THE APP? (a.k.a. Warriorman VS. the Bad Demons)^[a]

The APP is an semi-nonlinear action game set in eastern influenced world. You play as a warrior whose task is to seal the portal to the underworld before the underworld merges with the surface world. You decide which path you want to take and which actions need to be made to reach your goal.

Due to the recent slow in productivity, streamlining of ideas will take place. Complexities can be worked back in a later time. Streamlined ideas will be marked as such with old text italicized between asterisks like so: *text*

Basics

Genre: Platformer

Number of Players: 1

Story

As it is, our story begins long ago in a time when the portal to the underworld was open. Demons roamed the lands filling all peoples with fear. The elders managed to banish the demons and seal the portal. The kingdom prospered for many a year until somehow the portal opened again. Could it be that the demons freed themselves? Or was it someone from the surface world? But why? A lone warrior will find out and seal the portal once again.

How he goes about it is your choice.

That’s written entirely poorly, but the gist is all that matters.

Storytelling:

*There will be no walls of text nor traditional cutscenes. At most, there will be snippets of dialogue between enemies and NPCs that would have something useful to say. I stress “useful” to ensure that no worthless piece of dialogue crosses the player’s screen at any moment.

It is planned for every cutscene to be interactive to some degree whether that be instigating the actions of the cutscene or witnessing firsthand, through the gameplay, what the cutscene may entail. No cutscene must be endured and it is in the player’s hands how much of the story they wish to ingest. All cutscenes can be skipped or ran away from.

These sequences are likely to occur at the start and end of story arcs(explained in game progression).

For example:

The intro cutscene could show several elders making their way to a temple where the portal is located. Before long, the player takes control of one of the elders. The gameplay actions are limited to moving left or right and a most basic attack. The game will only scroll right and not left. The player could encounter demons and unleash their attack on them without worry of losing. They would make their way to the portal and perform the context sensitive action of closing the portal. The portal closes and the screen fades to black. The goal here is to keep the player involved with nearly everything that happens on screen.*

Streamline: I’d rather not replace interactive cutscenes with text and still pictures, but there may be no other choice. I’d be more in favor of story elements being implied by what’s in game even if this means just having subtle objects or characters in the scene.

Example: Going down a path leads you to a house. You’re ambushed by demons and the house catches on fire. The fire itself is the story element. If that path isn’t chosen, there is no fire. At the end of the level, there is a crying family. There is no interaction with them, you simply see them cry.

Game Progression

*The progression will allow for a kind of dynamic length to the game. The world map could be likened to Castlevania III in that you see the world map in its entirety, or perhaps just a large portion, but only the levels visited and directly ahead are visible to the player. The player will know where they have been but not where they are going exactly.

The construction of the gameworld allows for designers to work independently from each other to a certain extent. This employs the use of ‘story arcs’.

Story arcs in the context of this game are small sets of levels that are independent from one another. By taking a certain exit or action within a level, the player will end up on a different path. These paths may contain story elements that are tied together through certain levels. These would remain simple and short and could also tie to the main story arc of the game, e.i. to seal the portal to the underworld.

For (poor)example:

A1-A2-A3-ABOSS----

      |                            |-C1-C2.....

    B1-B2-B3-BBOSS-

           |                      |

         D1-DBOSS-----

The exact number of story arcs and levels contained is to be determined by the output of the designers as well as the graphic artists. So long as all levels made are approved to standards(standards being quality of design, fun, theme, and story) there is potentially no limit to the number of possible levels. However, the core story arc of levels must be completed on paper before moving on to designing other possible arcs.

Player progress from one level to the next in one of two ways.

I. Players find the level exit. This could possibly be locked behind a door or blocked by rubble, etc. The exit to the level is somewhat obvious after traversing it. There could possibly be more than one exit to a level in this fashion. For example, taking the high road or the low road.

