-1Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
Zombie Farm
Game Design Document
Team:
Undead Psycho Monkeys:
Garth Bonikowski
Lead Design
Design contact:
gbonikow@digipen.edu
Aaron Chard
Producer
Adam Chard
Technical Director
Michael Giusty
Product Manager
GAM400-B
Fall 2004
Version 1.0
9/22/04
Managing Producer: Michael Moore
All content copyright © 2004, DigiPen (USA) Corporation. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 4
High Concept ................................................................................................................................................ 4
Managing Producer: Michael Moore
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-2Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
Game Overview ............................................................................................................................................ 4
System Requirements ................................................................................................................................... 5
Budget ............................................................................................................................................................ 5
Schedule......................................................................................................................................................... 8
Market Analysis ............................................................................................................................................ 9
Story Overview ............................................................................................................................................10
Sample Game Day .......................................................................................................................................11
Interface Flowchart .....................................................................................................................................12
GAME MECHANICS .......................................................................................... 14
Environments ...............................................................................................................................................14
Movement .....................................................................................................................................................15
Actions ..........................................................................................................................................................15
Digging .....................................................................................................................................................16
Inspection..................................................................................................................................................17
Time ..............................................................................................................................................................19
Farming and Unit Growth ..........................................................................................................................20
Livestock Management ...............................................................................................................................22
Unit Functions..............................................................................................................................................23
Artificial Intelligence ...................................................................................................................................25
Units .........................................................................................................................................................25
Farm ..........................................................................................................................................................26
Daytime Attacks ..........................................................................................................................................26
Quotas ...........................................................................................................................................................28
Quests and Rewards ....................................................................................................................................29
Victory and Loss Conditions ......................................................................................................................31
Cinematic Sequences ...................................................................................................................................34
Characters ....................................................................................................................................................35
The Farmers ..............................................................................................................................................35
King Ozymandias .....................................................................................................................................35
Garbond the Bonesmith ............................................................................................................................35
Enlil the Necromancer ..............................................................................................................................35
Managing Producer: Michael Moore
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-3Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
Isaac, a Musician ......................................................................................................................................35
Utnapish, the wise shaman........................................................................................................................36
Ea, a doll-maker ........................................................................................................................................36
Units ..............................................................................................................................................................36
Skeleton Soldier ........................................................................................................................................36
Zombie Farmer .........................................................................................................................................36
Vampire Shepherd ....................................................................................................................................36
Lich ...........................................................................................................................................................37
Skeleton Guard Dog .................................................................................................................................37
Hide Sheep ................................................................................................................................................37
Blood Cow ................................................................................................................................................38
Gargoyle ...................................................................................................................................................38
Environments ...............................................................................................................................................38
House ........................................................................................................................................................38
Farm ..........................................................................................................................................................39
Town .........................................................................................................................................................40
User Interface ..............................................................................................................................................42
APPENDIX ......................................................................................................... 43
Unit values ....................................................................................................................................................43
Unit “Recipes” .............................................................................................................................................43
Quotas ...........................................................................................................................................................43
Shop Prices ...................................................................................................................................................44
Control Scheme ............................................................................................................................................44
Game Flow and Menus ...............................................................................................................................45
Opening menu...........................................................................................................................................45
Load Game ...............................................................................................................................................46
New Game ................................................................................................................................................46
Hall of Fame .............................................................................................................................................48
Options .....................................................................................................................................................49
Controller Configuration ..........................................................................................................................51
Main Game ...............................................................................................................................................52
Data Report Menu.....................................................................................................................................53
Plant Corpse ..............................................................................................................................................57
Bone Shop.................................................................................................................................................59
Sigil Shop .................................................................................................................................................60
Dialog ............................................................................................................................................................61
Media Filename Standard ..........................................................................................................................61
Schedule and Preliminary Task Checklist ................................................................................................62
Managing Producer: Michael Moore
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-4Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
Introduction
High Concept
On the comically surreal Zombie Farm, the crops are zombies that help run the
farm.
Game Overview
This is a Windows-PC farm simulation game intended for a teen audience. The
game-play is similar to Natsume’s Harvest Moon with distinctive features designed to
make the farm-sim genre more fun to a wider audience. Of these features, most notable
are the presence of farm-bots and the comically macabre fantasy setting.
The game takes place in the Demon Realm, inhabited by all kinds of friendly yet
strange ghouls and demons. You, the player, control an undertaker who is commissioned
by the king to produce an army of the undead by growing them in your graveyard. You
can also order the zombies that you grow to help you with daily farm tasks.
You can choose to play as a male or female farmer. Your character carries a
shovel at all times, which is used for digging graves or scavenging for bones. You must
plant human or animal skeletons in the graves and “water” them daily. When the
zombies are fully grown, you pull them out of the ground and put them to work: tending
to graves, guarding your land from saboteurs, feeding livestock, or being livestock. Just
growing them is not enough; you must also sell some units to the King to meet his
monthly quotas.
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-5Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
Zombie Farm is a cheerful, light-hearted farm simulation game that is fast paced,
not tedious due to farm-bots, and filled with humorous and ghoulish fantasy elements.
The game even accommodates players who enjoy the daily tasks of a farm simulation;
it’s up to the player to decide how much work he or she wants to be directly involved
with. While intended for a teen audience, the game may appeal to more mature gamers
as well. Zombie Farm is likely to get a Teen ESRB rating due to its “comic gore.”
System Requirements
Minimum Requirements:
OS:
Windows 2000
Processor:
700 MHz
RAM:
128 Mb RAM
HD Space:
50 Mb
Video Card: GeForce2
VRAM:
32 Mb
Recommended Requirements:
OS:
Windows XP
Processor:
1.0 GHz
RAM:
256 Mb RAM
HD Space:
50 Mb
Video Card: GeForce4
VRAM:
128 Mb
Delivery Method:
Standard CD (650 Mb)
Budget
What follows is a list of the costs of resources needed for the development of this project.
Costs are projected over a 12 month development time.
These costs also reflect the inventory of resources already accumulated. For
example: The publisher, DigiPen Institute of Technology, has provided workstations and
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-6Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
compilers for us to use. While these costs are already taken care of, they are listed here
for the sake of completeness.
Employees
Position
____
Monthly Cost Total (8 mo)
Producer/Programmer
$6,250
$50,000
Technical Director/Programmer
$6,250
$50,000
Media Director/Project Manager/Programmer
$6,600
$52,800
Lead Design/Programmer
$5,000
$40,000
Total:
$24,100
$156,800
Software
Product
Quantity
Cost (per unit) Total
Microsoft Visual Studio.Net
4
$109
$436
Borland C++ Builder*
2
$1000
$2000
Microsoft Office Suite
1
$500
$500
Microsoft Project
1
$600
$600
Adobe PhotoShop 7
1
$700
$700
Microsoft Paint
4
$0
$0
DirectX 9.0 SDK
4
$0
$0
Windows XP Professional
4
$300
$1200
Total:
$5436
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-7Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
(*The cost of Borland Builder reflects the commercial license for the professional
version. The team has already acquired educationally licensed versions of the software,
which suffices for our purposes.)
Hardware (Computer components)
Component
Quantity
Cost/Unit*
Total
$195
$780
Pentium 4 Compatible Motherboard 4
$21
$84
512mb Ram
4
$170
$680
Case & Support Components
4
$50
$200
19" Monitor
4
$130
$520
40 GB Harddrive
4
$40
$160
Pentium 4 2.0 GHz Processors
4
GeForceFX Video card, 128MB VRAM
4
$233
$932
Sound Card
4
$20
$80
Network Card
4
$15
$60
50x CD-Rom Drive
4
$20
$80
Keyboard
4
$12
$48
Optical Mouse
4
$15
$60
USB Portable Memory Stick
1
$55
$55
Total
4
$921
$3739
(*Projected costs are estimated based on listings from Pricewatch.com and
CompUSA.com.)
Production Costs
Managing Producer: Michael Moore
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-8Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
Item
Cost
Box (Printing included)
$2.50
Manual
$1.25
QuickRef Card
$0.25
CD
$0.50
CD Case (Labels included)
$0.50
Total
$5.00
Total Developer Cost:
$299,175
Suggested Retail Price:
$40
Schedule

Week 4 – Milestone 1: Completion of GDD.

