A Game Design Document for:
Their salvation is in your hands.
All work Copyright ©2008 by Mindless Entertainment
Written by Nick Halme/Mindless Team
Version # 1.03
Friday, March 18, 2016
Attn: The formatting of this document may not display correctly with older versions of Word.
Contents
Design History ........................................................................................................................................... 6
Version 1.00 -- Nick ................................................................................................................................... 6
Version 1.01 -- Nick ................................................................................................................................... 6
Version 1.02 -- Nick ................................................................................................................................... 6
Version 1.03 – Nick ................................................................................................................................... 6
Overview ....................................................................................................................................................... 7
Premise ..................................................................................................................................................... 7
Viewpoint .................................................................................................................................................. 7
Controls ..................................................................................................................................................... 7
Story -- Synopsis ............................................................................................................................................ 8
Prologue .................................................................................................................................................... 8
Characters ................................................................................................................................................. 8
Art Style......................................................................................................................................................... 9
Architecture .............................................................................................................................................. 9
Lighting...................................................................................................................................................... 9
Characters ................................................................................................................................................. 9
Core Mechanics........................................................................................................................................... 10
Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 10
Shooting .................................................................................................................................................. 10
Goal for Shooting .................................................................................................................................... 10
Ammunition Management (Reloading) .................................................................................................. 10
Goal for Ammunition Management (Reloading) .................................................................................... 10
The Shield................................................................................................................................................ 11
Goal for the Shield .................................................................................................................................. 11
Movement............................................................................................................................................... 11
Gameplay Examples .................................................................................................................................... 12
Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 12
Example Number One: Shooting in Isolation .......................................................................................... 12
Example Number Two: The Shield in Isolation ....................................................................................... 12
Example Number Three: Shooting and the Shield Operating in Tandem ............................................... 12
Meta Mechanics.......................................................................................................................................... 13
Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 13
Combat Mechanics ..................................................................................................................................... 14
Gameplay Loops .......................................................................................................................................... 15
Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 15
Core Mechanics....................................................................................................................................... 15
Metagame ............................................................................................................................................... 15
Base Setting............................................................................................................................................. 15
Contextualized Tokens ............................................................................................................................ 15
Contextualized Levels ............................................................................................................................. 15
Story ........................................................................................................................................................ 15
Controls ....................................................................................................................................................... 16
User Interface and HUD .............................................................................................................................. 17
Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 17
The HUD .................................................................................................................................................. 17
Front End..................................................................................................................................................... 18
Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 18
Screen Flow ............................................................................................................................................. 18
Back End ...................................................................................................................................................... 19
Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 19
Story – Dialogue .......................................................................................................................................... 20
Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 20
Cinematic Intro (Ajax only) ..................................................................................................................... 20
Sound Cues.............................................................................................................................................. 21
Event Dialogue ........................................................................................................................................ 22
Tutorial Dialogue (Ajax only) ............................................................................................................... 23
Random Dialogue ................................................................................................................................ 24
Storyboards ................................................................................................................................................. 25
Player Health System .................................................................................................................................. 26
Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 26
Player Health Goal .................................................................................................................................. 26
Enemies ....................................................................................................................................................... 27
Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 27
The Trooper............................................................................................................................................. 27
The Plasma Trooper ................................................................................................................................ 27
The Fire Trooper ..................................................................................................................................... 27
The Spawner ........................................................................................................................................... 27
Level Design ................................................................................................................................................ 28
Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 28
Overall Level Sketch ................................................................................................................................ 28
Level Layouts ........................................................................................................................................... 28
Beat Chart ............................................................................................................................................... 28
Level Design & Encounter Theory ............................................................................................................... 29
Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 29
Trash Tuning............................................................................................................................................ 29
Creating Encounters................................................................................................................................ 30
Adding Challenge .................................................................................................................................... 30
Complex Plans ......................................................................................................................................... 30
Adding Challenge .................................................................................................................................... 30
Random Elements ................................................................................................................................... 30
Endurance Tests ...................................................................................................................................... 30
Sound Design .............................................................................................................................................. 31
Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 31
Player Feedback ...................................................................................................................................... 31
Narrative Exposition................................................................................................................................ 31
Mood ....................................................................................................................................................... 31
3D Assets ..................................................................................................................................................... 32
Enemies ............................................................................................................................................... 32
Main Characters .................................................................................................................................. 32
2D Assets ..................................................................................................................................................... 33
Animation Assets ........................................................................................................................................ 34
Sound Assets ............................................................................................................................................... 35
Concept Artwork ......................................................................................................................................... 36
Prototype .................................................................................................................................................... 37
Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 37
Goals ....................................................................................................................................................... 37
Questions and Answers .............................................................................................................................. 38
Why Greece and Sci-fi? ........................................................................................................................... 38
Why Robots? ........................................................................................................................................... 38
Design History
Version 1.00 -- Nick
Rough pass to establish core systems, mechanics and theme, and to appease the all powerful
mentors’ lust for knowledge regarding the game.
