owned upgradeable to spiders and tanks for $15)

---------
VFX
---------

• Enemy Projectiles and boss specials $35
  • https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/particles/spells/realistic-effects-pack-4-85675
• Weapon/Mesh effects such as ice weapon, flame weapon $22
  • https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/vfx/particles/spells/mesh-effects-67803

---------
Environment
---------

• 
  
• I feel like this choice is a good match if we decide to move forward with SlavaZ's models and textures. There is also a good amount of lighting potential from props, the grunge level fits an apocalyptic story and the company has a variety of environment packs to choose from.
• https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/sci-fi/sci-fi-top-down-pack-1-46534 $40
  • Top Choice
  • +Good grungy texture, splashes of color, matching props
  • +Velkin has several sci-fi environment kits, good for variety of levels

DECIDED AGAINST

• https://assetstore.unity.com/packag...e-station-modular-interior-enviromnent--47389 $49
• DONT BUY NOT GRUNGY ENOUGH
• + Very pretty, great cartoony colors, simple designs (not distracting), very clean feeling
• -Might not be grungy enough if we use SlavaZ models

• https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/sci-fi/sci-fi-tower-defense-pack-2-69047 $49
  • DONT BUY NOT GRUNGY ENOUGH
  • +Velkin Labs
  • +Very colorful mobile friendly top down assets including some enemies

---------
SFX
---------

• Epic Sound and Effects $129 https://assetstore.unity.com/packag...e-sci-fi-evolution-advanced-game-sounds-47982
  • Expensive but I really like the quality. Need to research more and maybe buy one of the 3 packs instead of all 3. Note to self: Soundcloud has a breakdown and sample of most sounds. https://soundcloud.com/epic-sounds-and-fx/sets/sci-fi-bundle

---------
Music
---------

• a

---------
GUI/HUD
---------

• Free placeholder icons - http://game-icons.net/
• Sci-Fi HUD packs $5 each - https://assetstore.unity.com/publishers/32169
• 90 colored icons $19 - https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/gui/icons/sci-fi-icons-12434

 

--------------------------
MARKET ANALYSIS
--------------------------​

Let's take a look at some of the recent successful titles and of course the original IP to see if we can spot some similarities and room for improvement.

Synopsis
Most zelda-like games today suffer from similar low LOD graphics (pixel), do not match zelda's quality gamefeel in combat controls, do not match zelda's level of puzzle quality and do not have multiplayer.

I think standing out from the crowd and being successful can be achieved with the key differentiators

1. Improve graphics to a higher LOD such as 2d sprites rendered from 3d models, environment lighting and particle effects
2. Match or exceed Link to the Past combat gamefeel
3. Include layered puzzles throughout open world environments and dungeons
4. Include tools that unlock new paths/rewards in previously played areas
5. If budget and expertise allows consider a multiplayer mode

• 
• Hook: Zelda's hook is a longstanding IP, super high quality design, art, sound, puzzles (Nintendo).
• Strengths
  • Nintendo Quality
  • Puzzles
  • World Exploration
  • Familiarity
  • Cartoony enemies and graphics
• Weaknesses
  • Simple G rated Themed is lacking for adult tastes
  • High budget
  • Long release cycles
  • Single player
• Opportunity
  • Can push for a more adult theme and plot for aging players with matured taste
  • Move to devices not yet supported by Nintendo
  • Develop in a more agile and transparent fashion
  • Not held down by brand protection or established fan expectation
  • Multiplayer

