TAMOANCHAN

Contents

Page 1

Title Page

Page 2 - 3

        Contents        

Page 4

Section 1 - Overview 

               - 1.1 INTRODUCTION

      - 1.2 GAME OVERVIEW

      - 1.3 UNIQUE SELLING POINTS

Page 5

     - 1.4 MECHANICS OF PLAY

       - 1.5 GENRE

       - 1.6 CONTENT

Page 6

      - 1.7 INDUSTRY

        - 1.8 CHOICE OF GAME 

Section 2   - Mechanics

       - 2.1 MECHANICS IN DEPTH

Page 7

       - 2.2 WIN/LOSE CONDITIONS

Page 8

         - 2.3 ENVIRONMENT MANIPULATION

                      - 2.4 POWERUPS AND MUTATORS

                      - 2.5 MULTIPLAYER

Page 9

Section 3    - Target Audience

        - 3.1 TARGET AUDIENCE

          - 3.2 ENVIRONMENT

Page 10

Section 4     - Design

           - 4.1 RESEARCH

           - 4.2 CHARACTERS

Page 11

           - 4.3 LEVELS

Page 12

Section 5      - Tech

            - 5.1 AUDIO

            - 5.2 UNITY AND JAVASCRIPT

Page 13

Action Plan

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Tamoanchan puts the player in control of one of four powerful Aztec deities. These Gods are competing with one another for dominion over the paradise of Tamoanchan, and thus humanity as we know it.

1.2 GAME OVERVIEW

Tamoanchan is an engaging, stylised multiplayer game which offers the player a chance to play as one of four quirky characters with unique visual traits. Two to four players will battle it out in an arena to become the supreme combatant.

The game itself will be played on a single console on a single screen and therefore the game camera will be fixed in an isometric position to give all the players a clear 3D perspective of the grid and no one player will be at a visual advantage. Tamoanchan  is intended for arcade-style play, providing the full engaging group entertainment of the classic amusement arcades.

Technology has made the arcade game all but obsolete, arcade-style is often imitated in online games, but barely ever as a multiplayer split screen game. Modern console games attempt to imitate this with ‘Wii Sports’ and novelty Kinect games, yet they have not come close to recreating the intensely competitive, yet gratifying atmosphere of local-multiplayer games; something that seems to only be used in shooters, mini games and beat-em-ups in recent years.

Tamoanchan draws influence from multi-player party bash games such as Crash Bash (from Naughty Dog), Mario Kart (from Nintendo), Wario Ware (also Nintendo) and Monkey Ball Boxing (from Super Monkey Ball by Amusement Vision) for it’s hectic and competitive atmosphere both in the game and out of game, the meta-game environment.

1.3 UNIQUE SELLING POINTS

• Tamoanchan plays as a multiplayer party-bash game. The simple, easy to pick up mechanics of this game will mean that it will provide playability for all ages and levels of gaming experiences.
• Contains themes that should appeal to people of all ages and walks of life and animations that will provide light humour in this fast paced party game.

• Charming visuals coupled with instant multiplayer engagement instead of the ever popular online match-matching. In doing this the game will provide a classic arcade-style physicality to the social aspect of this party based game.

• The visuals and ranged barrage saturates the game of the violence that many games add as part of the norm of modern video-games.

1.4 MECHANICS OF PLAY

This is a fun and jovial competitive game that incorporates indirect conflict and competition for up to 4 players. Tamoanchan requires players to battle with wits and quick reflexes on a constantly shifting field. Players start all upon the same ground and there are no mechanical advantages to each. Only through on-the-fly strategy and wits can players best each other in the rapidly deteriorating arena.

Using the very arena they fight in, players attempt to knock one another from the play field in a frantic four way battle. Collecting temporary power ups will provide an edge over opponents as players fore-go the original limitations that they are set to deliver more powerful play, adding to the fast paced and varied engagement in the game. Should players fail to be the last man standing in a particular time frame, the game will enter sudden death. Where the game-space begins to fall apart to add to the game’s hectic environment, until the remaining combatants are fighting away on a tiny island.

Tamoanchan will incorporate simple controls to decrease the barrier of entry for players of all degrees so that it can be played by a wide market, bringing players of many kinds together, as any local multi-player party game should.