Version 1.01 -- Nick
Made major changes to the core mechanics and transferred our paper ideas into the document.
Version 1.02 -- Nick
After reevaluating our objectives, magnets have been cut as a gameplay mechanic. With the
team feeling magnets, or any movement system, running parallel with the FPS elements of the game as
superfluous and diluting to the overall design, we are now focusing on delivering a strong, tight FPS.
Version 1.03 – Nick
Shield functionality has changed slightly. Meta-mechanics have been cut in favour of tuning and
polishing the core gameplay. Enemy types have been changed – there are now three, differentiated by
looks and type of weapon used. The main level has been reworked and compressed, and a tutorial
section has been added to the level design. The Greek overtones in the story and dialogue have been
made more subtle as the narrative has evolved.
Overview
Premise
Ajax and Argo is a character driven single-player First-Person Shooter for the PC set on a
futuristic world full of subservient artificials – robots.
The player takes control of the formidable Argo, a robot built by robots for robots. As Argo it is
your mission to safeguard Ajax – who is your gun, by the way -- as your people fall to the human
onslaught. Ajax serves as your one and only projectile weapon and, as a relic of your people and the
container for a powerful, snobby artificial intelligence, must be protected until it can reach safety.
Our objectives are to make an excellent shooter that changes the traditional FPS formula at a
cellular level – changing small things most would take for granted in order to produce a different
outcome. Aside from gameplay we are also delivering a snarky, dark buddy story with the naïve Argo
and stuck-up, progressively neurotic Ajax.
This is the story of one seven foot tall robot and his talking gun delivered in a 5-10 minute
gameplay experience that is, above all else, fun and engaging.
Viewpoint
The player views the world around them in the first person mainly due to certain technical
limitations. With the time allotted for development the original plan to implement a third-person
camera was scrapped due to the sheer amount of animations required. Since then the design has
adapted to the limitations; with Ajax being developed as both a weapon and a character this called for
the gun being a real point of attention, something the first-person view provides.
Controls
We have managed to achieve Xbox 360 controller support – mapping is TBD. Refer to the
Controls section for more info.
Story -- Synopsis
Prologue
Far, far away, tucked behind a violent blue sun, lay the ruined world of Elysium. Not long ago,
Elysium had been at peace. While that time was certainly within memory, it seemed so far away now – it
was clear that there would be no turning back. Once a glorious example of technology and human
perseverance, the increasingly strong rays of their sun combined with overpopulation and squalor had
all but broken their people. In an attempt to save themselves, the humans of Elysium put all of their
trust into a new project proposed by the brightest scientists of their time – they would create an entire
race of machines to support them.
Borne out of the need to provide guiltless slave labour, a form of artificial intelligence was conceived
that would serve to remove the burdens of everyday life from the average human. It was of utmost
concern to the Senate that these artificials be nothing but mindless machines; to give them the thought
process of a human would be both dangerous and blasphemous, and to give them human emotion
would be cruel. Therefore the artificials were programmed with these safeguards in mind: they would
be given only the simplest logical intelligence, would not possess the ability to collect information and
learn, and most importantly they could not be allowed to harm their masters. It was not long before this
fragile pact between human and artificial was so savagely broken.
The humans had never expected that the intelligence they had passed on to the artificials would be
capable of adaption. While it was true that no artificial was capable of learning, it did not stop them
from adapting. Without the ability to collect their own knowledge, they simply copied the ways and
mannerisms of their masters. While they didn’t know why, or how, the artificials were essentially
pretending to be more intelligent; this proved to be enough.