Week 6 – Milestone 2: Completion of TDD
o 3D graphics engine in place
o base code complete

Week 8 – Milestone 3:
o Player control complete
o Physics module complete
o Basic NPC AI in place
o World modules complete

Week 10 – Milestone 4: Code Review:
o Audio complete
o AI half complete
o In game UI complete

Week 14 – Milestone: Prototype Demo
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-9Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
o Half of the mission done
o Player actions in place
o AI 80% done

Week 6 – Milestone: Pre-Alpha
o AI 100% Complete
o Shell Menus 75% Complete

Week 9 – Milestone: Alpha
o Shell Menus 100% complete
o All game features completes
o Hardcore testing begins

Week 12 – Milestone: Beta
o All NPC quests complete
o Hardcore testing continues

Week 14 – Milestone: Gold Master
Market Analysis
Zombie Farm target demographic is people who enjoy farming simulation games
such as Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon. The main age group would be teens and
young adults.
The ESRB rating for Zombie Farm is Teen. It will sell at normal game
stores like Game Stop and EBX. Examples of top selling games in this genre are Animal
Crossing and Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life.
In terms of game-play, Zombie Farm is intended to be more fun than similar farm
simulations because of the option of farm bots, which eliminate the tedium present in
other games. However, if players enjoy these tasks, they are free to perform them
themselves.
Zombie Farm’s light-horror theme was chosen both to make the game stand out
from other simulation games and to make the game itself more interesting. The theme is
unusual and has not been applied before to a game of this type. Other simulation games
strive to have a modern, realistic setting. We feel that this design choice, while justified,
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- 10 Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
can make these games rather boring, especially after several iterations. The setting of
Zombie Farm is fantastic and allows for strange, interest-provoking design elements such
as growing zombies instead of corn. The horror theme itself justifies the making of
another farm simulation because it circumvents the stagnation of the modern-setting farm
simulation.
Story Overview
After you, the player, create your character, you are shown a scene where King
Ozymandias orders you to use your graveyard to grow an army of the undead for the
kingdom. He explains that he will check on your progress every month and depending on
your performance, reward or punish you. He then tells you to go to town and ask for
advice before starting out.
The entrance to King Ozy’s castle is in the north section of town. Ozy is always
available to talk to, just outside of his castle. By talking to him and the other townsfolk
over the course of the game, you are told the history of the kingdom:
Ten years earlier, a great war broke out among the great kings of the Demon
Realm which ended two years ago in a stalemate. King Ozy’s army was utterly decimated.
King Ozy has since traveled his lands, asking his subjects to raise soldiers from their
graveyard-farms. He fears that the strongest of his rivals, Lord Bunky the Crate, will soon
be ready to revive the conflict and wage war on Ozymandias’s land. He may be ready
within a few months of the start of the game. Over the past two years, King Ozy has
made efforts to rebuild his nation and build an army strong enough to intimidate Lord
Bunky into abandoning his desire to revive the war.
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- 11 Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
If you are unable to meet the monthly quotas, the game will end. The King will
say that there’s no way to prevent war with Lord Bunky, he will take your graveyard
from you, and banish you from the kingdom in disgrace. However, if you meet or exceed
the quotas during all four months, the game will end with the King very pleased with
your work. War will be averted, and Ozy will buy you a pizza.
Sample Game Day
Let us imagine that the player has created a main character named “Johnny.” On a
typical day, Johnny wakes up within his house on the farm and checks his mail for
messages from the townsfolk. He gets a letter from a person in town asking him for a
favor, indicating the beginning of a trade-quest sequence. Since Johnny is a dutiful little
demon, he rushes out of his house and into town to talk to the person who sent the letter.
The person asks him to find a lost item. Johnny decides that since he has other things to
do today, he will find the item tomorrow.
Johnny then runs over to the bone shop to get some bones. On the way, just for
the heck of it, he tries to dig up the ground. Luckily, he manages to find a set of human
leg bones! At the bone shop, he buys a human skull, torso, and set of arms. Now, he has a
complete set of human bones. He decides that he would like to plant a grave caretaker, so
he runs over to the sigil shop and buys a Level 2 resurrection sigil.
He runs back to the farm and finds an empty plot near his house, for convenience.
He digs up the plot and plants his newly obtained human skeleton, sealing the grave with
the sigil. He pours blood on the newly planted grave, and then he proceeds to water the
graves that his zombie grave-caretakers were not able to tend to that day. Johnny checks
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- 12 Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
the menu to see if his zombies were able to feed all of his sheep. Thankfully, all of his
sheep have been fed. This is especially good because the sun has begun to rise. Johnny
runs home and jump into bed so that he’ll be well-rested for tomorrow.
Interface Flowchart
While playing the game, the user can press the Menu button to access the data
report menu, which has the sub-menus listed below. The user can change between menus
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- 13 Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
using the L- and R- Scroll buttons. The menus wrap around, at the end, back to the
beginning.
-
Materials
-
Graveyard Status
-
Livestock Status
-
Storehouse Status
-
Quota History
-
Items
(For more detail, please view the “Game Flow and Menus” section.)
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- 14 Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
Game Mechanics
Environments
The player’s character is drawn over the environment from a semi-overhead,
“three-quarter” view. The player controls a single character with analog directional
movement over the environment. The camera follows the player’s character. The player
has no direct control over the camera. There are three environments, each with different
functions:
-
House: This is where the player goes to sleep, save, and read help text.
-
Farm: This is where the player does all of his/her work.
-
Town: The player can converse with townsfolk, trade items with them,
purchase materials, and scavenge for bones.
Each of these environments is a separate map. These three maps make up the
entire game world. The farm and town maps are roughly the same size: 30x30 generic
units (or meters). The player will be able to cross from one side to the other in about 10
seconds, at top speed. The house map is significantly smaller. Time does not flow while
inside the house. The areas will be littered with objects that the player can collide with.
Collision will generally be performed with axis-aligned bounding boxes.
The help text in the house will consist of 3 books that act like NPCs. There will be
one book for each of these topics: Farming, Units, and Town. Inspecting these books will
trigger a rather long, multi-segment dialog containing text adapted from this very
document, informing the player about that particular topic. Due to their length, the player
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- 15 Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
may press the Cancel key to abort the dialog at any time. The exact text for these
documents will be provided at a later date.
Movement
The player can walk or run. Movement is dependent on analog control. If the user
is using an analog stick, the character will walk at a speed varying between stopped and
full walking speed depending on how far the analog stick is pressed. Mouse input works
similarly; if the cursor is near the character, it will move slowly. The further away the
cursor is from the character, the faster it will move. Again, the maximum speed for
analog and mouse movement is equal to maximum walking speed.
Using direction keys or buttons will always cause the character to move at
maximum walking speed; after the appropriate acceleration is applied.
If the player presses the run button, the character will accelerate to maximum
running speed, regardless of how far the analog stick is pressed or where the mouse is.
While running, the analog stick and mouse input determine only the direction of
movement, but do not affect speed.
The player must be able to run across the farm from one side to the other in ten
