Assignment 2 Devlog

Working Title:

Ability Game

Concept Statement:

A game where you have different abilities or spells which you can use to traverse an arena and take out enemies. These abilities are all tied to a gauge which depletes as you use your abilities so you must recharge this gauge occasionally. There could be a couple of different modes in this game; a standard traverse a map taking out enemies as you go, as well as a single-screen endless mode where you try to get a high score. I also think that this concept would translate well to a 2 to 4-player arena mode.

Genre:

The genre that I think the game will be is an ability-based player-vs-enemy arena game (if that’s even a genre). Otherwise, and time permitting, it could end up being a Metroid Vania, where you progress through a map and unlock abilities as you go.

Concept creation process:

One of the most fun things in games for me is being able to use different cool abilities, and this is where the concept creation process started. Firstly, I thought up a couple of abilities which I think would be fun to play around with in a game. Abilities that allow the player to manipulate their surroundings are especially fun in my opinion, and nothing beats the satisfaction of using an ability in a game which really feels powerful. With a few ideas for abilities in mind, I decided that an endless player-vs-enemy, battle mode where enemies keep spawning and the player must use their abilities to kill them, would be a good starting point for this idea. Ideally, I would like to implement a multiplayer battle mode, as well as possibly a “story” mode, where you play through the game to unlock abilities to help you defeat different foes or traverse different obstacles.

Audience and competitive analysis:

There are a few different target audience groups that I believe would be interested in this game concept. Firstly, people who enjoy playing games with different abilities which make gameplay fun. Many Metroid Vania games have lots of different abilities which the player can unlock as they play through the game, which makes the gameplay fun as you get to learn how to use these new abilities and decide which ones you prefer as you unlock them all. Some recent Metroid Vanias of note include Hollow Knight and Ori and the Blind Forest. These two indie Metroid Vanias have captured the hearts of many people in the past few years, with their enjoyable gameplay and stunning art style. With any luck, my project will be able to capture some of the enjoyment that these games bring.

I also believe that the group of people that enjoy playing multiplayer arena style games would enjoy this playing this game, with the planned arena mode. I have always enjoyed games with local co-op modes, such as the arena style gameplay or modes in Spelunky HD or Duck Game, to other types of local multiplayer modes such as the obstacle course-based racing in Ultimate Chicken Horse to the shooter gameplay of Rachet and Clank 3’s battle mode. An arena mode for this game would work similarly to Spelunky’s arena mode, where there is up to four players who fight it out until only one person is left, who gains a point. The winner is the first person to reach a certain amount of points, such as 3 or 5. I believe that if implemented well, this arena mode could be a point of interest for people who enjoy this type of gameplay.

Game treatment and concept art:

The main feature of this game would be the different abilities that the player would use. First of all, there would be the standard ‘left-click’ attack. This would just shoot a bolt of magic or whatever wherever the mouse pointer is aimed at. This is the primary way that the player would attack enemies, as well as the primary way that enemies would attack the player.

(Concept art of how the standard attack would work, shooting a projectile towards the player’s cursor.)

The second ability that the player would be given is the ability to create platforms which they can use to get to higher places or jump over large gaps. This is a fairly simple ability but I think that allowing the player to alter the play area even if only slightly is a fun mechanic.

The third ability would allow the player to create a massive spike or pillar or something out of the ground below where their cursor is. This ability would hopefully feel powerful when the player executes it, as it would deal a lot of damage to enemies and utilise suitable sound effects and a screen shaking effect. This is the sort of ability that the player would want to keep using, as it would hopefully feel quite satisfying.

The fourth ability that I would like to implement would be a shield, which the player could conjure up to protect themselves as well as reflect enemies’ projectiles back at them.

(Concept art demonstrating how the shield would function.)

Finally, the last ability would be some sort of recharging ability, where the player would stand still to recharge the gauge that their abilities take from.

These abilities could all have alternate versions, such as the shield ability absorbing enemy projectiles to charge the player’s gauge instead of reflecting them or swapping the powerful ground spike ability with a controlled laser beam. Creating many different alternate abilities would allow the player to explore which abilities they enjoy using the most and customise their “loadout” with their favourites.

For the enemies in the game, the first type that springs to mind is a standard “shoot at the player every couple of seconds” enemy. This would be the most common enemy the player would face early on but would be replaced by stronger enemies as they progress through the map or get higher scores in the endless mode. Variants of this enemy could possibly fly or make use of their own shield to reflect the player’s projectiles. Stronger enemies could utilise moves similar to the ground spike attack that the player could use, which would greatly hurt the player but also be heavily telegraphed so the player can dodge it.

Other features that could be implemented would be some kind of accessory system, where the player could equip items which could increase their maximum health or damage, as well as other things along those lines.