Characters
The player controls Argo, a robot built by robots for robots, fresh out of the factory just
in time to defend his people – the first and only Mark III model. He isn’t especially eager and, like the
player, has no experience with the game world. Argo isn’t stupid, he is merely naïve – but he is
especially powerful and by his nature doesn’t consider much of anything a threat. This can make him
brave but at the same time quite foolhardy.
Ajax who was once the artificial intelligence system for the entire robot floating city -- keeper of
all knowledge and experiences of the collective artificial people – is now trapped in a gun for
safekeeping and transport off of the planet. Argo is charged with carrying Ajax rather unknowingly in
order to ultimately get Ajax off the planet in the hopes of saving their robotic meme. Ajax is quite
cultured and intelligent, and resents the fact that his intelligence has been inserted into a weapon. Over
time, Ajax begins to rather enjoy the exhilaration of combat, but continues to restrain himself and tries
to retain his dignity. Ajax is the only one who is fully aware of the responsibility placed on them to save
their people, and must slowly reveal their mission to Argo through dialogue.
Art Style
Architecture
Clean, utopian sci-fi architecture with an ancient Greco-Roman influence. Environments will
incorporate structural elements such as columns, arches and pantheons and other works of our own
imagination that support the same elegant style.
We are building the majority of our architecture as one large object; a large tower. When taken
apart as separate objects, they will all be able to more or less fit together if need be when put into the
world. Additionally, we can ensure that all the objects fit together style-wise.
Lighting
Having a world lit by a boiling blue sun is no accident; it allows us to drape the world with a
surreal curtain of light blue hues, highlighted by blooming white skylights. This kind of cold, bleak
saturated lighting lets us establish that the environment is quite fictional and dreamy, providing a
helpful level of abstraction for us to work with and helps us differentiate the game in terms of style.
This lighting style has already been achieved using Unreal Engine 3 – pictures will be included in this
section in the next update.
Note: Blue lighting will not be used throughout the entire game world, specifically indoors where other
light sources will be present.
Characters
After completing the concept stage we will have a visual reference in the Concept Art section.
As of now we can say that the artificial characters are metal, with Argo being the largest of his kind. The
humans possess smaller attack drones that are metallic and sleek. The human characters are also
(mostly) clad in metal and have a very pseudo-Greek style to their armour.
Core Mechanics
Overview
Core mechanics are our bread and butter, the thirty seconds of fun – the risk and reward
schedule players will follow from moment to moment throughout gameplay (see Gameplay Loops).
Shooting
As Ajax is the only projectile weapon available to the player, all gun combat will revolve around
it. With only one physical weapon, the plan is to differentiate the gunplay without resorting to the
ability to switch different weapon archetypes in and out. Instead the very low level ability to fire
projectiles at an enemy will be the subject of our testing and tweaking during our prototyping phase.
We are starting by adding a wrinkle to the simple act of shooting. The system we are using is very much
like that of a minigun in most action/shooter games. By default Ajax will fire one projectile at a time
every few seconds (TBD) while fire is held – think of this like the warm-up of a minigun – but the only
way for Ajax to ramp up his rate of fire is to fire and hit an enemy. While a traditional minigun mechanic
would have the player wait a few seconds while the gun warms up to full speed, our system requires
that the player make successive contact with enemies.
Goal for Shooting
The idea is to produce a very low level system that the player can master quickly – hitting
enemies with projectiles is a natural occurrence in an FPS, so we are not asking that the player learn and
manage a new set of rules; they simply have more active feedback from the act of firing their weapon
with the added plus of not needing a button to switch rate of fire.
Ammunition Management (Reloading)
Our shooting system is very dynamic – players will be transitioning from a slow rate of fire to a
fast rate of fire in very short periods of time and often. So what’s to stop players from just shooting like
wild? Shooting like wild is fun, but comes across as cheap and mindless if there is nothing there to limit
it in some way. That’s where our reloading mechanic comes in.
Ajax will be responsible for reloading himself, not the player. Picture a bar that represents how
full your ammo is – when shooting the bar begins to drain, and when idle the bar quickly refills. Ajax can
only feed bullets into his firing mechanism so fast, and when sustaining a high rate of fire the bar will not
be capable of filling itself up fast enough.