seconds. Walking speed should be slow enough for the player to not overshoot his/her
destination, but fast enough for the player to not feel the need to run in order to reach a
precise location.
Actions
The player’s actions are performed contextually; if the player presses the
Confirm/Inspect button, the action that occurs is dependent on what the character is
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- 16 Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
looking at. Because of this, there are many possible actions mapped to the Confirm
button. Also, three possible actions will occur when the player presses the dig button. If
an action can be performed by pressing the Confirm button, an icon representing that
action will appear above the character’s head. There is no limit to the number of actions
the player can perform. (The player’s character is a preternatural demon with infinite
stamina as long as he/she sleeps during the day and stays out of the sun.)
Digging
There are three actions performed with the shovel, depending on where the player
is:
1)
On the farm, if the player hits the dig button while facing an empty plot,
the player’s character will dig it up. The plot is then available to have a
corpse planted into it. This action is not available in the town.
2)
If the player uses the shovel while facing an NPC, including townsfolk
and farm caretakers, he/she will swing the shovel and whack the NPC,
knocking it away from the player by a fair amount. This action is
available in town and on the farm.
3)
In town, if the player is not facing an NPC, he/she will dig up the
ground and scavenge for bones. (See below for more information.) This
action is not available on the farm.
About scavenging:
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- 17 Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
When the player digs, there will be a random chance that he/she will find one of
the 8 base bones. (The special wing bone can only be purchased at the bone shop.)
However, the player cannot stand in one place and dig repeatedly. The player must move
a certain distance away from the last digging point before digging again, or else nothing
will be found. An upgrade is available through an NPC trade quest that improves
scavenging luck.
Inspection
When the player presses the Confirm button, he/she will inspect whatever he/she
is facing. The following actions will occur when the player presses the button under the
specified circumstances:
-
If the player faces a townsperson, a conversation will begin. If the NPC wants
one of the items in the player’s inventory, the NPC will automatically take it
and the appropriate conversation will be displayed.
-
If the player is facing an empty grave plot, nothing will occur. (The player
must press the Dig button to change the condition of the plot.)
-
If the player is facing a dug-up grave, the Plant Corpse dialog will appear.
-
If the player is facing a zombie caretaker, nothing will occur.
-
If the player is facing a blood pool, the player will refill his/her stock of blood
(to ten pints, the maximum amount allowed.)
-
If the player faces a planted grave that has not yet been watered with blood,
the player will water it.
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Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
-
If the player faces an un-watered grave but has no blood with which to water
it, the status dialog will appear, as explained below:
-
If the player faces a planted, watered grave, a dialog will appear showing the
bones used, the sigil used, the unit resulting from this bone/sigil combination,
and the number of days the grave has been watered. Below this information is
a message telling the player, “Press the Dig key to clear this grave.
WARNING: This will return the bones to you, but the sigil will be lost.”
Pressing Confirm or Cancel will close this window with no changes made.
Pressing the Dig button will destroy the grave and return the bones to the
player (including the wing bone, if one was used).
-
If the player is facing a shop NPC (the bone cart or sigil gumball-machine),
the appropriate shop dialog will appear.
-
If the player is facing the front door of the farm house, he/she will enter. This
is the only way to enter the house. (See the “Movement” section for more
information.)
-
If the player is facing a section of the animal feed trough, the player’s
character will put feed in that section, increasing the “Number of Livestock
fed” value. (See the “Livestock Management” section for more information.)
-
If the player faces the cleaver at the entrance of the livestock pen, all ripe
sheep will be harvested and a message will appear informing the player of
how many sheep were skinned and how much money was made. If no sheep
were ripe at the time of inspection, the window will say so.
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- 19 Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
-
If the player is facing a grave containing a fully grown corpse, the player will
pull the unit out of the ground and it will immediately enter the storehouse.
(The player must use the Storehouse menu, accessed with the Menu button, to
pull units from the storehouse to put them to work on the farm.)
Time
Each game day lasts 24 hours, but the player is only “awake” during 12. The
player wakes up at sunset and goes to sleep at sunrise. The day is divided into 5 time
sections:
-
Dusk: 6-9pm
-
Late Evening: 9pm-12am
-
Midnight: 12am-3am
-
Early Morning: 3am-6am
-
Dawn: 6am and up
The clock icon will dance excitedly during the Early Morning hours, urging the
player to go home and go to sleep. If the clock hits 6am before the player enters his/her
house, he/she will be “sick” for the next day. The clock will advance to dusk of the day
after the one that would have occurred. (Meaning if the player stays out too late on day 3
of the month, he/she will wake up on the 5th day.)
In real time, each day should only last two and a half minutes. If the player
completes a trading quest, he/she can unlock an upgrade that will extend the day to 5
minutes. These numbers are subject to change, so the time system will need to be flexible
enough to accommodate changes.
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GAM400 Fall 2004
As the stage of the night changes, the lighting of the game will change to reflect it.
Dusk should be cool blue hues, midnight should be very dark, and early morning should
be warm red hues. The length of these stages will need to be proportional to the full day
time in case the length of the day needs to change.
Time does not advance while the player is talking to NPC’s, browsing the Data
Report Menu, inside his/her house, viewing the Plant Corpse screen, or viewing any of
the shop dialogs.
Each month has 30 days. The game lasts four months.
Farming and Unit Growth
The core of the game-play is farming zombies. To plant a creature, the player
must have complete skeletons of either animal or human type. (Full skeletons are formed
by having enough bones; there are head, torso, arm, and leg bones for both animal and
human skeletons.) The player faces an empty, dug-up grave and presses the confirm key
to bring up the Plant Corpse menu.
This menu shows how many bones and sigils the player possesses. The player
must select a skeleton type and then a sigil type. The player can only use the 4th (Purple)
sigil if he/she has a spare Wing Bone. (In other words, the Lich and Gargoyle units both
require a wing bone in order to be planted.) The skeleton determines the body type, and
the sigil determines the unit type. After the selections are made, the player will be asked
to confirm, and then the corpse will be planted. Here is a chart showing how the sigils
and units match:
-
Humanoid
o Skeleton Soldier
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- 21 Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
-
o Zombie Farmer
o Vampire Shepherd
o Lich
Animal
o Skeleton Guard Dog
o Hide Sheep
o Blood Cow
o Gargoyle
The player must water graves in order to make them grow. Graves can only be
watered once a day. Each unit has a specific number of days that it must be watered
before it is ready to harvest (Minimal Waterings). Each day the grave is watered, its
growth variable will increase by one. When this variable meets the Minimal Waterings
amount specified by the unit type, it is ready to be harvested. If the grave is not watered
for a day, the growth variable will simply not increase.
The graveyard has 48 grave plots distributed evenly over two halves of the farm,
with a blood pool separating the two halves. The player can only water one grave at a
time. Watering occurs automatically by inspecting a non-watered grave. The player has a
watering jug that can carry 10 pints of blood. Each grave watering consumes one pint.
The player can refill his or her jug by inspecting the blood pool in the middle of the farm.
Here is a preliminary list of unit growth times. These numbers are subject to change as
the game-play is balanced.
Preliminary unit growth times:
-
Skeleton Soldier – 3 days
