Karate Cricket Design Document

Game Document For Karate Crickets

Game Concept

Two crickets compete against each other to become the greatest martial artist of the land. The game will allow two players to play against each other or allow a player to play against an AI-controlled enemy. The game will focus on creating a fun experience through the aggression of the two crickets, the movement being relative to that of theatrical martial arts, and collecting acorns while colliding or dodging each other. The feel of the game will be derived from the fast-paced combat, the exaggerated collisions between the two crickets, and the martial arts with cricket movements.

The Player

  • The controls are the mouse movement and left mouse button

  • While grounded, the player can left-click and hold to charge a jump, and release it to leap. The direction of the jump is determined by the line between the player and the mouse pointer.

  • Collision

    • With acorn – point is added to player’s score.

    • With opponent – the cricket with the higher velocity has velocity reduced to 0. the other cricket is knocked back at a speed equal to the difference between the two crickets’ velocities, and is unable to charge a jump for 2 seconds (stunned).

    • With walls – the player stops immediately and sticks to the wall.

 

The Space

  • Simple closed box, or scrolling left to right with randomly placed walls.

 

The Rules

  • Players try to collect acorns while stunning/avoiding the other player.

  • Player with highest acorn count after a certain amount of time (60s) wins.

 

Minimum

  • Arena is a simple box

  • 1 Player v. Bot game

  • 60 second match timer

  • Score keeper

  • simple player-bot collision

  • falling acorns to collect

  • static player images

 

Target

  • Animated cricket (more than one static image)

  • Collisions can stun opponents for a short while

  • Having SFX for collisions, such as impact effects and particles

  • Camera effects to emphasize the collisions

 

High

  • Scrolling level with randomly place obstacles

  • One-two second delay between impacts to allow for other actions, such as dodging or repeatedly left-click to build up power advantage

  • Other enemies, such as centipedes or bees

  • Special effects, such as background overlay (intense fiery sunset) or intense character comic image, during one second delay moment.

  • Power-ups

  • 2 player local input with mouse or Xbox 360 controllers

  • player v. player

 

Timeline

Week 1 (10/28/2013-11/4/2013)

  1. Score keeper implemented

  2. 60 second match timer implemented

  3. AI-controlled enemy completed

Week 2 (11/4/2013 – 11/11/2013)

  1. simple player-bot collision implemented

  2. Collisions can stun opponents for a short while mechanic

  3. Refine mechanics using feedback from playtest

Week 3 (11/11/2013 – 11/18/2013)

  1. Animated cricket (more than one static image) created

  2. Having SFX for collisions, such as impact effects and particles, created

Week 4 (11/18/2013 – 11/25/2013)

  1. Camera effects to emphasize the collisions implemented

  2. Refine mechanics using feedback from playtest

Week 5 (11/25/2013 – 12/2/2013)

  1. Polish and refine mechanics

 

Milestone Target Features

November 4, 2013 (Alpha Build)

Description: We desire to have the score keeper, 60 second timer, and AI-controlled enemy completed and implemented for the alpha build. We already have the feel of the cricket, the simple arena, and the acorns implemented. We believe that these components help solidify the main components of the game, and it completes our minimum target. We want to test these components to refine the AI and the player experience of playing the game.

 

November 18, 2013 (Beta Playtest)

Description: We desire to have the collision effects completed for the beta build. Since the other major components of the game were completed during the alpha build, we want to focus on creating the experience of colliding or dodging and making them exciting. We’ll also have the cricket images completed so that players don’t always stare at static images. We want to make sure that the experience of colliding is engaging and fun, so we want to test this mechanic out. We think this mechanic is one of the most essential parts of the game, so we want to pay particular attention to the effects of the collisions and player reactions.

 

November 25, 2013 (Final Playtest)

Description: We desire to have camera effects for the collisions. We also want all of our mechanics to be polished and updated. We want to take in all the feedback from the previous play tests and use it to guide our feel of the game. If we finish early, we also hope to have some of the high targets implemented, such as the one second delay impact, the scrolling levels with random obstacles, the two player mechanic, and special effects during the one second delay. We want to test all of this and use the feedback to refine the mechanics. We want to see if the experience of colliding with your opponent is dramatic, exciting, and entertaining to our players.

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