CPSC 4160/6160: �Milestone 1 Presentation�

Julia Lokerson

CPSC 4160

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Game Description

Title - “In Your Dreams”

Genre - 2D Side Scrolling Platformer

Game Story

A sleepy sheep has had his magic blanket stolen from his bed, which is now being used to conjure up nightmares all across the dream world. To get it back, the player must tackle platforming challenges to get 3 keys to open a boss door and get the blanket back

Game Objective

The player must obtain 3 different keys from 3 different platforming rooms, each with a different kind of challenge (scale a large gap, fight enemies, etc.)

Once they have collected the keys, they can open the boss door, allowing them to access the final boss fight. They must damage the weak point 3 times in order to defeat the boss and beat the game

Game Mechanics

Platforming - The core gameplay of “In Your Dreams” is platforming based, player’s will control P.J. in various levels to conquer platforms, enemies, and bosses

Run and Jump - Using the left and right arrow keys, the player can move left and right across the screen. The player can jump with the space bar to complete platforming puzzles

Attack - to damage enemies and bosses, players can attack using the left mouse button. Most enemies will only take 2 or 3 hits to destroy

Game Mechanics

Cloud Pillows - Following P.J. are 3 small floating cloud “pillows”

When the player jumps or is in the air, they can hit the spacebar again to summon a cloud beneath their feet

This allows the player to gain more height and keep safe from enemies. The player can do this up to 3 times to chain clouds together to traverse great heights and distances.

These clouds will disappear after a short while, meaning the player must act quickly lest they fall back down. If they try to summon more than 3, the oldest one will disappear

Inspirations

Clouds inspired by “Cloud Flower” power-up from Super Mario Galaxy 2

Target Audience

Age: 8+ and up

Sex: All genders

Subgroups:

• Fans of puzzle-platformers
• Casual gamers who enjoy charming, low-stress experiences but still seek engaging puzzles and boss battles.
• Younger audiences drawn to the dream-like art style and whimsical characters.�

"In Your Dreams" will appeal to players who enjoy casual platformers with a whimsical dream-like setting. It caters to fans of retro-inspired, 2D side-scrollers but adds a fresh twist with its unique cloud-platform mechanic.

Color Palette

Dark Night Skies

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Dream Like Pastels

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Themes and Environments

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Entities and Characters

P.J. (Protagonist): A sleepy, determined sheep whose main goal is to retrieve his stolen magic blanket.

“Cloud Pillows” follow him, indicating amount he can use to platform

He attacks enemies with his bed pillow

Entities and Characters

Nightmare Minions: Creatures conjured from Lunafur’s nightmares, serving as obstacles. Some examples could include:

Sleepy Terrors: Small, fast creatures that lunge at P.J. from a distance.

Drowsy Drones: Flying creatures that fire projectiles that damages the player and break clouds

Entities and Characters

Lunafur (Main Antagonist): A dark, imposing figure who has stolen the blanket. She uses nightmare creatures to block P.J.’s progress.

Paws can fly freely across the screen to attack the player

Wolf Mask is her weak point, so the player will have to use their clouds to reach it and break the mask

Game Info - Environments

Main hub:

Contains 3 doors to 3 different platforming challenges, each containing a key

Boss door is at the top, with 3 locks that needs 3 keys to open

Game Info - Environments

Platform Room: Rooms where the player will have to fight enemies or complete a challenge to earn a key to progress further

Game Info - Environments

Boss Room: Lunafur’s liar

Contains the final boss fight of the game

Modules

General ideas, subject to change

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Software Architecture

GameLoop: Manages the main game loop, including input handling, game state updates, and rendering.

Player: Manages player movement, jumping, and interaction with cloud platforms.

Cloud: Represents the cloud platforms with a position and duration; can be updated and rendered.

Enemy: Handles enemy movement, attacks, health, and interactions with the player.

LevelManager: Loads, manages, and progresses through game levels by tracking platforms, enemies, and keys.

LevelData: Stores level-specific objects like platforms, enemies, keys, and doors.

Menu: Displays menu options and allows navigation through and selection of options.

Boss: Controls the boss's movement, attacks, phases, and weak points during the battle.

CollisionDetection: Manages collision detection and resolution between game objects.

Health: Tracks and manages the health of enemies, the boss, and potentially the player.

Timeline - Priority Modules

High Priority:

Player Movement (Player Class)

• Core interaction in the game; player movement and jumping need to work for any game logic to be tested.

Collision Detection (CollisionDetection Class)

• Essential for interactions between the player, platforms, and enemies.

Cloud Platforms (Cloud Class)

• Platforms form the environment where the player can jump and move, main game gimmick

Game Loop (GameLoop Class)

• To manage the main game logic including updates, rendering, and event handling.

Timeline - Priority Modules

Medium-Priority Modules:

Level Management (LevelManager Class)

• Defines how levels are structured, how the player progresses, and spawns keys.

Enemies (Enemy Class)

• Core game challenge; the player must avoid or defeat enemies.

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Timeline - Priority Modules

Lower-Priority Modules (for later milestones):

Boss Logic (Boss Class)

• More advanced gameplay; however, this can be added after the basic enemy logic works.

Menus (Menu Class)

• For game navigation, such as starting, pausing, or exiting the game.

Timeline - Milestone 2

By Milestone 2, will need:

• Player movement
• Sprites likely simple at this point
• Jump, move left/right, attack
• Cloud platform functionality
• Spawning clouds below player
• Cloud counter
• Basic Enemies
• Grounded enemy movement + attack
• Flying enemy movement + attack
• Test Room Layout
• Start with hub room as test room
• Basic collision detection

Timeline - Milestone 3

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By Milestone 3, will need:

• Final Room Layout
• Levels 1 - 3
• Boss Room
• Boss AI
• Phases 1 to 3 Attack Patterns
• Weak Points
• Game Menus
• Start screen
• End screen
• Music + Sound Effects