II. The actions taken within a level determine the which level is next. Completely or failed objectives could lead to one level or another to be determined by the context of the level and actions taken. Some could be as simple as helping or not helping someone. Others could be more complex leading to multiple possibilities for the next level.*

Streamlined: Will the worldmap will still be present as it was, the scope of the branching paths will be limited. Instead of several arcs weaving together, we have a few levels for each level number. So there would be a set of level 2s, 3s, etc. Each level would have different exits or events that lead to different levels.

Example:

    2a-3a-4a

1- 2b-3b-4c-5-...

    2c-3c-4c

Level one can access levels 2a, 2b, and 2c. Level 2a can access 3a and 3b and so on. This can be adjusted so that there are only two different paths or we can different numbers of levels for each level place. For now, two sets of levels would be the minimum.

Gameplay Elements

• Branching paths as addressed by the Game Progression section.
• Permanent weapons would be acquired rarely. The player will start out with a sword and could find new weapons as they progress. Weapons are very distinctive from one another as no weapon should handle the same as another.
• Powerups grant abilities in one of a few ways:

• Temporary. The player finds the powerup and it have unlimited uses for a limited time(likely a few seconds). This type of powerup is lost and the end of a level even if time remains in its use.
• Limited. This powerup has a visible number of uses before exhausting. These kinds of powerups would likely be magic and/or throwing weapons.
• Permanent. These are more akin to useful items that grant abilities such as a grabbing hook or a hi-jump. These can be used as many times as the player wishes across levels once the player find them.

• Collectables: These could serve as scoring items if we choose to have a score system. Otherwise they could be used to unlock secrets or achievements.
• Combat

• Each encounter is a meaningful battle. It will be important for the player to learn the styles and patterns of each enemy of the game to progress. Combat starts simply with standing slashes and timed blocks but advances to crouched slashes, jumps, and dodges. A combination of these moves will be necessary to defeat later enemies.

• Example: The player encounters a guard at the gate of a fortress. Choice comes into play as the player can evade the guard but in this instance goes for the kill. The player sprints toward the guard and does a quick slash, knocking the guard back. The guard retaliates by charging forward in a similar fashion. The player can jump over the guard and go for a quick kill from behind. Other possibilities include attempting to block the guard or dodge the charge and approach the battle normally.

Design Elements(outdated)

At this moment in time, it cannot be determined with certainty what the look of the game will be or how the music will sound. The following is what is envisioned for the time being.

Graphics: Influenced by feudal Japanese art, but not to the extent to something like Okami. Resolution could be low or high. More importantly, the graphics should be consistent. Animation should also take priority as the nature of the combat should be represented fluidly.

For the sake of the artists, a resolution as low as 320x240 would be acceptable but a simple pitch could change that easily.

Music: Like the graphics, a feudal Japanese influence. However, modern influences are welcomed.(I know little about music and would have to discuss all matters of music with someone who knows it)

Character Actions and Input

Actions:

1. Walk
2. Sprint - a short burst of speed
3. Crouch - the player can attack lower than while standing and could avoid high hits and projectiles
4. Crawl - the players crawls if moving while crouched
5. Slide - the player will slide down steep surfaces
6. Jump
7. Wall Cling - if the surface of the wall is grabable(vines, ladder, etc) the player will cling to it and possible could move up or down
8. Wall Jump - the player can jump off a wall in the opposite direction of the original jump. quick timing would be required for a successful wall jump
9. Climb - much like 7 for ladders and other climbable surfaces
10. Push  - pushing boxes or other such items
11. Pull - see above
12. Lift - for when the item is light enough to lift
13. Throw - throw the item in the direction faced. could possible employ an aiming system
14. Attack - standard slash of a sword. influenced by the state of the character (standing, crouching, jumping, etc.)
15. Interact - for reading signs or communicating with NPCs

Input:

Customizable controls.

The input should remain simple and limited to as few keys as possible.

Arrow keys to move.

Z to jump

X to slash(affected by arrow keys such as: up will slash upward, down will do a crouched slash)

shift to sprint

There could be a separate interact key or it could be shared with jumping or slashing

Members

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