-
Zombie Farmer – 4 days
-
Vampire Shepherd – 5 days
-
Lich – 7 days
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- 22 Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
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-
Skeleton Guard Dog – 2 days
-
Hide Sheep – 5 days
-
Blood Cow – 6 days
-
Gargoyle – 8 days
Note: The player can only have 40 units on the farm at a time, including livestock
and soldiers. However, the livestock pen can only support 20 animals. If the player has
more than 20 animals that require feed (sheep and cows) then the extra animals cannot be
fed and will not be productive units.
Livestock Management
The player must manage the farm’s livestock. There are two animals that must be
cared for: the Hide Sheep and the Blood Cow. First they must be grown and harvested,
like all other units. They must also be moved from the storehouse onto the farm in order
to perform their functions.
The Hide Sheep is used to grow leather. Initially, it is in the “normal” state, with
its hide a light brown hue. After being fed for 3 days, it will change into the “ripe” state,
where it will remain until harvested. When it is harvested, it will change to the “skinned”
state and the player will be immediately compensated for the leather sale. It takes 3 days
for a sheep to change states; 3 days to go from skinned to normal, and another 3 to go
from normal to ripe. If a sheep is not fed, it will not ripen in any way.
The Blood Cow waters graves (See “Unit Functions” for more information.) It
can support a certain number of graves, outlined below. However, if it is not fed, it will
not water any graves during the next day.
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The player feeds these two units by sprinkling feed into sections of a trough. Feed
can be purchased at the sigil shop. The livestock pen supports only 20 animals. Blood
Cows take priority on feed; if not all of the animals are fed, the cows will get food first. If
the player has more than 20 cows and sheep on his/her farm, they cannot be fed and will
not be productive units.
Also, only sheep in the “normal” state can be put in the storehouse. This also
means that the storehouse only can contain “normal” sheep. If a sheep is skinned, it is not
healthy enough to be sold. If a sheep is ripe, it is too heavy and might get sick if shipped.
Unit Functions
Each unit has a specific function on the farm. Several units are guard units, which
protect against nighttime attacks. Some units tend to graves, while others tend to
livestock. The units perform their tasks while the player’s character sleeps. For example,
if the player has two zombie farmers, he/she will wake up to find that at most 4 graves
have been watered. The graves are watered sequentially, starting from the northwest
corner of the farm, moving east and then south at the end of the row.
The following is a list of units and their functions:
-
Skeleton Soldier, Skeleton Guard Dog, and Gargoyle:
o Dedicated guard units. They perform no other tasks, but are
significantly better at guarding than the worker units.
-
Zombie Farmer:
o Waters graves with blood. A single zombie farmer can water two
graves in a day.
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-
Vampire Shepherd:
o Feeds livestock. A single shepherd can feed 8 animals a day.
-
Lich:
o Speeds up grave growth. A single lich can cut growth time for 10
graves by 1 day. (The lich power is only applied to watered graves.)
o The power of all lich units is distributed evenly across all graves.
o For example, if the player has 4 lich units and 20 graves planted, each
grave will be ready two days sooner than usual.
o Technically speaking, the presence of a lich unit increases the grave
growth fractionally, depending on the number of watered graves. This
means that the grave growth variable will need to be a floating point
number to support this function. Also, when the player checks the
status of a grave, the display will show a fractional value for “days
watered.”
-
Hide Sheep
o Produces leather which is sold for monetary compensation.
o It has three states: skinned, normal, and ripe.
o Initially, a sheep is in the normal state.
o It takes 3 days to change from skinned state to normal state and from
normal state to ripe state.
o If ripe sheep are not harvested, nothing happens (except that the farm
has operated at less than optimal efficiency).
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o Only sheep in the normal state can be moved from the farm into the
storehouse. Consequently, sheep pulled from the storehouse will be in
the normal state.
o This unit must be fed daily in order for its state to change.
o The player can harvest all “ripe” sheep by inspecting the cleaver near
the livestock pen. The player will be instantly compensated for the sale
of the leather. Each harvested sheep yields $100.
o Harvesting sheep leather is a good way for the player to supplement
his or her income.
-
Blood Cow:
o Performs the same function as the zombie farmer: waters graves with
blood.
o This unit must be fed, or else it will not water any graves during the
next day.
o A single cow can water 4 graves per day.
Artificial Intelligence
Units
All NPC and “FarmBot” Units will have a state-machine-driven behavior module.
Generally, the module will consist of a wandering state (bound to a wandering region
specified by the unit type), a standing state, and an action state (for example, the Zombie
Farmer would poor blood on the ground). These actions are entirely superficial. The
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actual tasks that the FarmBots perform will be put into effect by the Farm Brain AI
module.
Farm
This module performs all farm growth calculations (livestock and grave growth).
All of these calculations are performed while the player sleeps. It calculates the growth
factor to be applied to every grave based on the player’s active units, then calculates the
number of graves to water for the next day, depending on the player’s active gravetending units.
Daytime Attacks
The player’s character, as a demon, is harmed by the light of day and must sleep
during the daylight hours. During this time, there is a random chance that the farm will be
attacked. (Since the player will be asleep during this time, he/she will not witness the
attack as it occurs.) The severity of the attack is randomly generated. The later in the
game that the attack occurs, the more severe it can be. The farm will not be attacked more
than once every 7 days. The damage done to the farm will be dependent on the defensive
value of all units on the farm. If an attack occurs, the player will be shown a damage
report upon awakening. Each unit has a defensive value:
-
Skeleton Soldier: 4
o The frontline fodder in undead warfare, the skeleton soldier is
designed to fight.
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-
Skeleton Guard Dog: 3
o Designed to be tough guard dogs, this unit is an effective defensive
creature.
-
Zombie Farmer: 1
o It is a slow, dim-witted creature designed for a single task: Watering
graves. A task as complex as fighting is beyond its capabilities.
-
Vampire Shepherd: 2
o This unit is merely a decent soldier.
-
Lich: 5
o The lich possesses power over life and death, so it is an effective
defensive unit as well as a farm-efficiency asset.
-
Hide Sheep: 1
o It is a fairly weak and meek creature.
-
Blood Cow: 0
o Due to its thin skin, this unit is extremely fragile and does not fight.
-
Gargoyle: 6
o Fast, powerful, and durable, the gargoyle is the most powerful unit that
an undead army can ask for.
If the player’s sum defensive value is greater than the randomly selected attack
value, no damage occurs to his/her farm. If it is less, the exact integer of the difference
between the attack value and the player’s defense value determines the number of
sabotage instances that occur.
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A sabotage instance is randomly either a destroyed grave, defeated unit, or a
failed sabotage attempt; this last would of course work in the player’s favor. The grave or
unit that is destroyed will be randomly selected.
If an attack occurs, the player will be notified of it when he/she awakens. The
exact damage will be reported to the player as well.
Quotas
Each month, King Ozymandias will request that you grow an exact value of units
for his army. Since Ozy wants a powerful army, the quota-point values of the units are
equal to the defensive values of the units listed in the “Nighttime Attacks” section. The
quota points are evaluated at the end of the month, so hypothetically, the player could
generate a large number of units and keep them working on his/her farm until the end of
the month. However, if the player puts units in the storehouse, at the end of the day, they
will be picked up, quota points will be awarded, and the player will be compensated with
money as well.
The monetary value of a unit has nothing to do with its defensive or quota point
value. What follows is a table outlining the unit, quota point, total cost of materials,
money awarded to the player, and total profit made:
Unit
Skeleton Soldier
Zombie Farmer
Vampire Shepherd
Lich
Skeleton Guard Dog
Quota
PT
Bone
cost
Sigil
Cost
Total
Cost
Sell
Value
Profit
4
1
400
50
450
600
150
400
100
500
600
100
2
400
150
550
700
150
5
500
300
800
1000
200
3
600
50
650
700
50
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Hide Sheep
Blood Cow
Gargoyle
1
600
100
700
800
100
0
600
150
750
950
200
6
700
300
1000
1300
300
Minimum
QP
10
40
60
100
QP for
reward
Preliminary Quota values:
Month
1
2
3
4
15
60
80
150
Note that the average QP value for a particular unit is 2.75. To earn the minimal
QP for the final month, the player needs approximately 37 units. To achieve the amount
of QP needed to earn a special reward, the player needs about 55. It is hard to tell at this
point, but this may be fairly easy to do considering the graveyard will probably have 48
available plots. However, it is hard to tell whether or not the player will be able to afford
to utilize all of that land simultaneously.
At the end of the month, no matter what, if the player’s QP value is greater than
the minimum, the king will give a monetary reward equivalent to the surplus QP * 100. If
the player’s QP is over the reward value, the king will give a special reward (See below
for more information).
Quests and Rewards
Each month, one NPC trade quest is available. The specifics of the quests are not
outlined as of yet, but they will be triggered by getting a letter in the mailbox within the
first week of the month. From that point, the player must talk with the townsfolk and
receive items and deliver them to other people. Due to the short days, the player may only
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have time to perform one trade per day, so the quests will not have very many steps.
There is no NPC quest during the final month. The rewards are as follows:
-
Month 1: Improved bone-digging luck.
o The player will be given a charm by Garbond that slightly improves
bone scavenging luck.
-
Month 2: Defense upgrade.
o Utnapish will give the player a large totem that appears at the farm
entrance.
o The totem is an automatic +10 to farm defense.
-
Month 3: Shop discounts
o The player will be given a coupon that reduces all shop costs by 25%.
Additionally, the player is awarded bonuses if his/her quota points reach a certain
value at the end of the month:
Month
1
2
3
4
Minimum
QP
10
40
60
100
QP for
reward
15
60
80
150
The King will grant the player the following rewards:
-
Month 1: Time
o Days will double in length.
-
Month 2: Hide
o Hide Sheep will change states one day faster.
o Changing from skinned to normal will only take two days.
o Changing from normal to ripe will only take two days.
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-
Month 3: Corpses
o Every unit will take one day less to grow.
o Note that if this upgrade is used in conjunction with numerous lich
units, it’s possible that certain units will take less than one day to grow.
No matter what, the unit will take a minimum of one day to grow.
(Meaning, if you plant the grave and water it, it will be ready the next
day.)
-
Month 4: New Game Plus
o This is only activated if all upgrades have been unlocked and the
player meets or exceeds 150 points for the final month.
o Unlocks “New Game +” option in the main menu.
o This feature will be saved in the game’s settings.
o In the main menu, if the setting is unlocked, holding L and R while
selecting New Game will cause a chime to sound and New Game Plus
will be activated
o In this mode, the player starts with all quota and NPC upgrades from
the very beginning.
o (Please note that this is a very extraneous feature and will only be
added if there is extra time to do so.)
Victory and Loss Conditions
The game ends in victory when the player completes the final month with a
passing amount of Quota Points.
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The game ends in defeat if the player misses the quota for two of the first three
months. Also, the game ends if the player misses the quota for the final month.
Regardless of the outcome, when the player finishes the game, his/her data will be
saved in the Hall of Fame. The total quota points will be calculated and weighted
depending on the month to determine where in the Hall of Fame to place the saved data.
Initially, the Hall of Fame will consist of zero scores, so even if the player loses the game
in his/her first time through, the data will be saved in the Hall of Fame.
If the player does particularly well during the final month of the game (as outlined
in the Quotas section above), a New Game Plus option will be unlocked, allowing the
player to begin the game with all farm upgrades.
Audio
The following sound effects are needed:
-
Menu cursor change position click
-
Menu confirm beep
-
Main character footstep
-
Digging sound
-
Planting sound
-
Shovel-whack sound
-
Grave watering sound; water being spilled on the ground
-
Unit harvest sound (a popping sound as a corpse is removed from its grave)
-
Zombie groans/moans
-
Sheep “Bahhh”
-
Dog bark
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-
Cow vomiting (retching and water spilling on the ground sloppily)
-
Feeding livestock (sound of pellets being dropped)
-
Sound of gargoyle turning to stone (sounds like a boulder moving or
crunching)
-
Sound of sheep squealing (as it is skinned)
-
Sound of purchase being made (“Cha-ching!”)
-
Magical droning sound (for lich as it enchants the soil)
-
Battle sounds (for night attacks)
Additionally, this game requires the following songs:
-
Menu song
-
Farm song
-
House song
-
Town song
-
Cinematic song
(A menu will be provided in the options that will allow players to browse their computers
for mp3 files to use for these songs. The menu will consist of 5 slots displaying the song
name, current file path, and a “Browse” button that will bring up a Windows browse box.
If the game is in Full-Screen mode at this point, it will automatically change to
Windowed mode to better facilitate this interface. The player will then be responsible for
switching back to Full-Screen mode.)
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Cinematic Sequences
The cinematic sequences will be in-game animations scripted in code. There are
five short cinematic scenes:
- Opening:
o The King and the player’s character are talking.
o Ozy introduces himself and orders the player to start making an army
using his/her graveyard.
o Ozy tells him to read the books he left in the player’s house in order to
understand how things work and to ask the townsfolk what to do.
o The scene will fade and the player will be able to walk around freely.
The first day, time will not flow. The player can take as long as he/she
wants to visit the town and familiarize him/herself with the
environments.
- Evaluation: Good
o Ozy stands in front of the player’s house and say, “Good job! Here is
your reward for the month!”
- Evaluation: Bad
o Ozy stand in front of the player’s house and says:
o “…”
o “You’ll have to do better than that.”
- Absolute loss:
o Ozy stands in front of the player’s house and says:
o “You fool! Now there’s no way we can stand against Lord Bunky!”
o “You’ve DOOMED our kingdom!”
o “Get out! You are hereby forbidden from entering my domain ever
again!!”
- Absolute victory:
o Ozy stands in front of his castle, facing the town, with the player’s
character standing at his right side, also facing the town.
o The screen flashes white and an utterly featureless wooden box
appears in front of King Ozy.
o There’s a brief moment of silence. The player says, “Huh? … Just a
box...”
o Suddenly, the following words appear: “BEHOLD! I am Lord Bunky
the Crate! Cower before me, pitiful fools!!”
o Ozy, nonplussed, says “Get out of here, Bunky, or else I’ll sic my
mighty army upon you and your laughable domain.”
o There is a brief moment of silence, and then Bunky says, “Oh, you do
have a rather mighty army, don’t you? Hmm. Well, fine then.”
o There is another white flash and the crate disappears.
o Ozy says “Haha! Look at him run. There’s no way he’d be stupid
enough to start a war now. Good job! I’m going to buy you a pizza.”
o The main character, very excited, says, “All right!!”
o The credits roll.
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Descriptions
Characters
The Farmers
The male farmer is small and fairly skinny. He is pale, has short grey hair, and has
red eyes. He wears brown clothing and has a red cowl. He always carries a shovel slung
over his shoulder.
The female farmer has similar attributes, but looks slightly different. She is
skinnier than the male farmer, has a different hair style, and wears earrings. She must be
distinctive from the male farmer.
King Ozymandias
King Ozy is a red demon. He has horns, wings, and a short tail. He resembles a
typical “Devil.” He is much larger than the other units and has an imposing presence.
Garbond the Bonesmith
Garbond resembles a Vampire Shepherd unit, described below.
Enlil the Necromancer
Enlil looks similar to Lich unit, described below.
Isaac, a Musician
Isaac is a skeleton (unit described below).