• 
• Developer: Digital Sun Publisher: 11 bit studios
  Genre: Action, Adventure, Indie
  Release date: May 29, 2018 Price: $19.99
  Score rank: 39% Userscore: 74% Old userscore: 75% Metascore: 78%
  Owners: 50,000 .. 100,000
• Hook: Moonlighters hook was that the game would combine shop simulators with dungeon looting. The player needs to fill his store with loot, decorate it, set prices and manage the store during the day before going out and collecting loot at night.
• Strengths
  • Genre Blending for innovation
  • Procedural elements for good replayability
  • Marketing well received
  • Good plot
• Weaknesses
  • S*** store - While fun It turns out the store feature was overly simplistic and felt tacked on
  • Linear crafting - A huge mistake they made was that in order to craft the next item you had to have the exact previous item, later if you wanted to change out of say that helmet for a different one you would be forced to gather the raw ingredients for every helmet in that line before.
  • Limited gear options - Each item type was split only between limited variants, 2 for weapons and 3 for armor.
  • Single player
  • Pixel Graphics
• Opportunity
  • It wouldn't be hard to build a better store feature, the plot could be altered that people in the future highly prize relics and foodstuff of the past.
  • Non-linear crafting
  • Wider item variety
  • Can research Moonlighters kickstarter campaign to reverse engineer our own
  • I think Moonlighters recent success for mediocre depth is a clear sign that the market want's this style of game and it's not oversaturated.
  • Multiplayer

• Developer: ConcernedApe Publisher: Chucklefish
  Genre: Indie, RPG, Simulation
  Release date: Feb 26, 2016 Price: $14.99
  Score rank: 97% Userscore: 97% Old userscore: 97% Metascore: 89%
  Owners: 2,000,000 .. 5,000,000 -
• Most think of SV as a farming sim and dating sim but dungeon diving for ore is an important part of the game and uses the same top down view and orthogonal attack system in zelda-likes. The Hook for SV was that everything, including sound, art and code was all made by 1 person for 7 years that picked up a lot of traction from amazing word of mouth because the game was so deep and addicting.
• Key Features
  • Plot
  • Discovery
  • Farming
  • Dating
  • Seasons
• Strengths
  • Long calm gameplay
  • Lots of items and combinations to discover
  • Great plot and npc story interactions
  • Rare items hard to collect
• Weaknesses
  • Artwork is primitive
  • Pixel Graphics
  • Primitive combat controls and weapons
  • Limited enemy types/patterns
  • Single player
• Opportunity
  • Easy to outshine combat controls and enemy types
  • New territory - There hasn't been, to my knowledge, a farming game that explores the concept of farming crystals and sci-fi mythological animals and produce
  • Multiplayer
• Developer: KintoGames Publisher: KintoGames
  Genre: Action, Adventure, Indie, RPG
  Release date: Dec 15, 2014 Price: $3.99
  Score rank: 57% Userscore: 83% Old userscore: 82%
  Owners: 100,000 .. 200,000
• Key Features
  • Random gear with randomized stats drops from enemies and chests
  • Very lite gameplay - 4 direction buttons, auto attack in direction moving if enemy present and only uses 1 button for enhanced attack, block, charge attack, interact
• Strengths
  • Simplified combat - move direction auto attacks
  • One button
  • Quick addiction - Something about boiling gameplay to a super simple style causes you to lock in and focus on repetitive actions and exploration even though you don't feel much in the way of joy or satisfaction
• Weaknesses
  • Interact and attack button are the same, often players will unintentionally swap gear with worse gear on the ground mid combat (It's even possible to accidentally pick up a shield dropping your 2 handed weapon resulting in non attacks, and if you move offscreen there is no way to recover a weapon except running back to a starting camp! lol)
  • S*** UI; non-existent inventory and menus
  • Very poor polish on many aspects
  • No map
  • Not much player agency outside of combat
  • Super repetitive combat
  • Very poor enemy variety attack patterns, even bosses share the same dungeon layout and feel the same as each other in combat
  • Pixel Graphics

• Opportunity

• Better variety of enemies and attack patterns
• Good example of randomized loot stats and abilities
• Can easily out polish with better graphics, screen effects, sound, music and voice acting

​

Crypt of the NecroDancer

Developer: Brace Yourself Games Publisher: Brace Yourself Games, Klei Entertainment
Genre: Action, Indie, RPG
Release date: Apr 23, 2015 Price: $2.99 80%
Score rank: 95% Userscore: 96% Old userscore: 96% Metascore: 87%
Owners: 500,000 .. 1,000,000
Wow this game is great, there's something about the polished gameplay (but not graphics) that is super addicting and fun. Maybe one of the most inspiring and under appreciated games of the decade.
Features