Goal for Ammunition Management (Reloading)
Sticking with the theme of simplicity and eliminating the need for button control, the player
does not actively reload – like controlling rate of fire the player controls reloading by simply firing his
weapon. This reload system can be seen as a check on the player’s ability to reach high rates of fire, but
it should not be an annoyance.
The Shield
While button layout is still TBD, the early controller mapping we are prototyping helps to
delineate the shield mechanic – if shooting is on the right trigger, then the shield is on the left trigger.
By holding down the left trigger the player will bring up a shield (the graphics involved are TBD) that will
temporarily -- for several seconds – block any incoming shots; especially heavy charged shots fired by
the Blast Bots.
Goal for the Shield
With the fast-paced gameplay we are encouraging the last thing we want to do is add cover in
the world – that would mean enemies would be harder to hit, we would have to design around using
cover to survive fights and we would be encouraging timid play. So, we are giving the player his own
cover in the form of a shield. Put up your shield too early or too late and that blast is going to hit you
square in the jaw; put it up just in time and you’re good to go.
It is important to note that the shield is yet another check on the ramping of the shooting
mechanic – special care must be taken to make sure it doesn’t interfere with the flow of combat, as far
as rate of fire, movement speed, and shield duration goes.
Movement
With all of the wrenches we are throwing into the traditional FPS formula, we really don’t want
movement to be complicated. That said, the purpose is not to try and be more average but rather to
give players a solid foundation. Any player familiar with the FPS genre will be able to grasp the
movement controls, letting them focus on learning the new shooting system.
Gameplay Examples
Overview
A few gameplay examples using our core mechanics in isolation and in tandem.
Example Number One: Shooting in Isolation
The player enters a room full of human enemies; they are flooding into the room through two
teleporters which are situated in the back of the room. The player quickly fires at the closest enemy,
staying on target and quickly increasing his rate of fire – after a few seconds the enemy is vaporized and
the player moves on to the next enemy, his ammunition bar still able to keep up with the current rate of
fire. After cutting a swathe through the room Ajax is red hot and firing near full capacity – a worried
Ajax jibes at the player to calm down for a second; he can’t keep up. The player ignores the audio cue
and continues to fire anyways – the gun dry fires with a click and sputters out several more rounds as
the player continues to attempt to fire. Realizing this is futile the player lets up for a second. His
ammunition bar quickly refills and he continues to make his way towards the teleporters.
Example Number Two: The Shield in Isolation
The player is walking down an empty street. There are no enemies in sight and the player
continues down the street. Without warning two human fighter craft strafe the area, roaring overhead
and disappearing quickly over the rooftops. This triggers several explosions in front of the player and
large chunks of rubble are sent flying his way. Having used the shield before the player knows that it will
only stay up for a couple of seconds, and so waits for a second with his finger on the left trigger. Just as
a large chunk of concrete fills his view the player pull his shield up and is met with a sturdy blocking
sound as the rubble is diverted.
Example Number Three: Shooting and the Shield Operating in Tandem
Presented with a wall of flying drones the player makes contact with one to slightly increase his
rate of fire and then continues to sweep over the cloud of drones, hoping that he will hit enough of
them to effectively keep his rate of fire constant -- rather than taking the time to target each one
individually. After destroying one of the drone spawners a group of new enemies appear to join the
others – Blast Bots. These drones skitter within range and sporadically begin to charge up a strong
energy blast directed at the player. While continuing to fire as best he can the player must now
consistently defend against incoming charged shots with his shield, or by performing some fancy
footwork.
Meta Mechanics
Overview
The decision has been made to cut any meta mechanics; production time does not allow us
proper implementation. As well, the short play-through time of the game does not lend itself to
supporting an effective meta game.
Combat Mechanics
We will fill in this section as our encounters become more complex and we can list viable combinations
of our core mechanics we can play to when crafting scenarios.
Gameplay Loops
Overview
The Onion Theory gives us a chance to take a look at just how effectively every element of the
game meshes together and if they support one another sufficiently – each layer builds upon the last.
After fully fleshing out our exact mechanics, this skeleton can be filled out more extensively.
The layers of the onion break down from top to bottom, starting with the core and ending at the skin.
