Stack Overflow Design Document – Escape the death chamber
Team Stack Overflow – Escape the Death Chamber
Detailed Plan of Game
In this game you are in a spaceship trying to escape your captors who are chasing you in their own spaceships. You will have to avoid many obstacles to reach the end of the level and you must do so before the escape doors close. Our game will incorporate different, important mechanics that will need to be mastered to ensure success. You will be able to accelerate, which will fill up your boost meter. You can also brake slightly, which will drain your boost meter. If this boost meter gets filled to the max, you’ll be able to use it to launch your spaceship forward very quickly for a brief amount of time. Another very important mechanic is doing a barrel-roll. This will quickly spin your spaceship in the direction you tell it to and will allow you to sidestep some incoming obstacles.
There will also be some power-ups to pick up to help you complete the levels a little easier. Some power-ups are “Boost Fill”, which will immediately fill up your boost meter, and “Time Extension”, which will grant you a few more seconds to reach the end of the level before the escape doors close. Another power-up that will be available is a “Boost Pad”, which works like a typical boost, but instead of filling your boost meter, it simply launches you forward immediately without affecting your boost meter in any way. This gives the player a way to circumvent the need to have a full boost meter by immediately boosting the ship forward.
The “fun” will come from the fast-paced, fun action of the game. It will be fun to try to collect power-ups and hit boost-pads to try to finish the level faster. Using these power-ups will also give the player a sense of adrenaline that will keep them glued to the game. It will also be fun to try and avoid hitting any obstacles while all of this is going on, having to occasionally resort to using the barrel-roll. The avatar control will be very fast, light, and responsive to ensure it is fun. We will also include fun, fast-paced music to go along with the rest of the game.
The “Aha Moment” will come from mastering the barrel-roll mechanic. It will take a little bit of work to do properly, but once performed well, it will give the user a great feeling. One scenario that could generate this “Aha Moment” would be doing several quick barrel-rolls to avoid a series of zig-zagging obstacles. Another scenario could be hitting a boost pad that is placed very close behind an obstacle that will require you to barrel-roll immediately after passing the obstacle to hit the boost pad.
Our target experience for this game is we want it to feel fast and action-packed. We want the levels and ship to look and feel futuristic. We want the avatar control to feel fast, light, and responsive. The action-packed nature of the game will come from the many obstacles to overcome and the power-ups that can be collected to increase the player’s speed and agility. The game will have an on-the-run/desperate feel that will come from the music and the countdown timer to the final doors closing and sealing your doom. Overall, we want the player to feel an adrenaline rush while playing the game.
The tasks needed to complete the game will be divided like this: Michael Zeitz will focus on the polish effects, Willie Owens will focus on implementing the avatar control, and DJ Aniakou will focus on the level design. Although each person has a respective area they’re assigned to, we will all be working on every part of the game.
Minimum Low-Bar
- Ship controls complete
- Acceleration
- Braking
- Light/Responsive controls
- Basic barrel-roll functionality
- Basic obstacles such as pillars
- Closing door at the end
Expected Target
- Refined Barrel-roll functionality
- Boost functionality
- Timer showing when the door will close
- Basic power-ups (Time Extension, Boost Fill)
- Boost Pads
Desired High-Bar
- Polish Effects
- Detailed environment (spacey / futuristic)
- Detailed spaceship
- Detailed explosions (on death and ship’s impact with environment)
- Visible boost meter
- Expanded set of power-ups
- Show the closing door in some sort of view
- Interaction with/fighting the enemy
- More complicated obstacles / level design
- Multiple levels
Timeline
Oct 28-Nov 3
- Layout a basic level with basic obstacles
- Layout a basic spaceship
- Implement closing door at end of level
- Implement on flying mechanics/controls
- Hopefully get started on barrel-roll
Nov 4-Nov 10
- Start/finish a basic barrel roll
- Work on Alpha and implementing changes based on suggestions
- Start boost functionality
Nov 11-Nov 17
- Refine flying controls and barrel-roll
- Add timer for door closing
- Start work on boost functionality
- Start working on level design that complements the game mechanics
Nov 18-Nov 24
- Work on power-ups / boost pads
- Finish level design
- Add polish / sound effects
Nov 25-Dec 2
- Refine power-ups / boost / barrel-roll as necessary
- Refine level based on playtesting feedback
Target Feature Set for Alpha Build (Nov 6 + Nov 8)
- What features are we targeting?
- Light and responsive flying mechanics (most important)
- Basic obstacles (pillars, etc.)
- Basic barrel-roll functionality (straight left/right)
- Potentially have boost functionality
- Why are we targeting these features?
- These are the most important features of the game
- Barrel-roll and Boost will provide the most fun in the game (we hope)
- The flying controls need to be just right for the game to be fun
- What we hope to learn by having people play-test it
- To get feedback on the overall feel of the flying mechanics
- Are they responsive?
- Are they frustrating in any way?
- What could be improved?
- Test out barrel-roll
- Responsive enough?
- Fun?
- Effective?
- Test out feel of the boost functionality
- Fun?
- Contributes to feel?
- Does the boost last too long or too short?
- Is the increased speed too high or too low?
- To get feedback on the overall feel of the flying mechanics
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