1.5 GENRE

Tamoanchan should be classified under the party genre. This is exactly what the game will be, a social gathering of players in a fun and uplifting atmosphere taking into consideration the contingency of being in close proximity with fellow players with friendly banter and jostling of public community-play.

1.6 CONTENT

The game places emphasis on the visual style instead of being a game revolving around the story, in this way players can take the characters and make them their own. Tamoanchan provides a short narrative insight into each of the characters, though this does not have impact on the mechanics or play. The world is intended to be small and easy to read as a game environment, but the mechanics and fast paced play should engross the player within this space.

1.7 INDUSTRY

The aim of Tamoanchan is to be accessible to everyone. The game will have a need of strategy and a learning curve so that players can learn new tactics , this makes the game marketable to hardcore gamers. At the same time, the game will be effected by the chance of power-ups and altered difficulty depending on the number of players, this opens the game up to those who may not be used to party games or games at all.

1.8 CHOICE OF GAME

At a time when a lot of multiplayer games are primarily played online, Tamoanchan will offer players the chance to play against each other in time-honoured community presence. We chose this game to try and stand out and bring back an arcade-style, local multiplayer to be enjoyed without major practice and time-input. Multiplayer is a popular area of modern gaming, though it is often underrated in games and is usually only offered as part of a secondary game experience behind a single player game.

2.1 MECHANICS IN DEPTH

Tamoanchan is played on a structured grid of cube-shaped blocks, the aim of the game is to raise these blocks from the grid and push them towards the other characters in an attempt to knock them from the grid by pushing them towards each other. Each person will have a choice of four characters to choose from, each character will be easily detectable in the grid with a unique shape and colour, though all characters will be equal in ability. The game is 2 to 4 player only, there will be no AI to play against.

It will begin with each player starting in a corner of the arena grid. The grid will be made up of one base layer of cubes, but at the beginning of a ‘match’ there will be a wall of blocks 1 block thick so that players can’t get knocked out straight away and this should give the players enough chance to get their bearings once they dive into the game. On impact with a character the blocks will cause a knock-back effect on them and be destroyed. Also, the terrain itself will be destructible so, if a block collides with another block both blocks will be destroyed simultaneously.

Players will have free roam of the grid and have a coloured ray-cast in front of their character to indicate which block is selected on the grid. They will then lift the selected block to a height of one block space up which could take up to 1 second. Once a block is lifted, the players will be able to push the blocks in the direction they are facing along either the set X or Y axis on the grid that will be visible from the birds-eye view.

You will be able to lift as many blocks as you want without pushing any, this way they can be used as a defence mechanism, though you must be wary as once a block is raised, any of the other players can push them too. Blocks will leave a gap in the, grid characters can fall down these holes, though pushed blocks will travel over these holes without falling. Over time blocks will rise up from underneath the grid to refill the gaps.

2.2 WIN/LOSE CONDITIONS

If a player falls off the level grid, they would lose the round. They can fall off by either being pushed off the side by an intentional move by another player, or by falling through a hole left after a block has been removed. The player wins if they are the last person left on the grid. The match will be timed so that if the remaining players reach a stalemate situation there will still be an opportunity for some additional fast paced play to take the winning spot. The players will enter a ‘Sudden Death’ mode, in which the outer ring of remaining grid will fall away, making the playing field smaller and smaller until there is only one player left standing.

The player moves freely around the grid in real time, this freedom will allow the player to dodge incoming projectiles from the enemy. The player will need to stand still to conjure up the block from the grid in front of them. The block takes 1 second to pull up into a fixed position. If the lifting is interrupted, the block falls back into it’s previous position. Once a block has been lifted, the player can either push their conjured block in front of them, or they can leave it alone as a temporary defense. The block’s movement is restricted to the grid defined by the blocks. Once a block has been pushed it will leave a gap where the block was pushed from, this adds an extra danger factor as the level progresses, though gaps will be refilled eventually.

2.3 ENVIRONMENT MANIPULATION

The grid environment will be made up of randomly generated ‘normal’ and ‘power-up’ blocks that will come in many shapes, though all will be of equal size. Each grid block will be lift-able and will react the same way when pushed; all blocks will slide across the grid, including over any holes left by previous blocks and with be destroyed on impact with players or blocks or fall of the edge of the grid. Power-up blocks will be activated when one of the special power-up blocks is lifted from the grid and used when the context of the power-up is met. Once power-up blocks have been activated they will turn into a normal cube.