Core Mechanics
The basic risk and reward schedule the player follows. Right now the player is moving, shooting,
and keeping their weapon on target to fire faster. The player is managing their ammunition bar in order
to keep firing and not outshoot the bar.
Metagame
The set of mechanics that tie together the core mechanics. The player will be managing a
transitory experience bar that they can activate with every face button except “A”. The player will be
using these built-in power-ups to supplement their core gameplay – these mechanics are still being
tested and are likely to change and evolve.
Base Setting
This is anything that gives players context as to what our game is, for instance our genre. Ajax &
Argo is a First Person Shooter– letting the player know what to expect before they dig into gameplay,
and making that attractive.
Contextualized Tokens
Anything that provides a representation for our actual mechanics. At the moment our tokens
are different enemies and their spawners which allows players to begin to understand what they are
interacting with.
Contextualized Levels
While the core mechanics interact with the tokens, our levels are there to affect the player
emotionally through the way in which those tokens are laid out that make sense for our tokens and
make sense within the base setting. At the moment this comes down to our encounter design and
works with the metagame mechanic of how to win a challenge with these tokens in it.
Story
While the core mechanics allow for interaction and the levels add a layer of emotion, the story
adds the final level of emotion and context to the game. At the moment the story is the player’s driving
force to reach the landmark, and provides emotional details through characters and environment.
Controls
We have successfully gotten the controller to work through editing the .ini file, and we now have
controller support. Button mapping is TBD.
User Interface and HUD
Overview
We want to use as discrete a HUD as possible in A&A with the intention of communicating more
information through Ajax, such as how Splinter Cell: Double Agent communicated threat levels by
placing a light on the back of the main character instead of a bar. Something on Ajax will also change
colour or pulse as he speaks – whatever we can do to personify him.
The HUD
Below is an early concept for our user interface. At the top of the screen is the player’s shield.
On the gun itself is the ammunition bar.
When the player is damaged we will be overlaying a vignette -- most likely of cracked glass or
scanlines – the player camera will desaturate and audio may be distorted. Care must be taken to convey
a sense of panic and a state of disrepair without ruining the player’s vision; it is probable that we will
only apply one effect to the screen such as a vignette.
Front End
Overview
Our front-end needs to be functional and dive deep fast, why not go all EA and use the onebutton press to get the user right into the game, especially since this is a student project – all they want
to see is the game, so give it to them.
Screen Flow
This is a deep menu, players will dive straight down to the game without any hassle.
Back End
Overview
This needs to be discussed further, but the back end also just needs to be fast and functional.
For the purposes of our vertical slice, the backend will consist of pause and exit functions only.
Story – Dialogue
Overview
The only rule we will be following while developing the story beats for the game is this: stories in
games must be stupid. That sounds atrocious, but technically it is true. The story beats will be kept
simple, with clear objectives, goals and context for the player that tie into the levels and encounters.
The actual game world and dialogue will be responsible for filling in the details using exposition rather
than penning an intricate wall of text that would be better served on the pages of a book.
Cinematic Intro (Ajax only)
Shot One
Space shot of the planet Elysium and its sun
Beat One
Elysium – battered home of the human race, assaulted by its own sun
Shot Two
Farmers hoe, work in fields
Beat Two
Exposure meant death; but not for machines
Shot Three
The farmers are slowly replaced by robots working the fields – the floating city rises in the background
Beat Three
But not all machines are mindless – these machines could feel, they learned to want; and they wanted a
city.
Shot Four
Overtop of the floating city, human ships wipe to next scene
Beat Four
The humans reacted the only way they knew how to, with violence
Shot Five
Argo being constructed
Beat Five
And so the Mark III – The Argo – was created; to deliver us from humanity
Shot Six
Ajax is taken from the city’s console and placed, in chip form, into the gun
Beat Six
I was removed from the consciousness, disconnected from our people and locked in darkness; safe in
the weapon.
Shot Seven
Argo picks up Ajax, doors close and cut to next scene
Beat Seven
We would escape, the Brute and I
Shot Eight
Argo is jettisoned out of the city towards the human base
Beat Eight
Into the heart of the beast
Sound Cues
Out of Ammunition
Argo
Stupid gun
Ajax
Hold on…
Ajax
Take it easy!