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Utnapish, the wise shaman
Utnapish looks like a zombie, as described below.
Ea, a doll-maker
Ea looks similar to the female farmer but she carries an umbrella instead of a
shovel.
Units
Skeleton Soldier
This unit is a mindless skeleton. Its bones are bleached white and it has no skin or
clothing whatsoever. It carries a scythe. It merely wanders around the farm, guarding it
from intruders.
Zombie Farmer
This unit moves slowly and often makes zombie-groan noises. It has some muscle
and skin, but you can see the bones between scraps of hanging flesh or clothes. As it
wanders, it randomly waters the ground with blood.
Vampire Shepherd
The Vampire Shepherd looks human, but it has sharp features. It should look
fairly androgynous. It is fully clothed. As it wanders around the farm, it randomly scatters
feed on the ground.
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Lich
The Lich unit is a skeleton draped in a tattered blue robe. It has horns in its skull
and large wing bones protruding from its back. The wings have no flesh, however; they
are just bone. It hovers over the ground and glows blue. As it wanders around the farm, it
waves its arms over the ground and its hands glow, as if enchanting the ground with
magic.
Skeleton Guard Dog
Similar to the skeleton soldier, the Guard Dog has bleached white bones and
nothing else. It has a long skull and looks distinctly like a dog. It runs around the farm
quickly and occasionally barks.
Hide Sheep
The Hide Sheep looks somewhat like a sheep with no wool. It has three
appearances:
-
Normal: Its hide is light brown, possibly tinted red to imply thin skin.
-
Thick Hide: The sheep’s hide is dark brown and ready to be harvested.
-
Skinned: The sheep has been skinned. Its ribs are visible through bare red
muscle.
As the Hide Sheep wanders, it occasionally makes a “Bah” sound, along with an
animation.
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Blood Cow
This unit looks similar to cow but has large, bulging, pulsating red packets of
muscle that look like balloons. As it wanders, it occasionally vomits blood onto the
ground.
Gargoyle
This creature looks like dog with wings. As opposed to the Skeleton Guard Dog,
this dog does indeed have flesh; it is dark grey. As it wanders, it occasionally sits and
turns light grey, looking very much like a statue.
Environments
The environments are measured in generic units (GU).
House
The player’s house is where he goes to sleep. Time does not advance while inside
the house. The house map is small and made of two sections: The bedroom and the living
room. The living room contains a door leading to the farm and a table with three books:
“Materials,” “Farming,” and “Units.” Inspecting these books brings up a dialog
explaining that particular aspect of game-play. Walking through the door brings the
character to the Farm map.
Inspecting the coffin will bring up a dialog asking the player if he/she would like
to go to save sleep. If the player chooses yes, the player must choose a slot to save to.
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Then the game is saved, the screen fades out, and the day ends. The game clock is
advanced to dusk of the next day.
Farm
On the farm, the player’s house sits near the northwest end. Next to the house’s
front door is the mailbox. Inspecting the mailbox may give the player a letter, which can
be read by entering the Inventory menu. The player will not know if a letter is in the
mailbox unless he/she checks it.
East of the house is the livestock pen with rows of troughs, separated into sections.
If the player has sheep, they will be roaming around this section.
East of the livestock pen is a sealed storehouse where creatures go after they are
harvested. The player cannot enter this building, but he/she can move units between the
storehouse and the farm by using the Storehouse menu, in the Data Report menu accessed
with the menu button.
In the center of the farm is a large blood lake surrounded by graves set up in a
rectangular grid (leaving space for the lake in the center).
The whole map is surrounded by a fence made of bone. On the east side is an
open gate in the fence, which is a zone-line between the farm and the town. Passing
through this section will put the player in the town.
The farm is 30x30 generic units (basically, meters).
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Town
The town is 30x30 generic units. It contains has six non-player character
townsfolk and five houses. The NPCs are as follows:
-
King Ozymandias
-
Garbond, the bone-smith
-
Enlil, the necromancer
-
Isaac, a musician
-
Utnapish, the wise shaman.
-
Ea, a doll-maker.
The entire town is surrounded by a protective bone wall. The west side of town
has a zone-line that leads to the player’s farm. The shops are close to the zone-line
between the town and the farm. The north side has the entrance to the castle, where King
Ozy stands. (The castle has a closed door; the player cannot enter.) The other townsfolk’s
houses are distributed evenly across the town, but they are not laid out on a distinct grid.
The town is adorned with dead trees, giant bones, and a few small blood pools. A dry
river ditch divides the town, going from the southern middle to the northeastern corner.
Ea’s and Utnapish’s houses are across the ditch in the southeast corner. There is one
bridge in the middle of the ditch; the only access point to the southeast corner of town.
The player should be able to cross from one end of the town to the other in 10 seconds, at
top speed. The town will be sparse enough that the player will be able to see the
townsfolk easily. They will also nearly always be near their houses, so the player will be
able to find each of them very easily.
Here is a concept sketch of the town’s layout:
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Building descriptions:
-
King Ozymandias’s castle:
o Only a brick façade is shown.
-
Garbond, the bone-smith
o His house is a small shack.
o A shop-cart with dangling bones sits nearby.
o Inspecting the cart brings up the bone shop dialog.
o The entire area is littered with small bones.
o Garbond stands near his hut. The player can converse with him.
-
Enlil, the necromancer
o Her house is a small straw hut surrounded by a circle of colored orbs.
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o A device similar to a gumball machine sits outside of the circle of orbs.
The orbs within the device are red, green, blue and purple.
o Inspecting the gumball machine brings up the sigil shop dialog.
o Enlil wanders around near the house. The player can converse with her.
-
Isaac, a musician
o His house is made of grey stone.
o Next to his house sits a large, twisted harp.
o Isaac is usually near his house, but occasionally can be found in other
parts of the town.
-
Utnapish, the wise shaman.
o His house is made of wood.
o Utnapish is old and moves very slowly. He can always be found near
his house.
-
Ea, a doll-maker.
o Her house is made of brown brick.
o Featureless mannequins (and mannequin parts) litter the area.
o A small birdbath sits in front of the house.
o Ea wanders around town, but can often be found near her house.
User Interface
To match the theme of planting skeletons, the window borders should be long
bones. The interior of the windows should be dark red, blue, and/or purple.
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Many of the menu cursors will be different colored boxes that will need to be
scaled. The mouse cursor should be simple and easily visible; it should have high contrast
with the rest of the game. A yellow or white arrow should suffice.
Appendix
Unit values
Unit
Skeleton Soldier
Zombie Farmer
Vampire Shepherd
Lich
Skeleton Guard Dog
Hide Sheep
Blood Cow
Gargoyle
Quota
PT
Bone
cost
Sigil
Cost
Total
Cost
Sell
Value
Profit
4
400
50
450
600
150
1
400
100
500
600
100
2
400
150
550
700
150
5
500
300
800
1000
200
3
600
50
650
700
50
1
600
100
700
800
100
0
600
150
750
950
200
6
700
300
1000
1300
300
Unit “Recipes”
(The color of the text correlates with the color of the sigil used.)
- Humanoid Skeleton
o Skeleton Soldier
o Zombie Farmer
o Vampire Shepherd
o Lich
- Animal Skeleton
o Skeleton Guard Dog
o Hide Sheep
o Blood Cow
o Gargoyle
Quotas
Month
1
2
3
4
Minimum
QP
10
40
60
100
QP for
reward
15
60
80
150
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- 44 Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
Shop Prices
Bone Shop
Item
Price
Human Skull
100
Human Torso
100
Human Arms
100
Human Legs
100
Full Human Set
400
Animal Skull
100
Animal Torso
100
Animal Arms
100
Animal Legs
100
Full Animal Set
400
Sigil Shop
Item
Wing Bone
Red Sigil
Green Sigil
Blue Sigil
Purple Sigil
Animal Feed x10
Price
200
50
100
150
300
50
Control Scheme
The following is an enumeration of all functional buttons and their initial
keyboard mappings:
-
Direction Pad:
o WASD in the standard configuration
Confirm/Contextual Inspection
o Enter
Cancel/Run
o Escape and/or Left-Shift
Dig
o Right-Shift
Menu
o Space Bar
Menu Scroll Right
o Page Up
Menu Scroll Left
o Page Down
Pause
o Tab
Full-Screen/Window Toggle
o Alt + Enter