2.4 POWERUPS AND MUTATORS

At the beginning of the game, all players will be on equal ground, with no one character being any more powerful that the others. Power-ups will offer players the chance to have a temporary advantage over other players. Power-up blocks will be very scarce during play and so they will be sought after and players will have to fight over them in order to acquire new abilities. A pick up may allow players a jump/dodge maneuver or a power-up that allows the player to manipulate a whole row of blocks. Power-ups are subject to change, though there will be a variety of power-ups that will cover the enhancement of a range of moves a player will be able to carry out.  

2.5 MULTIPLAYER

Tamoanchan will be capable of being played by up to 4 players at a time. More than 1 player will be required to play this game so that they have someone  to play against as this is a competitive game. The game itself has no Artificial Intelligence (AI), because AI is often an unreliable misrepresentation of a second player and will remove the atmosphere that we hope to create with our game.

3.1 TARGET AUDIENCE

Tamoanchan is aimed towards the general public and exhibition in communal areas as this is a party game that requires a few players to increase communal enjoyment. The game will be easy to pick up and play for those people who will be attending the Game Graduation show. The players can easily jump in and out of the game and wont be required to sit through tutorials or need plot devices to understand the game. The game will  be accessible to all ages as the game wont contain any physical contact and characters will be very animated and comical, therefore the game cannot really be perceived as violent.

3.2 ENVIRONMENT 

Game play will be fast paced and reactive, there will be arena deterioration, rejuvenation and constant combat/movement adds to the quick paced need for ever-changing strategy. Given the ability to manipulate the landscape, the players could potentially construct and mold the level in their favour, making walls and defensive areas which would alter the physical play area. The timing system will give a sense of urgency, as the play state shifts from the normal phase, into Sudden Death. The island’s blocks would slowly drop down to the depths over time, without regenerating to give a smaller play area, thus making it easier to push and be pushed off the level. This coupled with the local, screen sharing multiplayer aspect of sitting near other players creates an excuse to have meta-game distractions, such as pushing players controllers about and obstructing each other.

4.1 RESEARCH

The setting and characters are based loosely from Aztec and Mayan mythology. The situation was inspired from the Aztec creation story ‘Legend of the Five Suns’ and the God characters in this game have been pulled from those featured in the tale. The game name Tamoanchan is a mythical place that has been known for the Gods origins and also where the current manifestation of humans were created.

4.2 CHARACTERS

There are four unique characters for the players to choose from. The block a character is facing will be highlighted according to the character’s own colour, which also matches the icon above their head.

In order from left to right:

Huitzilopochtli: The hummingbird-like sun and war God. She is proud and swift . Her movement will be based off modern fencing. She will move decisively and precise. Never off balance and never wasting a drop of energy, she fights with an unsettling certainty.

Tlaloc: The God of seasonal changes and light rain. He moves with a light-hearted manner, like the falling autumn leaves or a light spring breeze. His movement and character attitude will be based on Monkey Kung Fu.

Tezcatlipoca: Sometimes known as the “Smoking Mirror,” she is the Goddess of night and wind. This jaguar God bounds around in an eccentrically dramatic manner. While not inherently evil, she likes to appear it. Some times with too much relish.

Quetzalcoatl: While spiritual and appreciative, the jolly, feathered, serpent god of fertility, knowledge and agriculture is no less of a warrior compared to the others. He is a lover of simplicity and balance.

Each character has a distinct look, colour and shape that ensures no confusion as to which player is playing whom even at the most intense parts of battle.

4.3 LEVELS

The arena is set high up in the sky upon a floating island made up of pieces of Aztec architecture and chunks of earth. Though these ‘normal’ blocks vary visually, they will all have the same properties with the exception of power-up blocks.

Power-up blocks will be very striking and prominent visually to emphasise their difference from the normal arena. As well has having a unique dressing they will glow in places to further emphasise their importance. Upon the player lifting up a power-up block they will absorb the new strength and the block will transform into an ordinary part of the arena.

5.1 AUDIO

The game’s audio will consist of easy to recognise sounds for each player action, providing audio cues during your opponents actions so that while the game becomes more hectic, the audio would be descriptive enough to raise awareness while your eyes are directed elsewhere.