Ajax
Flooding chamber with coolant – venting exhaust…
Killed a Spawner
Argo
Boom… (low, monotone)
Ajax
What a simple machine…
Ten Kills Accumulated
Ajax
Oh my…
Argo
Humans…
Ajax
Filthy creatures
Argo
Target extinguished
Ajax
How brutish
Argo
It – is…my job (note spaces, take time to say “it…is…” then finish with “my job” at normal speed)
Ajax
Unfortunate…but necessary
Catch Energy Shot with Shield
Argo
Gotcha
Argo
….Catch (start .wav with silence, then “catch”)
Ajax
Nice catch
Ajax
Power critical
Catch Fire Shot with Shield
Argo
Hot!
Ajax
Be careful!
Argo
Nowhere to run
Fire At Full Speed
Ajax
Waaaaaaaaaah! (Robotic whine, think…kind of R2D2 when he’s in danger)
Ajax
Hold on
Argo
Steady…
Event Dialogue
Generator 1 Down
Ajax
Two to go
Argo
Are you with me, gun?
Ajax
Of course, brute – do I have a choice?
Generator 2 Down
Argo
We are close
Ajax
Don’t get cocky
Argo
What is…cocky?
Generator 3 Down
Argo
We move
Ajax
Careful
Argo
It is humans, who must be careful here
Ship Event/Last Encounter
Ajax
Place me there, quickly
Argo
Goodbye
Ajax
You have done well
Argo
It is my job
Ajax
Your people…they thank you
Final Monologue after Launch/Fight To Death
Argo
We part ways, gun; we must
Argo
Humans do not understand
Argo
Our people live
Tutorial Dialogue (Ajax only)
Level One – Moving, Looking, Jumping
You didn’t think I’d let a tin can fresh off the assembly line carry me in to battle, did you?
Level Two – Learn to shoot with increased rate of fire
I’m only as accurate as the brute holding me, you know. The more shots you make in a row
allow me to accelerate the firing system that much faster.
Level Three – Using the shield
You were built with defense in mind; use your shield to absorb damage. But please…please try not to drain the batteries.
Level Four – Shooting back energy
Your shield is made up of the same energy the humans use to try and disable us, so I’ll tell you
what – use the shield to absorb their shot, and I’ll spit it back at them. It’s ingenious, really.
Level Five – Enemy Types
Now…let’s see if those data receptors of yours can remember all that.
Random Dialogue
Ajax: “What an excellent view”
“Why must they be so violent?”
“Curious”
“Brute…”
“Brute!”
“That won’t do…no, not at all”
“Another atom; scattered…”
“What don’t you understand about subtlety?”
“It’s quite uncomfortable in this gun, you know”
“These, are our creators?
Argo: “They are so…weak?”
“Quiet, gun”
“Hold still”
“I do my duty”
“I do – as instructed”
“They die because they must”
“Good job, gun”
“Goodbye human”
“For my people”
“Shut up, shut up”
Storyboards – Cinematic Intro
NOTE: Due to the loss of the artist who was to work on the cinematic introduction and time
constraints, only rough storyboards will be made with an emphasis on finishing the end product on
schedule.
Overview
The sequence and subject matter of the storyboards for the opening and end cinematics is complete
and we are awaiting confirmation from a number of art collaborators in order to determine what kind of
workload they can handle and what they feel they are capable of producing.
Player Health System
Overview
At the moment we have a shield/health management system, like the one found in the first
Halo. The concept is simple: the shield bar drains as it absorbs hits and once drained the player’s health
can be drained, resulting in death. The shield regenerates out of combat while health is static and
regenerated through pick-ups.
Player Health Goal
The goal here is to find the sweet spot with shield regeneration rates and the initial size of the
shield bar until we reach a spot where we feel comfortable that a player can be slightly reckless and still
have enough shield power left to ‘get the hell out of Dodge’. Once the shields are down, the enemies
will make short work of a heady player.
The 5-10 minute experience we are shooting for is not arcade-style in presentation: it is
unacceptable if the player dies repeatedly because of difficulty, as it will drastically extend the length of
our game and increase the chances that nobody will see all of our content.
The risk of death must be present at all times, but the goal is to keep the player on the edge
while never quite pushing them off.