• Turn based gameplay matched to rhythm
• Rogue like permadeth
• Sustained upgrades between deaths
• Super catchy soundtrack
• Destructible terrain

Strengths

• Super unique addicting gameplay
• High replayability
• Enemy patterns predictable (easy to learn and spot) yet challenging because of rhythm mechanic overlay

Weaknesses

• Low polish graphics
• Poor marketability
• Off-putting to new users (Can sound stupid, too weird or too hard)

Opportunity

• Cloning the rhythm mechanic for mini game or challenges could be a big hit
• Lots of unique inspiring level and enemy designs
• A remastered clone for mobile could be a huge hit

 

(tagging to read more after work)

 

Thanks be to whoever moved my thread to the correct forum.

 

Will read later when not on mobile. Cudos for the energy you are putting in. Will look for Zelda templates later

 

I've enjoyed top down 2d Zelda since I was 3 years old and its still my favorite kind of genre to this day.

My friend and I were talking about Soccer and it's worlwide success and he compared it to Boxing and MMA. From his perspective, which I agree with, people either like things boiled down to really simple compoments (kick ball with feet, only fight with hands) or they like wide open options (MMA use everything).

I think Zelda-like is my favorite narrow-band gameplay style. And for an indie I think that's something that easier to deliver on and polish well. Fixed camera, limited attack directions, limited movement, limited item set. VS say an over the shoulder 3rd person run and combat platformer. Those games are great, but its so hard to deliver a smooth experience to the player, theres so much nuance to the camera controls, the camera speed, snap, distance, the way the player moves, the ledges they can touch etc. I think it's good for small teams to focus down on a narrow skillset core mechanic (soccer vs rugby) and deliver really well on it with lots of polish!

 

Plot notes 01
https://soundcloud.com/bud-leiser/pta01

 

I came up with some alternate Plots you can vote for them here
https://forum.unity.com/threads/pol...s-which-is-your-favorite.536941/#post-3538390

A) An Evil prince from another world has frozen your fiancé and is taking her back to be his queen. You commandeer a mech and chase after him!

B)10y wakes from cryopreservation in a strange laboratory and is guided by a friendly AI as he’s is attacked by robots.

C) Scientisits send a young man back in time to stop the apocalypse war.

D) Automated drones control the world, you are a pilot in a small resistance trying to save humanity.

E) You are a war orphan raised by MECH pirates your life mission is to seek fame fortune and glory!

F) A TV gameshow where players run MECHs through deadly gauntlets for prizes.

G) A human meets an alien princess of another world, accidentally marries her and now must protect his new kingdom.

 

------------------------
VOICE ACTING
------------------------​

Uploading some voice acting samples/ideas. Check them out here:
https://anchor.fm/dark-hydra-games

*Note I don't travel with sound equipment so everything is unedited and recorded using just an iphone. Not meant to be production quality, meant only as sample voice types for characters.

------------------------
LEVEL DESIGN
------------------------
​

Principles:
We want to keep the game quick to learn, easy to operate, with layered complexity coming from enemies, puzzles and traps not from controls. To this end we need to set some design principles to adhere to

• 3 Floor maximum dungeon layout: To not overly confuse the player dungeons are limited to 3 floors maximum. Teleporters can be used but should be used sparingly. Same with sudden elevation changes from basement to 2nd or vice versa. Designs and discussion should use the following abbreviations
  • Bf = Basement Floor
  • Gf = Ground Floor
  • 2f =2nd Floor
• Staircases

 

I dunno if this idea is stupid or brilliantly hilarious:

We could have some reward boxes (chests) that require 'hacking' and spoof on TV tropes of how badly they potray hacking.