Analog Joystick
o (Game-Pad)
o Default analog stick
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- 45 Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
Game Flow and Menus
Opening menu
a. Menu choices:
i. Load Game
ii. New Game
iii. Hall of Fame
iv. Options
b. Background is a view of the town, on slow-moving camera track.
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- 46 Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
Load Game
a. Save Slots 1-5, followed by a Cancel option, with a cancel button nearby.
b. Each slot displays the month, day, money, number of worker units,
number of quota points obtained, and number of quota points necessary
for that month.
c. Clicking the cancel button, selecting Cancel from the menu, or pressing
the “Cancel” key on the controller or keyboard will all bring the user back
to the main menu.
New Game
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- 47 Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
a. Menu: (Up and Down keys select menu option.)
i. Choice between Male and female character (Left and Right keys
change selection between Male and Female.)
ii. Choice between 3 color sets for the character’s outfit. (Left and
Right keys change selection among the three choices.)
iii. Field for entering the character’s name. (Confirm key activates
name field. Left and Right keys select which letter to edit. Up and
Down keys change currently selected letter. Cancel key deactivates
focus of the name field. Names can be 10 characters long,
maximum. The first letter will be capitalized, and the rest will all
be lowercase. No spaces are allowed.)
b. When the Up/Down cursor hits the Name option, a description of what
keys to press to control the Name Field will appear below the menu.
c. To the right of the menu options, there is a box with a preview of the
character the player is creating.
d. After the name display, there is an option labeled “Start Game” (not
shown in the diagram). Selecting this option or pressing the Start button
will initiate the new game.
e. Clicking the cancel button, selecting Cancel from the menu, or pressing
the “Cancel” key on the controller or keyboard will all bring the user back
to the main menu.
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GAM400 Fall 2004
Hall of Fame
a. The menu contains five save slots. Thumbnail information identical to the
Load Game screen is displayed in each slot. The final menu option is
“Back,” with a “Back” button nearby.
b. Data is saved to the Hall of Fame when the player either wins or loses the
game. A point total will be calculated based on the quota points earned
during each month (weighted according to month). This total is the “Final
Score” and determines where in the Hall of Fame to save the data. Initially,
the 5 slots will have scores of Zero. Even if the player loses during his/her
first time playing the game, it will be saved to the Hall of Fame.
c. Selecting a slot will load the game’s data, and immediately bring the user
to the in-game Data Report Menu. This menu is identical to the menu that
the user sees when he or she pauses the game. (See item VII of this section
for a thumbnail preview of how the “Data Report Menu” should appear.)
d. If the player exits the Data Report menu by pressing the Cancel button,
he/she will return to the Hall of Fame menu.
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Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
e. Clicking the Back button, selecting “Back” from the menu, or pressing the
“Cancel” key on the controller or keyboard will all bring the user back to
the main menu.
f. There will also be a “Reset” button (not shown in the thumbnail) that will
clear the Hall of Fame. As a security measure, this feature can only be
activated by double clicking the button. (Text explaining this fact will be
displayed at the bottom of the screen.)
Options
a. Menu:
i. Sound Effect Volume “(Press Confirm Key to Test)”
Pressing the Confirm Key on the keyboard or game-pad will play a
sound effect at the specified volume to test this field. Pressing Left
or Right keys will change the value of this field.
ii. Music Volume “(Press Confirm Key to Test)”
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Pressing the Confirm Key on the keyboard or game-pad will change
the volume of the menu song to reflect changes to this setting.
Pressing Left or Right keys will change the value of this field.
iii. Full-Screen or Windowed
Pressing Left or Right keys will change the value of this field.
When Save Settings is clicked, the game will change to reflect the
change made to this field.
iv. Blood color ( Green, Red, Purple )
Pressing Left or Right keys will change the value of this field.
(Default is green.)
v. Particle effects on/off.
Pressing Left or Right keys will change the value of this field.
vi. Controller Configuration
Selecting this from the menu will take the user to the Controller
Configuration screen, outlined below in section VI.
vii. Save Settings
Saves the settings to the configuration file and applies the changes
made.
viii. Cancel
Returns to the previous menu without applying the changes made.
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- 51 Game: Zombie Farm
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GAM400 Fall 2004
Controller Configuration
a. This menu is a table representing the control scheme of the game. It
consists of three columns: Function, Keyboard, and Game-Pad. Each row
shows a controller function and the button associated to it on both devices.
b. The functions and default keyboard mappings are as follows:
i. Move Up – W
ii. Move Down – S
iii. Move Left – A
iv. Move Right – D
v. Confirm – Enter
vi. Cancel / Run – Left Shift
vii. Menu – Space Bar
i. Shovel – Left Control
ii. Menu Scroll Right – Page Down
iii. Menu Scroll Left – Page Up
iv. Toggle Full-Screen / Windowed Mode – Alt+Enter
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c. Below these options are two menu options: Save Settings and Cancel.
d. This menu is completely controlled by the mouse to avoid user confusion.
This fact is communicated to the user at the bottom of the screen. Mouse
controls never change and are always consistent. The player must click a
field and then press a button on the keyboard or game-pad (depending on
which column was clicked) to set the button. Right-clicking will cancel the
button change, as will clicking the “Cancel” button.
e. Clicking a box in the Keyboard or Game-Pad brings up a prompt asking
for a new key. This prompt has a Cancel button that user can click to
cancel the change. When the user presses a new button on the proper
device, it will be mapped to that function.
Main Game
a. Main character
b. Clock (Numerical)
c. Time-of-Day Icon
i. Dusk
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GAM400 Fall 2004
ii. Late Evening
iii. Midnight
iv. Early Morning (Icon animates excitedly, urgently alerting the
player to go home.)
v. Dawn
d. Current funds
e. Current quota points
f. Minimal quota points necessary for the month
g. Pints of blood the player is carrying
h. Day of the month
The clock is a 24 hour clock; the game begins at 18:00 and ends at 6:00. Initially,
a night will last two minutes and thirty seconds. The time upgrade (which is available
during the first month through an easy NPC quest) will extend this time to 5 minutes.
Data Report Menu
a. This menu consists of five pages, which the user can switch between with
the “Left Scroll” and “Right Scroll” buttons (L and R buttons on a
standard game-pad, or Page Up/ Page Down on the keyboard).
b. The pages scroll in the order listed here, wrapping at the end back to the
first.
c. When the menu is opened, the user will see the same page he was viewing
when he last opened the menu.
d. Each menu’s title is displayed in large letters, centered, at the top of the
screen.
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Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
e. The menus are as follows:
i. Materials
1. Displays number of full humans skeletons
2. Number of extra human bones and their type
3. Number of full animal skeletons
4. Number of extra animal bones and their type
5. Number of wing bones
6. Quantity of the four sigil types currently in possession.
ii. Graveyard Status
1. Total Number of graves growing
a. Number of graves currently watered
b. Number of graves remaining to be watered
c. Number of graves that the zombie caretakers can
support.
2. Number of empty plots
3. Number of graves ready to harvest
iii. Livestock Status
1. Number of sheep
2. Number of cows
3. Number of animals fed
4. Number of animals remaining to be fed
5. Number of animals the zombie caretakers can support
6. Number of sheep ready to be “harvested”
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GAM400 Fall 2004
7. Number of sheep recently skinned.
8. Number of sheep in the “normal” state.
9. Amount of feed remaining.
iv. Storehouse Status
1. Displays total Quota-Points obtained for the month so far
and number of Quota-Points necessary to pass the current
month.
a. Displayed in red if the user’s QP is less than the
minimal passing value of QP.