Enemies
Overview
Using some of the same thinking applied to our Flash game Vertical Slice our enemies very much
determine the ebb and flow of gameplay in A&A. We are also drawing inspiration from Halo 3 where
individual encounters with a group of specific enemy types (or tokens) can be seen as a puzzle,
especially on the harder difficulties.
Developing actual AI for multiple enemies is beyond our scope, so each enemy is defined by the
weapon they use and their physical appearance.
The Trooper
The least threatening enemy, this human soldier is armed with a rapid firing weapon that inflicts
low damage.
The Plasma Trooper
The Plasma Trooper is outfitted with heavier armour and has more health than the regular
Trooper. His only means of attack is a charge shot; a large ball of energy that inflicts heavy damage on
the player.
The charge shot fired by the Plasma Trooper can be absorbed by the player’s shield and fired as
a special weapon.
The Fire Trooper
The Fire Trooper, while aesthetically unique, has no more health than a normal Trooper.
However he is the most dangerous enemy, especially when encountered in groups. Carrying a weapon
that spurts fire shots, an unwary player can easily become consumed in flame.
The fire shot fired by the Fire Trooper can be absorbed by the player’s shield and fired as a
special weapon.
The Spawner
Not an enemy per se, the Spawner is a capsule that teleports enemies into the fight. Spawners
are often well protected by Troopers, but once destroyed will cripple the humans’ ability to reinforce
their soldiers.
Level Design
Overview
This section will contain everything to do with our environment and how we will map for flow
and pacing. The level will be chiefly systematic with shield walls, generators and spawners that provide
consistent challenges, although special case events do exiiCheckpoints for respawning will be tweaked
and balanced until near the end of production.
Overall Level Sketch
This has yet to be done and will be a complete rough layout of our entire game level by level,
establishing where and what our encounters and challenges will be. What we do know is that the player
will be progressing from a burning city towards a large landmark.
Level Layouts
Once the overall sketch is complete we will begin fleshing out the individual levels – all
information, top downs and designs will be included here.
Beat Chart
Once the overall level sketch is complete we can begin putting together a beat chart, and once
our individual levels are fleshed out we can get develop the beat chart further and tweak the game.
Level Design & Encounter Theory
Overview
As much of our combat is dictated by enemy interaction, with different enemy types, we will be
using Blizzard’s World of Warcraft encounter design as a reference and a template to build out from.
Trash Tuning
Density Amount of enemies/creatures
 Clear times (time taken to kill all enemies)
 Creatures to Boss ratio
Kill Time
 Creature has too many hitpoints
 Creature causes player to kill slowly
 Immunities
Difficulty
 Likeliness to kill players
 Overly complex
 Requires boss-like attention and skill
Respawn – waves, sense of urgency
 Sense of urgency
 Unlimited tries
 Coupled with boss encounters
Reward
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Reason to kill
Money
Items
Reputation
Ultimately players need to feel as though there is a chance for their character to
progress
Creating Encounters
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How many people?
What rewards are expected?
What makes sense based on the lore and art
Ragnaros’ room was tall so they punted players to the ceiling
How does the encounter fit
Variety
Adding Challenge
 Surviving burst damage
 Reward expectations
 Beating the clock, not so much about staying alive, but doing enough damage in that
amount of time
Complex Plans
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Multiple tasks and targets
Epic fights: a boss with 3-4 cronies (Learn the plan and deal with it)
Movement and positioning (Phases “Don’t move, avoid, get to the edge”)
Unique mechanics
Adding Challenge
 React or else
 Rewards player attention plus situational awareness
Random Elements
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Present in all encounters (Random crits etc)
Adds tension and drama (Can’t completely plan out but isn’t unfair)
Random does not mean unknown
Randomness can’t be overcome (Learned)
Randomness can also favour the player (Avoiding)
Endurance Tests
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How long the encounter is
Increased chance for mistakes
More chances to get unlucky
Mana (Energy) management
Great DPS (Damage Per Second) helps
Sound Design
Overview
It was previously thought that we would be handling all of the sound design ourselves, but with
the addition of two sound designers we are now much more capable, and this section is here to help
delineate our approach to sound design for Ajax and Argo.