Ideally the audio will be outsourced to a decent Foley engineer. The sounds should be descriptive of the game’s intent and fiction i.e. a sliding block would make a scraping sound to warn of it’s state, where as the lifting action would make a mystical, blunt and alarming sound so that players can recognise their opponent’s intent and prepare their strategy quickly.

We would need global sound effects (the sounds of foot steps, block scraping, crashes- things that happen despite what character indirectly causes the sound). We also need Meta sounds (for instance menu sounds, clicks, whooshes etc used for feedback and a timer counting down. Lastly, character-specific sounds, for example, sounds that are unique to each character, possibly animal noises mixed with emotive tones and what ever else represents the character and it’s personality.Finally, we would like a small range of catchy soundtracks for the actual play space, possibly

themed as to add to the variety. However, if time does not allow this, one to two tracks would suffice.

5.2 UNITY AND JAVASCRIPT

Our game will be programmed in an object oriented manner with javascript, outsourced to an experienced and capable programmer. It will be programmed in a fashion that would allow us to easily swap out sounds and meshes without the worry of dislodging the scripts. The fundamentals and base mechanics of the game will be programmed early into the development stage so that the game can go into early testing and adjusting. Having an outsourced programmer is beneficial for us to get the most out of our design decisions, letting us tweak, test and finalise the assets to get them to the best of our potential.

Week 1

In the first week, we will need to organise ourselves properly and prepare for the coming weeks. The request for the Unity Pro licenses needs to be placed this early on, so that we are in with the best chance of acquiring some to help us with our project further down the line. At this stage we will also be outsourcing music and making sure we have someone reliable to work with on our audio.

Week 2

Character orthographics will be started by this point and hopefully a couple will be completed so that we can being the modelling for the first character. All of us will be refreshing ourselves with Maya tutorials when we have nothing set to be working on so that we are prepared for when it is our time to take our place in the work pipeline. Organising a production method for the arena blocks will be sorted in this week also so that we can begin modelling the different types as soon as possible.

Week 3

We would like to have a playable build available and we will be trying it out ourselves and organising a time slot and venue that we can use for weekly play-testing. Hopefully the first character model should be finished this week too and orthographics for the next couple of characters will need finishing off so that the rest of the models will be able to be started.

Week 4

Modelling will be continued during the week; work on the second character model should begin now, though by this week some of the block models should be available as well as the first character model, these will be implemented into the white box version of the game. We can now begin our weekly play-testing and testing rota using the basic block version of our game. With constant testing we will be able to enter an iterative production method that our game will benefit from as we should have plenty of time to code, bug-fix and tweak to meet the needs of our target audience and may give us some new ideas that we hadn't considered yet.

Week 5

Alongside modelling this week, we will all need to be learning or recounting how to UV unwrap models, either using Maya or Roadkill to do this. Unwrapping of blocks can be started this week or even completed and taken to texturing stage. Code for the game will need to be tweaked for game play fixes.

Week 6

Rigging of the first two characters will commence this week, it will be completed within the week alongside the modelling of the final two characters. Once the characters are rigged, any UV unwrapping can begin and the unwrapped faces can be taken into Photoshop to begin texturing.

Week 7

Constant contact with our programmer will take place this week so that we can meticulously go through and complete and bug fixes of game changes necessary. We should have the game play mostly sorted by this point in the project as we don't want to be making any drastic design decisions to do with game play at this point. All block textures should be completed by this week and the last 2 models will need completing.

Week 8

The final 2 characters will need rigging this week and animations for characters will begin. We will need to plan character movements and set a target number of animations for each of the four characters. Character texturing can continue alongside the animating so that nothing is held up at this point.

Week 9

All textures and animations will need to be concluded by the end of week 9 so that we have plenty of time  in the next week to fix any underlying issues. We will start preparing advertising for the graduation shop too.

Week 10

Everything will be implemented into the final build of the game. Particle effects and additional engine adjustments will be made. We will organise promotional images and start sketching them out. This will be our final week of play-testing so that we have plenty of time to prepare the game and leave a bit of ambiguity before the unveiling of our final game.

Week 11

Promotional images will be worked on in full by all of us. Planning of the play-space for the graduation show will happen this week as well as any additional planning or promotions. If we can find a reasonably priced print shop we would like to get some large prints made for marketing and beautifying our section at the show.

Week 12

We will be working on a promotional trailer based on our final gaming product. Completion of all paper work and any similar personal project work should be completed during this final week to make sure we are ready for the hand in date.