b. Displayed in white if the two numbers are equal.
c. Displayed in blue if the user’s QP exceeds the
minimal passing value of QP.
2. Displays the monetary and Quota-Point value of the units
in the player’s storehouse. (Not that this value is not added
to the value mentioned in item 1 of this list; The Current
Quota Point value is only updated at the end of the day,
when the storehouse is emptied.)
3. Exact number of units of each type (8 possible types)
currently in the player’s storehouse in the left column.
4. Exact number of units of each type (8 possible types)
currently working on the player’s farm in the right column.
5. The up and down keys move the cursor along the 8 rows.
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GAM400 Fall 2004
6. The right and left keys move the cursor between the two
columns.
7. Pressing the Confirm key at a point in the table will move
the currently selected unit between the two columns.
(Example: The user has 2 cows in his storehouse and 3 on
the farm. If the user selects “Cow” in the storehouse
column and presses Confirm, the user will have 1 cows in
his storehouse and 4 on his farm. Likewise, the player can
transfer cows off of his farm and into the storehouse.)
8. At the end of the day, the storehouse will be emptied
completely, and the player will be awarded money and
quota points equal to the value of all of the units in the
storehouse. The units on the farm will remain unaffected.
v. Quota History
1. Shows the player’s QP accumulation for each month in
four rows, each representing one month.
2. Each item in the column shows the player’s QP value and
the minimal value of QP necessary to pass the month.
3. If the player’s QP is less than the minimal passing amount,
the numbers will be red. If greater, the numbers will be red.
If equal, they will be white.
vi. Items
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1. Displays the items that the player has collected from the
townsfolk in a list on the left side of the screen.
2. The right side of the screen will display a description of the
currently selected item.
Plant Corpse
a. This menu is displayed when the user presses the Confirm/ContextualSelection button when close to and facing a dug-up, empty grave.
b. Displays the following values:
i. Number of complete human skeletons
ii. Number of complete animal skeletons
iii. Number of wing bones
iv. Number of each of the four types of sigils.
v. (If any of these values is zero, the number will be drawn in grey
instead of white.)
c. At the bottom of the screen is a message bar telling the player what to
select.
d. First the player must select a skeleton type by moving the cursor left or
right between the human and animal skeleton displays. Then the player
must press the confirm button to continue.
i. If player selects a skeleton, but the player has zero complete
skeletons of that type, an error sound will be heard and the
selection will be ignored.
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GAM400 Fall 2004
ii. At this point, if the Cancel button is pressed, the menu closes and
the player regains walking-control over his/her character.
iii. A different colored box-cursor will remain over the player’s choice
to keep the player informed of his/her selection.
e. Next the player must select one of the four sigil types by moving the
cursor left or right across the sigil quantity displays. The player must press
the confirm button to continue.
i. If the player selects a sigil type, but has zero quantity of that sigil,
an error sound will be heard and the selection will be ignored.
ii. At this point, if the Cancel button is pressed, the cursor will return
to the skeleton-selection sub-menu.
iii. A different colored box-cursor will remain over the player’s choice
to keep the player informed of his/her selection.
f. Finally the player will be asked to confirm his/her selection. As previously
mentioned, dull-colored box-cursors will remain over the player’s
selections as he/she makes them.
i. This sub-menu will have “Yes” and “No” choices, and the help
display will ask, “Are you sure you want to plant these materials?”
ii. The user will use the left and right keys to move the cursor
between Yes and No.
iii. Selecting No or pressing the Cancel key will bring the player back
to the sigil selection sub-menu.
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- 59 Game: Zombie Farm
Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
iv. Pressing the Confirm button while the cursor is on the Yes option
will confirm the planting. The materials will be deducted from the
player’s inventory and the grave will be filled.
Bone Shop
a. This screen displays all 9 bone types in the leftmost column.
i. Human skull
ii. Human torso
iii. Human Arm set
iv. Human Leg set
v. Animal skull
vi. Animal torso
vii. Animal arm set
viii. Animal leg set
ix. Wing set
b. At the bottom of the screen, the player’s current funds are displayed.
c. The second column shows the value of the bones and is labeled Price;
below this label, in smaller print is the following: “Buy?”
d.
The third column shows the player’s current stock of bones and is labeled
Stock; below this label, in smaller print is the following: “Sell?”
e. The player’s cursor will be able to move between the second and third
columns.
f. Pressing the Confirm button on the second column will add one to the
player’s stock of that bone and deduct the price from the player’s total.
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Team: Undead Psycho Monkeys
GAM400 Fall 2004
i. If the player’s funds are less than the value in the second column,
the price of the corresponding bone will be drawn in grey. If the
player can afford the bone, its price is drawn in white.
g. Pressing the Confirm button on the third column will subtract one to the
player’s stock of that bone and add the price to the player’s total.
i. If the player has zero stock of a bone, the quantity number will be
drawn in grey. If the player has one or more of a bone, it will be
drawn in white.
h. The player can sell bones for the exact price that he/she can buy them.
There is no penalty for buying a bone and then selling it back immediately.
i. Pressing the Cancel button while on this menu will close it and return the
player to character-control.
(See the Farming And Unit Growth Section for more information about bone usage.)
Sigil Shop
a. This menu is identical to the Bone Shop menu, but instead of the 9 rows
for each bone type, there are only 5 rows: One for each sigil, followed by
a bag of animal feed.
b. This menu operates the same way as the Bone Shop.
i. The lowest quality sigil has a large red icon.
ii. The second-level sigil has a large green icon.
iii. The third-level sigil’s icon is blue.
iv. The highest-level sigil’s icon is purple.
v. The animal feed icon is brown.
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c. Pressing the Cancel button while on this menu will close it and return the
player to character-control.
(See the Farming And Unit Growth Section for more information on sigil usage.)
Dialog
This section will be updated at a later date.
Media Filename Standard
Filenames should be descriptive. If a file can be associated with a character or
unit, the file should be named with the character’s name or description followed by an
underscore and a descriptive name for the file. Keep filenames under 30 characters long.
Minimum Feature Priority
Everything in this document is our absolute ideal for this game, but we know that
sometimes bad things happen. We have prioritized the features of the game and outlined
our absolute minimum base expectations for the game. Everything from this document
which is not listed here is considered a “B” feature. In all likelihood, an abundant amount
of these B features will be implemented. These minimum base expectations are merely a
contingency plan.
-
Minimum Feature Expectations
o One playable character (male)
o No character color choice
o All three areas
o One month game
o Shops, but no town NPC
o 3 Humanoid units: Skeleton, Farmer, Lich
o No mail
o No bone scavenging
o No sleep-time attacks.
o Wandering behavior for farm units.
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GAM400 Fall 2004
Schedule and Preliminary Task Checklist

Week 4 – Milestone 1: Completion of GDD.

Week 6 – Milestone 2: Completion of TDD
o 3D graphics engine in place
o base code complete

Week 8 – Milestone 3:
o Player control complete
o Physics module complete
o Basic NPC AI in place
o World modules complete

Week 10 – Milestone 4: Code Review:
o Audio complete
o AI half complete
o In game UI complete

Week 14 – Milestone: Prototype Demo
o Half of the mission done
o Player actions in place
o AI 80% done

(Second Semester)

Week 6 – Milestone: Pre-Alpha
o AI 100% Complete
o Shell Menus 75% Complete

Week 9 – Milestone: Alpha
o Shell Menus 100% complete
o All game features completes
o Hardcore testing begins

Week 12 – Milestone: Beta
o All NPC quests complete
o Hardcore testing continues

Week 14 – Milestone: Gold Master
Managing Producer: Michael Moore
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