In A&A sound is here to provide additional player feedback (firing, enemy hits, magnetism),
enhance the narrative through exposition (voice acting, gun beeps and whirs) and mood (music).
Player Feedback
As a medium games allow us to utilize only sight, sound and to a lesser extent touch (force
feedback). This means that we need to take full advantage of sight and sound, and the sound is just as
important as sight.
The game Call of Duty is famous for its enemy hit sound – a light thwack every time a bullet hits
its mark. This lets the player know that they are hitting their target, and afterwards the sound of the
enemy’s death notifies the player of their success. We will need to look into why, if at all, the specific
sound Infinity Ward chose is important, and develop our own on-hit sound and firing sounds.
Narrative Exposition
Ken Levine said of Bioshock “Details are not the gaming storyteller's friend.” What he means by
this is that the actual story for a game should be barebones, leaving the actual game to provide
information through exposition. How does a game do that?
A game can provide these details through its world, and part of that is through sound. Whether
it be Argo providing insight into how he feels about destroying a room full of humans, Ajax giving hints
of what is to come, or an enemy soldier screaming a robot pejorative – all of these things make the
world we are creating feel alive and moving. Even environmental sounds like water dripping, wind, and
generators humming can help do this. The world needs to feel like it existed before the player entered
it, and sound will help us fill the player in.
Mood
Thematic music can help to reinforce the mood of the game, and reinforce player actions
through use of sound cues. We have three major themes to draw from in order to compose this music:
faux-Greek soundtracks such as 300 with a very classical feel; our dark theme which calls for an
ominous, sorrowful and at times aggressive feel; and our futuristic theme which calls for synthetic
effects.
With a solid background track to set the mood we can incorporate context-sensitive sound cues
using UT3 to temporarily layer that track with a loop depending on what the player is currently doing, or
what area he has moved in to (where we can make use of the real-time reverb etc). For instance, if a
player enters battle it will cue an aggressive track to loop until he finishes combat, where the loop ends.
3D Assets
Enemies
- Trooper
- Plasma Trooper
- Fire Trooper
Main Characters
- Ajax (Gun)
- Argo's Arm (First Person)
- Argo Low Poly 3rd Person Model.
2D Assets
Front end/back end
Texture for Ajax(Gun)
Textures for all enemies
Animation Assets
Enemies use UT3 Rigs and animation sets
Ajax&Argo First Person Animations Include:
- WeaponFire
- WeaponAltFire
- WeaponIdle
- Overheat
- Shield
- ShieldIdle
- ShieldOff
- ShieldBreak
- ShieldBreakIdle
- ShieldBreakOff
- Misc (These animations would be implemented if time allows)
- Character Animations for Ajax (3-4)
- Fall Animation for Argo (Start Sequence)
- "Use" Animations
- End Sequence (Argo removes Ajax from the gun)
Sound Assets
This is TBD and will be filled in as production requires it.
Concept Artwork
Once we have finalized concept art it will be organized and described in detail here.
Prototype
Overview
It is common in Japanese development, especially at Nintendo, to develop the game’s character
and a “Secret Garden” for the character to experiment in, where the mechanics are fully fleshed out and
then the game is built around that character. While we don’t have time for that – we will begin world
building while we prototype our character – we still feel that it’s important to focus on nailing the
character prototype.
Goals
Establishing a lock down on how our character moves, how our gun fires and feels, and
potentially how our enemies work together. More information on progress with the prototype can be
found on the planner.
Questions and Answers
Why Greece and Sci-fi?
The Greek theme gives us a plethora of recognizable character archetypes that we can play with,
as well as an excuse to develop relatively simple architecture for our world. The sci-fi theme allows us
to create a slightly outlandish plot as well as use robots, eliminating the need for too much anatomical
accuracy – even our humans could be mistaken for robots with all of the armour they have on.
Why Robots?
Simply put, robots are much easier to model. With a team full of designers with little modeling
and animating experience it is easier to create robotic creatures than try to create anything that looks
authentically human. Of course this presents the added challenge of getting players to emphasize with
walking chunks of metal, but the team feels they are capable of solving that design problem.
Why Is There Recoil In The Game?
Recoil acts not only as a device to increase shooting difficulty, but overall adds to a different feel
than Unreal, something we’re trying to stay away from for the most part.