We could have voice over as the words appear HACK THE MAINFRAME, then a pop up window with a matrix like code or 'zooming through fiber optic table'...and then load a freaking PONG minigame! Super basic graphics, grayscale, but with hip music, accelerating ball and flashing move trail to make it a little modern but still nostalgic. There is a certain timing for the animations and sound to get the punchline effect for this to be really funny. As the player progresses through the game the AI paddle could be set to return move hits and each hit definitely should increase the ball speed. This shouldn't be a long drawn out game, 5 seconds average 10 seconds max.

I dunno I just had several minutes of cracking up at the thought of that as HACKING! And if it makes the player laugh it's totally worth it.

#randomthoughtsorgenius?

 

2018/06/24 Thread is becoming unruly to edit. Starting a port to wiki here
https://sites.google.com/site/darkhydrastudios/
CANCELLED I thought it being google it would be quick, easy to use and have drag and drop features. It's none of those things.

UGH Why are these wiki editors so bad? Found a good one, had a free trial I figured no big deal test some features.... easy to drag and drop images...Maybe it'll be <$9 a month to use for a few users right? NOPE! Starts at $99 per month! Are you kidding me? Ugh.

Going to keep looking.

 

Reddit is my wiki
Game doc will be updated here. Anyone may view and comment.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkHydra/

 

Plots and elements sound like 12 Monkeys and/or Terminator, more than Back to the Future.

IMO - Two of Zelda's greatest hooks are being overlooked. Story which is a simple one but much loved in the way Nintendo story tellers continue to morph and tell it, and (imo) single player. There was one (ds?) multiplayer game which allowed for up to 4 Links at one time. Don't know if that sold well or met/exceeded expectations, but from a fan of story driven, single player zelda like games, seems like those two 'hooks' are very important to that 'type' of game.

I think your right on the mark with your description of the players feel, interaction, reaction and fx of the player character interacting with the world. That is a huge! reason Zelda games, in particular A Link to the Past is such a high quality, great game.

I'd bet there are probably more retro gamers and gamers who don't care or even enjoy pixel art games, than those who do not like or would not play a game because it has pixel graphics. I don't see this as a weakness. Alternative point of view, Moonlighter has a very high standard/quality of pixel art which is a strength rather than a weakness. Similar in respect to quality to other high production value pixel art games, Slain, Chasm, Tooth & Tail, Children of Morta, Eitr, Death's Gambit, Hyper Light Drifter, Crawl, Into The Breach, Wizard of Legend, Iconoclasts, and many more which have all benefited from focused, high production value including high production value pixel art.

Beyond disagreeing about pixel graphics as a negative/weakness - I pretty much concur with all the points made in the assessments of other games in the market analysis. Great detail. I'm interested in seeing what you come up with. Not that interested in the multi-player aspect, but if you can pull it off I suspect a lot of gamers will praise that effort.

 

Thanks!

I want to preface and say I love these games, but I have to find faults to compete on otherwise I'm not doing my 'job'. It hurts to kill the things you love and dissect them but it's for the greater good.

Maybe your right, but I'm not particularly impressed with the plot of Zelda. I think the uniqueness of characters is fantastic, but beyond that there's really no deep plot, or twist or anything that makes the story of Zelda stand out compared to other adventure games. Which in turn makes it attractive to the common denominator of wide age groups. Still a better lover story than Twilight we can agree right?

Single Player as a hook? I think were drowning in single player games. The point of a hook is to highlight a market differentiator so that you can market yourself and stand out. Can it be a hook yes, should it be? Probably not.

Could be true, but I'm not interested in going down that route for 5-10 years. Every choice we make is a building block for our future games in our experience, staff and player expectations. I don't want to be known as a pixel art game studio. And again, I love a lot of pixel art gams but I have to attack the things I love to build a compelling differentiator.

Also I do see a lot pixel art games, like the ones above, selling for a lot less despite their great gameplay and I do think the pixel art lowers the player perceived value or willingness to spend higher amounts. So I am calling it a weakness.

Thanks for the wonderful and well thought out commentary I really appreciate the feedback.