Exodus Omega

DESIGN DOCUMENT

Introduction        2

Game Summary Pitch        2

Inspiration        2

Player Experience        3

Platform        3

Development Software        3

Genre        3

Target Audience        3

Concept        4

Gameplay overview        4

Mechanics        4

Art        5

Design        5

Audio        5

Music        5

Sound Effects        5

Game Experience        6

UI        6

Controls        6

Tutorials Used        6

Development Timeline        7

Introduction

Game Summary Pitch

        Omega Exodus is a survival horror game with metroidvania elements. You navigate through a ship with inaccessible areas, later made accessible through gear or powers the player character obtain, all while avoiding enemies and fighting big mutant bosses.

Inspiration

Resident Evil 1 - 3

The classic Resident Evil games serve as inspiration for the gameplay, you’ll navigate a ship in a similar way to the mansion in RE1 or the police station in RE2. The game will have tank controls as the default just like these games and I’m also hoping for a similar level of tension.

System Shock 2

System Shock 2 serves as inspiration for the game's aesthetic and scenario, you’ll be trapped on a ship with zombies and other mutated creatures. Hoping I can also include more immersive sim style interaction with the world too, although that may have to come later.

Player Experience

The player will have to navigate a ship full of zombies with a couple weapons and later a powerup or two. These weapons and power ups should also have secondary uses like accessing other parts of the game.

Platform

The game is developed to be released on windows PC

Development Software

• Unity 2022.3.36f1 with Visual Studio 2022 and ShaderLabVS for programming
• Blender and Unity Probuilder for models
• Aseprite for textures and UI
• Sound is to be determined later, probably will be using pre-made assets

Genre

Survival horror, metroidvania

Target Audience

This game is intended to be handed in as part of my 3D games assignment but will also be used as my submission for Metroidvania Month 26. Therefore, the game should appeal to fans of the Metroidvania genre. As survival horrors are already metroidvania-like (just with key and puzzle gated progression instead of ability gated progression) this shouldn’t be too big of an issue. Of course another target audience would be fans of survival horror games.

Concept

Gameplay overview

The player navigates a spaceship, trying to find a way to end an outbreak which has occurred. To do this the player must fight or avoid zombies, mutants and other such monsters whilst managing their resources effectively. The player may obtain weapons and power-ups throughout the game which will help them tackle these enemies but also help with navigation throughout the ship. The player may be forced into boss fights with stronger and more terrifying enemies throughout the game.

Mechanics

• Basic movement – Walking and running using tank controls. Dedicated run button. Tank controls can be switched out for more modern controls for accessibility purposes if time allows
• Weapon usage – A melee weapon (possible a metal pipe or something else which could easily be found on a ship), a pistol and a shotgun may be used
• Powers – An electricity attack capable of stunning enemies, can be used in certain puzzles (e.g. to power up a door, to light up a room like a lantern). Has an MP bar which the player will need to manage.

Art

Design

The game will be in 3D and in keeping with the games that serve as inspiration it will be low poly. The colour palette will be full of blues, purples, greys and reds to give it a sci-fi kind of look. That may be all for the game jam submission depending on the amount of time I have left. By the assignment deadline I hope to create a toon shader for some stylisation, maybe add some bloom too to make certain effects pop.

Audio

Music

To be decided upon later, I don’t know how to create music, so I’ll have to use pre-made assets.

Sound Effects

Footsteps are a must, and should be able to react to the type of floor which the player is walking on although this can be implemented at a later stage. Gun sounds should sound crunchy. Enemy sounds should sound obviously like enemies, use this to create tension (e.g. enemy sounds when there aren’t any on screen, etc.).

Game Experience

UI

Will use pixel art for the UI as that’s what I’m familiar with. Like Resident Evil the UI will be kept as minimal as possible whilst playing the game. Menus can be basic for the jam submission but should be improved upon for the assignment submission. Menus should include an inventory system at least.

Controls

Keyboard

        WASD for movement, mouse for using weapons and abilities
Gamepad

        D-pad / analogue stick for movement, triggers and face buttons for using weapons and abilities, perhaps use the right analogue stick for weapon/power selection using a radial menu

Tutorials Used

https://catlikecoding.com/unity/tutorials/custom-srp/

Development Timeline